{"id":2819,"date":"2023-08-15T09:45:27","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T09:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forwardchess.com\/blog\/?p=2819"},"modified":"2023-08-15T09:45:29","modified_gmt":"2023-08-15T09:45:29","slug":"author-of-the-month-matthew-sadler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forwardchess.com\/blog\/author-of-the-month-matthew-sadler\/","title":{"rendered":"Author of the Month: Matthew Sadler"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Get to know our Forward Chess author of the month for August 2023, Grandmaster Matthew Sadler<\/a> and his colorful career as a player and author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew Sadler<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My career as a chess player can be divided neatly into 2 parts. I left school at 16 and became a professional player, retiring at the age of 25. After a break of some 10 years, I came back to chess \u2013 this time as an amateur \u2013 and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll manage to escape from chess ever again (nor want to!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somewhat to my surprise, the long break away from the game seemed to do no harm to my chess! I was madly keen to play and I won 2 big international opens in the latter part of 2011. However at the beginning of 2012, my form faltered and I had a terrible performance at Wijk Aan Zee, losing 29 ELO points (it felt like more!) I was bitterly disappointed of course, but more than that I was intrigued. What had caused such a difference in level in just a couple of months? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This soul-searching led to \u201cStudy Chess with Matthew Sadler<\/a>\u201d<\/strong> (Everyman) in which I tried to describe all the good and bad things I had done, and explain why things had gone as they had! It\u2019s a very personal book, full of games you won\u2019t find in the databases and unusual insights and tips for improvement. My favorite game from the book features the most offbeat opening I have ever played: 1\u2026a6 and 2\u2026h6 with which I defeated a young Dutch International Master in 22 moves as Black!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

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