An emotional climax

I was hoping that the 17-year-old Chinese girl Hou Yifan would win outright in Gibraltar. She has played astonishingly well, beating a string of super elite chess grandmasters of both sexes in the strongest chess open tournament in history. But she lost to Nigel Short in a mini-match play-off to decide the outright winner. It’s [...]

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In meditation fancy free

I finally caught up with Henry Bird signing copies of his memoirs in a wigwam in Sarnia, on the shore of Lake Huron. “Mr Bird, you are a very difficult man to track down!” He beamed benignly. “You might have found me recently in the Nest at Amsterdam, in the Bowery at New York, and [...]

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A rare old bird

I have been reading a book called Bird’s Opening by Timothy Taylor, which I’ve been wanting to read for a while. I was put off by the fact that Bird’s Opening has a very dubious reputation in the chess world. But Timothy Taylor has been playing it for over 30 years and his enthusiasm is [...]

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Kissing the Queen

When Lanying wants to be nice to me she calls me Chucky. This is not because she thinks I look like a killer voodoo doll but because I am cute like Charlie Brown, affectionately known as Chuck to Peppermint Patty. It’s a bit embarrassing when she calls out “Chuck!” in the supermarket and everyone looks [...]

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