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ChrisL64

Adult chess enjoyer, player, improver, dabbler, enthusiast. Well, adult anyway. Re-learning chess after "sudden onset" aphantasia following neurological treatment.

Books and Equipment

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    Hello and Good Knight

    My partner (in life and crime) returned from Norway with a perfect gift for me: a t-shirt from The Good Knight chess pub. Excuse the wrinkles and my photography 😝!

    Shirt front. Red printing on beige cotton. Logotype: The Good Knight. Image is of a chess knight facing the viewer.

    On the reverse, the famous Morphy “Opera” game:

    Back of a beige t-shirt with red printing of the moves of the famous Morphy 'Opera' game moves and the title 'A Knight at the Opera'

    And, the game for your viewing pleasure:

    Morphy opera game.
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    Capablanca's Best Games (Golombek and Nunn)

    Cover of Capablanca's Best Games, written by Harry Golombek, revised and updated with additional material by John Nunn. Cover image is a young Capablanca.

    The Capablanca book I most want to get my hands on is Capablanca’s Best Games. Specifically, the new (1997) edition edited, revised, and expanded by the illustrious John Nunn1.

    However, the few (used) copies are expensive, and I’ve promised myself (and my long-suffering partner) to curb my book habit a little bit.

    Books about Capablanca vary a great deal in quality, even more than usual. You’ll find many details on the problems (and successes) of various Capa books in Edward Winter’s2 write-up “Capablanca Goes Algebraic.”

    1. In addition to being a brilliant chess player, peaking at world #9, and one of our best chess writers today, Nunn went to Oxford at 15, becoming its youngest graduate in more than 450 years. Oh, and then went on to get a PhD in mathematics, studying “finite H-spaces” (whatever those are). ↩︎

    2. If you have any interest in chess history, chess books, and chess writing—or just enjoy when someone armed with serious research skills and facts at his disposal takes down chess authors who appear to have neither—you owe it to yourself to delve into Winter’s site (and get his books). It’s a true treasure trove. ↩︎

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    A Tale of Two Mugs

    Two coffee mugs: on the left, a custom design with a comic-style, black line drawing of an elephant giving the finger; on the right, a portrait of Anish Giri on an old Lengends of Chess by Chess24 (RIP) mug.

    Today’s coffee mug alongside yesterday’s. Fitting since today is election day here, and yesterday I was again mourning the passing of Chess24.