Chess Readers and Writers discussion

Just joined Goodreads and this group. I'm an avid chess reader with more than 300 chess books, and a chess writer too (in a very modest way).

I live in England, so the writers I've met may not be ones you know. I met Mike Basman at a bookstore in London. He was standing by the chess books trying to get people to buy his books. As far as I could tell, he wasn't there for an official book signing. Just a bit of opportunistic marketing!

I used to play in the same club as David Brine Pritchard, author of "The Right Way to play chess". Sadly, he's no longer with us.

Interesting... Can you recommend a book by Basman? Crazy openings are fun.

Mike wrote three books in the 1980s - a general book on the openings, Play the St. George and the Killer Grob. I have the general book, which is called "Chess Openings". It's okay, but because it focuses on conventional openings, it won't appeal to fans of the more offbeat openings.

I suspect his books on the St. George and Grob are out of print.

I can recommend Tony Miles autobiography "it's only me". He also liked unusual openings, although not quite as mad as Mike Basman.

Not a book, but one way to experience Mike Basman's games is through a website called www.chessgames.com. If you type Basman into the search engine there it will bring up his player profile with a list of his most famous games that you can play through.

If you are a fan of the offbeat, you might also want to check out the games of Claude Bloodgood. Not a grandmaster but a fascinating character, a murderer, a felon and a lover of the Grob/ polish complex of openings.

I am personal friends of Brian Douglas Wall, Anthea Carson, and Tim Brennan.

Brian and Anthea are the co-authors of "Play Chess like an Animal"

Anthea and Tim are co-authors of "TacticsTime I and II"

I have met GM Alex Yermolinsky at the 2010 Colorado Open. I have yet to read his book,
"Road to Improvement"

I took a long lesson from Yasser Seriwan in St. Louis last year, and even though I'm not a high rated player, he helped me a great deal. He is one of the nicest people I've ever met. His "Chess Duels" is quite good for the stories alone. His instructional "Winning..." series is, of course, also very good.

As a kid, I remember Shelby Lyman commenting on TV on the Fischer/Spassky match. Years later, I was working in Manhattan, and found out he would be at a store (I think it was Hammacher Schlemmer) promoting the new chess computers. When I went there and they found out I could play, they put me on their best board and Shelby commented on the play!

Talk about nerve racking. I played White in a Queen's Gambit accepted and won after a tough battle. Of course, that was when Chess programs were much easier to beat!