Raymond Keene

The Catalan opening looks as if it should be relatively harmless, combining as it does the Queen’s Gambit with the modest fianchetto development of White’s king’s bishop. But various endgame virtuosi, notably Petrosian, Korchnoi and Kramnik, have demonstrated that the Catalan can be dangerous. In particular, the nagging pressure exerted at first by White’s light-squared

Polish grandmaster Akiba Rubinstein was one of the strongest players never to win the world title. Up to 1914 he seemed unstoppable, but then the Cuban genius Capablanca burst on to the scene and after the first world war Rubinstein was a changed man. In Chess and Chessmasters (Hardinge Simpole), Gideon Stahlberg wrote: ‘A latent

The British Chess Magazine is the oldest continuously published chess magazine in the world. Recently it has been boosted by the appointment as co-editor of the Belgrade journalist Milan Dinic, who cut his teeth on the news journal Svedok (Witness). The last issue contained an interview with the entertaining and controversial Nigel Short, as well as

White to play. This position is from Euwe-Fischer, New York 1957. White has two winning moves in this position. Can you find both of them? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 18 April or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat.

Before leaving the topic of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 tournament to mark the half-century of the Russian revolution, I must mention the Hungarian grandmaster Lajos Portisch, another hero of that prestigious competition. (Leonid Stein being the overall winner.) Portisch was famed for his immense hard work and profound erudition in the openings. At Moscow he

Whatever else you may say about it, the USSR certainly created the greatest national chess-playing machine the world has ever seen or is likely to see. The Soviet Union perceived itself to be regarded as a pariah by the international community. One way to counter this was by winning the World Chess Championship, as it

Paul Keres is the only chess player to have appeared on the euro currency, his face adorning the two-euro piece in Estonia, where he remains a national hero. Keres has a powerful claim to be regarded as the strongest player never to have won the World Championship. His scalps included Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal,

The 135th Varsity Match hosted by London’s Royal Automobile Club last Saturday resulted in a narrow win for Oxford, who have reduced their overall deficit. The score is now 59 wins to Cambridge, 54 to Oxford. The brilliancy prize, judged by grandmasters Jon Speelman and Luke McShane and named in honour of Bob Wade OBE,

This Saturday, 11 March, the annual Oxford v Cambridge Varsity match is being hosted by The Royal Automobile Club Pall Mall. Cambridge lead the series with 59 wins to Oxford’s 53 in a contest which goes back to the 1870s. Primum mobile at the RAC is Henry Mutkin, who himself led the Oxford team in

Nigel Short has distinguished himself by scoring 100 per cent, winning all six games, in the Bunratty tournament which finished towards the end of last month in Ireland. Anyone who has competed in a chess tournament of almost any strength will realise how hard it is to win all the games. In Short’s case he