IM Donaldson examines Fischers life and career from his days as a child prodigy through the height of his World Championship triumph and into his tumultuous final years. Donaldsons meticulous research has uncovered previously lost games and a wealth of unknown material about Fischer -- ranging from his close friendships with players and supporters to his acrimonious relationships with organisers, journalists, lawyers, and publishers. Bobby Fischer and His World is brought to life through a potpourri of first-hand accounts, interviews, letters, and articles by and about the colourful characters that inhabited Fischers world. Unifying this wide-ranging tale are over 100 photos and illustrations and 99 newly annotated games. This is the story of Fischer the man and the player, shedding new light on the riddle of the most famous chessplayer in history. International Master John Donaldson is a player, a chess journalist and historian, and a thirteen-time United States World Chess Olympiad coach (his 2016 team won gold).
Dear chess friends,
For 180 years, the German chess magazine “SCHACH” has been part of the chess world. Today, we are delighted to open a new chapter in its history: for the first time, our magazine is available in English. Named “CHESS INSIGHT”. The magazine is available in digital format only.
For us, this is much more than a translation. It is an invitation.
Chess has always crossed borders. Players from different countries, cultures and generations meet over the same 64 squares and share a language that needs no translation. With this English edition, we would like CHESS INSIGHT to cross another border as well – and make the journalism, analysis and stories that have made our magazine unique accessible to chess enthusiasts around the world.
Our ambition remains the same. We want to take our readers closer to the people and events that shape chess. You will find deeply annotated games, background stories, tournament reports and personal perspectives from grandmasters, coaches, journalists and other personalities from the chess world.
We believe that a chess magazine should offer something that goes beyond results and moves. In an age when games can be followed live from almost anywhere in the world, a magazine has to answer different questions: What happened behind the scenes? What were the players thinking? Why did a particular moment matter? And what can we learn from it?
That is what SCHACH has always tried to do.
We hope to welcome many new readers – and we would very much like to hear from you. Tell us what you enjoy, what you would like to see more of, and what SCHACH can become for an international audience.
Thank you for joining us at the beginning of this new chapter.
Welcome to CHESS INSIGHT. We are very happy to have you with us.
Available via subscription
All the regular features of the UK's best-selling CHESS magazine and more! Regular features include: How Good is Your Chess? by GM Daniel King, Saunders on Chess, Find the Winning Moves, Never Mind the Grandmasters..., Studies, Home & Overseas News, Forthcoming Events Calendar and Book Reviews.
In this issue:
Editorial
Malcolm Pein on the latest developments in the game
Going for Gold
Nigel Povah reports from the European Senior Team Chess Championships
So Stellar
Wesley So won the Sinquefield Cup for a second year in a row
60 Seconds with...Anna Cramling
The Swedish WFM and streamer recently spent a morning at the Chess Shop
Readers’ Letters
There’s nothing new when it comes to people’s favourite game of all time
Middlegame Masterclass
Milos Pavlovic annotates two strategic struggles from the summer
How Good Is Your Chess?
Daniel King pays tribute to Judit Polgar, who turned 50 back in July
Forthcoming Events
Find The Winning Moves
A bumper selection to help you warm up for the new season
Perfect Pragg
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa prevailed at a dramatic GCT Finals
My 70th Memorable Game
John Henderson recalls the game that made a 13-year-old Fischer famous
Eliminating Draws
Steven J. Brams and Mehmet Mars Seven suggest ‘Divide-and-Choose’
Never Mind the Grandmasters
Carl very much enjoyed a lively game at the British involving AP Smith
How to Beat a Grandmaster
Paul Littlewood was impressed by Peter Roberson in the British Championship
Malcolm Barker
Neil Hickman explains all about “A serious historical figure”
Castling into Fresh Air: Part 2
David LeMoir continues to explore some startling queenside castling
K is for Kingston
John Saunders reports from the Kingston Invitational
Home News
Success for Oleg Korneev, Ilia Malinovskii and Yevgeni Sprenger de la Iglesia
Overseas News
Tan Zhongyi was back to her best at the Cairns Cup
Solutions
This Month’s New Releases
Sean Marsh was delighted by the publication of James Sherwin’s autobiography
Saunders on Chess
John always looks forward to the Olympiad and also back to Tel Aviv, 1964
We are all familiar with the story. You are getting older, perhaps you forget more, and your chess suffers. Your playing strength diminishes. Players to whom you could give pawn and move a few years ago now defeat or draw you. What can be done?
In this unique book by American Grandmaster Alex Fishbein – the first book dedicated to this topic – he examines the games of elite players such Korchnoi, Smyslov and others. The author takes a hard look at what they did as they aged, how their approach to the game changed, and how this could benefit you.
