The Streatham & Brixton Chess Blog

#6: Botvinnik - Szilagyi, Amsterdam 1966 27 Kg2 White’s control of the position is so great that he could inscribe his initials o...

After one of my own ideas in the first instalment of this series, let's look at one which has been seen at grandmaster level. I know, ...

Cherchez le chesseur First it was Alexander Pichuskin (aka the Bitsevsky Maniac ) in Moscow, then it was Michel Fourniret somewhere or ot...

Remember this ? Following Tim Woolgar's claim that his chessboxing circus was "on course for official recognition by Sport Englan...

[World Championship tie-in: your opponent chucks his/her queen in.  You win the game.  Is that lucky?] It was not terribly cool, but ano...

I've had clinical depression since age 14. It's not really a secret. When you're trapped in the misery of your own head, un...

Chess in Art. It's happening for real. In Moscow. The World Championship match in an Art Gallery ! Top marks to FIDE (and no quips about...

'The Watergate affair makes it quite plain,' Marshall Mcluhan wrote in 1974, 'that the entire planet has become a whisperi...

Ego is a necessary element of a sporting contest. Even if there is the strongest respect between competitors, it is not possible for both s...

Five hundred million? Really?

Some time back in these Chess in Art posts we encountered artists who made chess-artworks from the moves of master games. There was the inc...

As both United and City have shown a tendency to choke this season, we're no longer obliged to feign awe at the complex mind games crac...

Gelfand-Anand Linares, 1993 9..Nb4!! Seeing as the World Championship is almost upon us, it's a good moment to recall this lo...

Just what is intelligence? Dictionary definitions talk about the ability to learn, to understand new situations, or to apply knowledge to ...

The Times obituary for Elaine Pritchard and the places from which it was copied: Introduction Part one Part two Part three Part fo...

So, the Times obituary for Elaine Pritchard, a piece that seemed so impressive only last Monday. After a week uncovering its unacknowledged ...

Towards the end of the obituary that has been the subject of this week's blogging, there is a quotation from a previous chess correspond...

Today we return to the then Elaine Saunders and her meetings with Alexander Alekhine, as discussed in her obituary, published in January in ...