tag: Edward Winter - Page 3

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (53)

12/14/2010 – A quiz set by the Editor of Chess Notes concerns chessplayers in the company of animals (seated on them, in two cases). A frisson of danger comes from a bullfighter and a master posing with two lion cubs. There is a reptile too, but whose neck is it dangling around? The prizes in this unusual challenge are some fine items inscribed by participants in the London tournament. Can you supply the answers?

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (52)

11/29/2010 – In 1975 Bobby Fischer filed a $20,000,000 libel suit over a book by Brad Darrach on the 1972 Spassky v Fischer world title match in Iceland. What were the rights and wrongs of the affair? The Editor of Chess Notes examines the coverage of the time, which is highly revealing about the individual reviewers and commentators, quite apart from the insights provided into Fischer and Darrach themselves.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (51)

11/22/2010 – The Editor of Chess Notes points out that writers of opening monographs often simply ignore the detailed work of theoreticians from bygone years. Taking Alekhine’s Defence as an example, he gives many references to forgotten articles published in magazines up to the middle of the twentieth century, including analysis by such luminaries as Réti and Grünfeld. A salutary lesson.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (50)

11/13/2010 – Aron Nimzowitsch mated Simon Alapin in 18 moves, but the books contradict each other as to where and when this famous brilliancy was played. Did it occur in Carlsbad, Riga, St Petersburg or Vilnius? And in 1911, 1912, 1913 or 1914? The Editor of Chess Notes also casts doubt on the frequent suggestion that it was Nimzowitsch's favourite game.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (49)

11/1/2010 – Truly exquisite play occurred in a little-known game won by Capablanca, at breakneck speed, in a simultaneous exhibition (St Petersburg, 1913). The Editor of Chess Notes presents some text-book discussion and cooperation on the subject among his readers. The pawn ending, involving the complexities of the distant opposition, gives rise to a number of highly instructive manoeuvres.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (48)

9/26/2010 – A mutilated score-sheet, a perplexing death, an organizer’s pairing problem, a secret service code, a Latin cryptogram and a task involving sawing up a chessboard. These are just some of the dozen chess-related puzzles of logic, deduction and mathematics which have been brought together by the Editor of Chess Notes. Pit your wits against some of history's greatest puzzle-makers.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (47)

9/12/2010 – The Editor of Chess Notes turns his attention to the Fédération Internationale des Echecs (FIDE), the chess world’s governing body, from the historical standpoint. When, for instance, did the FIDE motto Gens una sumus first appear? There are also references to the Federation’s anthem and to various other administrative and political activities of FIDE since its foundation in 1924.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (46)

8/22/2010 – Morphy versus the Duke and Count (Paris, 1858) was described by Frank Marshall as ‘the most famous game of all time’. Even so, as the Editor of Chess Notes demonstrates, modern masters’ views differ concerning its value, and there is much about the circumstances of the game which is still enveloped in mystery. Another intriguing historical investigation...

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (45)

7/31/2010 – Chess problems are sometimes regarded as a daunting ghetto, of no real interest, let alone value, to active players. The Editor of Chess Notes has invited one of the world’s leading problem experts to select some compositions to illustrate the delights which many players deny themselves. A total of 12 positions are given, and even anti-problem die-hards may be enticed and charmed.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (44)

7/21/2010 – No famous figure, whether dictator, pope, author, scientist, musician or film star, is safe from having a spurious game of chess attributed to him, and fanciful claims have also been made about world champions. In his discussion of the subject of hoaxes the Editor of Chess Notes includes a bizarre story from the nineteenth century about what was discovered in the brain of a blindfold expert.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (43)

7/10/2010 – The Editor of Chess Notes discusses the unusual brilliancy by Capablanca against Kevitz at New York, 1931, on the basis of the loser’s notes in a letter written many years later. The game has been described as ‘a delightful gem with a piquant finish’ and with ‘a problem-like move’, but is the exact game-score certain? And, above all, has the Cuban’s play been over-praised?

