Is chess promoting racism? – a collector’s view

In the last couple of months, racism all over the world has rightfully received an increased attention. We are still far away from a society in which people have equal chances irrespective of their gender, age, physical condition or skin colour. It did not take long – and was to be expected – that the

The French Defence Move by Move

The French Defense Damian Lemos Everyman Chess 2021

Intro: I’m going to review 3 new chess books on the French defense. The goal is to inform the reader of the content of such books, so they can decide how to spend their hard earned money, and at the same time to make it a training-teaching moment for the reader and myself. The different

Philippine Staunton Chess Sets

Recently, I had a discussion with Davide Nastasio regarding Philippine Staunton chess sets. He bought a reproduction of such a set produced by the Indian manufacturer Chessbazaar. I was aware that Chessbazaar was selling sets in this pattern. But I have to admit that I never really cared for more detail. When Davide mentioned the

Chess collecting – the story continues

In my first article I described that chess does not only consist of openings, tactics and tournaments, but that the chess enthusiast can and should also show an interest in the history of the game and the playing material. This recent article shows the close links between the two. Today I want to tie in

Fat Fritz 2 versus Magnus Carlsen!

Who is the best chess player of all time? Often such question generates endless debates in internet chess forum and involves the names of: Fischer, Kasparov, Carlsen and Karpov… Strangely none of them, also if they are truly great players, would be able to withstand a freeware like Stockfish set at few seconds per move,

How to study the openings – Part 1

Many will not believe one would share the correct way to study the openings, because they believe in chess secrets. Instead here there is a method, based on a good amount of studying hours, which will help everyone to learn any opening and form an opening repertoire. It’s possible that in few months, thanks to