Opinion/Editorials

  • Open Forum

    This is a chance to discuss any chess topic (past or present) that you prefer. It was an exciting summer for chess and we are now in the midst of the World Chess Championship in Mexico. Lots to talk about. You can also post suggested topics and tell us what…

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  • China: The Dragons are Coming!

    China in the process of crushing the UK in the Liverpool Chess Match. Photo from liverpoolchessinternational.co.uk. China has been on the fast track to success over the past two decades. Having boasted held the Women Chess title on four different occasions (Xie Jun – twice, Zhu Chen, Yuhua Xu). They also…

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  • Interesting Article on Anand

      ChessBase ran an interesting interview of Viswanathan Anand that was conducted by Manisha Mohite and written for India’s Sify Sport. Anand talks about his beginning and the surprising admission was that he did plan to be a chess player. When asked who his role models were in India, he…

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  • ChessBase article on Amon Simutowe!

    ChessBase has run an article on GM-elect Amon Simutowe written by me! The article is presented differently on The Chess Drum as ChessBase’s Frederic Friedel has a different layout philosophy. The the articles have the exact same content. Enjoy! https://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4086

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  • Ultramodernist theory says play 1.e5!

         I just ran a story about Lionel Davis and his ‘ultramodernist theory.’ Read it and make out of it what you want, but he is promoting a form of chess that breaks the mold. In reference to black moving first, here is what he has to say… We…

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  • Lionel Davis touts “Ultramodern Chess Theory”

    Tony Kimbrough watches Lionel Davis play 1.e5! with black in the 1st ‘ultra’ game. Photo courtesy of Lionel Davis. For years, Buffalo’s Lionel Davis has touted his “ultramodern” theory and claims that it has a precedent with the play of Bobby Fischer. Chess players around the world understand the contributions…

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  • Deficiencies of Attention

    When I was a rising junior player, I remember reading Nikolai Krogius’ “Psychology in Chess.” Marvin Dandridge showed me the book after it was given to him as a gift. I treated that book as a reference source of how I should conduct myself at the board. In this book,…

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  • Google as a Chess Database?

        On a recent eight-hour drive from Miami to Tallahassee, I listened to “The Google Story” by David Vise (on audiobook). It is an interesting story on the rise of the world’s most visible and most popular search engine. I use Google almost exclusively for all my search needs and news…

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  • Is Chess a Sport?

    Today I read an article by Andrew Goodman in the New Jersey Herald titled, “That’s Absurd: Golf isn’t a Sport.” He goes on stating that golf isn’t a sport because it does not involve a host of athletic activities that are characteristic of football, soccer, baseball, cricket, basketball or even rope…

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  • Helping our Drum Majors!

      Clockwise from top left: IM Emory Tate, IM Amon Simutowe, IM Robert Gwaze IM Watu Kobese, GM-elect Pontus Carlsson, IM Stephen Muhammad After Emory Tate’s near-miss of a GM norm in Curaçao and with Amon Simutowe current challenges to earn his last norm, I thought, “What could be done to…

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