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (42)

6/30/2010 – Shockingly, there are chess writers and publishers who copy the work of others. As the Editor of Chess Notes shows, the copying may include large-scale reproduction of positions, plagiarism of text and, even, removing the real author’s name and putting someone else’s. Readers may have to rub their eyes, but in our beloved chess world all this has really happened.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (41)

6/14/2010 – In reply to a reader in Switzerland who asks about recordings of chess masters’ voices from the pre-Botvinnik era, the Editor of Chess Notes explores the subject, quoting a number of reports about, among others, the world champions Alekhine, Capablanca, Euwe and Lasker. And when did the first radio broadcast about chess take place? Any advance on 1923?

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (40)

6/1/2010 – It is over five years since Kasparov’s dramatic announcement that he was giving up serious chess play. Such declarations, or intentions, are by no means rare, and the Editor of Chess Notes recalls a number of decisions, often surprising and mostly fleeting, by greats of the past: Botvinnik, Capablanca, Euwe, Fine, Harrwitz, Lasker, Marshall, Pillsbury and Steinitz. Retirement.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (39)

4/25/2010 – Chess is a multi-million-dollar game, or at least it can be. Throughout the ages, many of the greatest figures, chess masters whose games have offered untold pleasure to generations of enthusiasts all over the world, have been devastated by poverty. The Editor of Chess Notes recalls some chilling examples, even including cases involving world chess champions.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (38)

4/6/2010 – Commentators have remarked that certain masters have favourite moves, an example being Gideon Ståhlberg’s liking for the pawn advance ...c4 in the Queen’s Gambit Declined and the French Defence. The Editor of Chess Notes gives a number of examples of such predilections and invites readers to delve further into the subject on the basis of research with databases.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (37)

3/8/2010 – At the New York, 1889 tournament a master lost a game by forfeit after only eight moves because he was, in the words of a newspaper report, ‘laboring under excitement’. The Editor of Chess Notes looks at three great players with reputations for heavy dependency on alcohol, examining how they have been treated by contemporaries and subsequent writers.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (36)

2/1/2010 – The Editor of Chess Notes discusses a quintet of positions submitted by readers. The common theme is that in each case it has so far proved impossible to find the full game-score. Can further details about the games be discovered? Even if not, readers will certainly enjoy some entertaining and instructive play from a cast which includes Ehlvest, Nimzowitsch, Pachman, Simagin and Soultanbéieff.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (35)

1/23/2010 – Just occasionally, the worlds of chess and murder have intersected: players of our game have become either killers or victims. In addition to links to his detailed coverage of the Wallace Murder Case and the fatal shooting of a Hastings stalwart, the Editor of Chess Notes provides citations regarding such figures as the Lipstick Killer, Moors Murderer and St Albans Poisoner.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (34)

1/2/2010 – Lucidity is the hallmark of good chess instruction, but what happens if the teacher has no conception of intelligibility? The Editor of Chess Notes dips into the wordy world of the ‘grand left oblique aligned en appui with major crochet’, where ‘designations for posting disparity are u lead and (u) lag’. Recommended for code-breaking practice...

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (33)

12/20/2009 – ‘Goal-oriented oppositionally paired dualities’ are certainly enjoyed by our readers, whether they realize it or not. In plain English, the term means ‘games’, but not all authors seem capable of writing plainly. A selection of pretentious and trite passages about our beloved duality is offered by the Editor of Chess Notes in an article which is guaranteed to have your head spinning well before Christmas.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (32)

12/6/2009 – With the masters now fine-tuning their preparations for the London Chess Classic, the Editor of Chess Notes passes on some advice on mastery of the game culled from old books. Both the advice and the books have long been forgotten, but could the tips provide the players with a fresh perspective, just in time? The great tournament is about to begin, and we shall soon see...

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (31)

12/1/2009 – The Editor of Chess Notes reports on a stunning new book about Emanuel Lasker – a 1,079-page hardback whose contributors include Robert Hübner and Victor Korchnoi. The editors, Richard Forster, Stefan Hansen and Michael Negele, have kindly allowed a selection of rare illustrations to be presented here, and we now whet readers’ appetite for one of the great chess books of all time.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (30)

11/16/2009 – Another pot pourri is presented by the Editor of Chess Notes. A prediction about Garry Kasparov made when he was only 11, a curious Lilienthal reference in a chess poem, an almost unknown player who reportedly challenged Alekhine for the world title in 1927, and an oft-published nineteenth-century miniature which is spurious. A further visit to the wonderful world of chess lore...
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