As noted by legendary Grandmaster Artur Yusupov in his foreword:
Alex Fishbein begins by asking difficult but necessary questions. Do the methods that shaped us as players continue to serve us as we grow older? If certain skills have not fully developed after decades of play, can they still be improved? And how do we recognize, with honesty and precision, the changes in our own thinking? …
Among the techniques explored here is the “post-postmortem” – a disciplined way of revisiting and critically examining existing analysis, not to absorb it passively, but to challenge it, refine it, and deepen one’s own understanding. In doing so, we train the very faculties – visualization, memory, and concentration – that time seeks to erode.
When you are ready to roll up your sleeves and confront Father Time, you will find the author’s recommendations invaluable. And, by the way, you don’t have to wait until you are collecting Social Security to take advantage of the methodology advocated by the 2025 U.S. Senior Champion. Fighting Father Time? Yes, time to put on the gloves!
About the Author
Grandmaster Alex Fishbein was born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1968. He learned chess from his father, a master-level player, at the age of 4. Alex later studied with the iconic Soviet coach Vladimir Zak, who had previously trained the young Boris Spassky and Viktor Korchnoi. From Zak, Alex came away with the feeling that chess is the most worthwhile endeavor life has to offer, an emotion that guides him to this day.
Fighting Father Time is Fishbein’s most personal work yet, and the theme of dissecting mistakes and rising from their ashes is central to the narrative. That journey culminates in this book with his victory in the 2025 US Senior Championship. Alex's earlier work for Russell Enterprises includes a revision of My System, two opening books, and several endgame projects jointly with German endgame theoretician GM Karsten Müller.
Bobby Fischer is considered one of the greatest players in the history of chess, as well as one of its most instructive writers. During his career he authored several books (including his masterpiece, My 60 Memorable Games), wrote two regularly appearing magazine columns, and annotated games and articles for several different publications.
IM Donaldson, who started playing chess after the 1972 Fischer-Spassky world championship match, takes a fresh look at Fischer’s chess writings. The result is a comprehensive analysis of them, enhanced with detailed commentary and historical notes.
Inside the Mind of Bobby Fischer gathers most of Fischer’s articles, annotations, and miscellaneous writings together in one place, drawing heavily on Fischer’s first book, Bobby Fischer’s Games of Chess, and his Boys’ Life and Chess Life columns. This volume includes 116 annotated games (over a dozen of which appear in print for the first time).
British Chess Magazine (September 2026)
The passing of David Bronstein was the saddest chess news of 2006, but at least his many fans now have the chance to read his collection of memoirs and games from his long career. Much of the material appeard in Russian several years ago, but this is the first English translation. Bronstein’s love of the game, and his special rapport with chess amateurs, shines through especially strongly. English players will find details of his visits to Hastings, appearances for Charlton in the London League, and friendship with numerous chess fans in the UK. Lovers of more sinister gossip and conspiracy theories will enjoy his account of the alleged shenanigans at Zurich 1953, and his secret preparation with Korchnoi bevor the latter’s 1974 match with Karpov. Any lover of chess will find hours of delight in this book, which is a worthy tribute to one of the games’s immortals.
Victor Korchnoi is one of the greatest figures in chess history, which he has helped to shape for nearly 50 years now. Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, the aggressive style of the now over 70-year-old is undiminished and as awe-inspiring as ever. At tournaments with numerous entrants, the naturalized Swiss citizen leaves world-class players young enough to be his grandchildren far behind him.
It is high time, therefore, to update Viktor Kortshnoi’s autobiography Chess is my life, which met with great interest on its publication more than 20 years ago. In long interviews, Victor Korchnoi has completely retold his life story. The memories of his childhood in the besieged Leningrad, his time as a student of the university of his home town (now Saint Petersburg), his rise to the top of the major chess power USSR and the years before and after his defection to the West in 1976 are also of significance as contemporary documents of a life spent in the former Soviet Union. The volume also includes many photographs as well as a number of games with comments in typical Korchnoi-style and which are of decisive importance for his brilliant chess career.
This is the second volume of the series The Life & Games of Vasily Smyslov. It covers the period from spring 1948, after The Hague-Moscow world championship match-tournament, to the end of 1953, when he won the Candidates’ tournament in Zürich to become the official challenger for the world championship.
FIDE master Andrey Terekhov continues the narrative as we follow Smyslov's intense struggle with Boleslavsky, Bronstein, Keres and Reshevsky for the right to play a world championship match with Mikhail Botvinnik.
With access to rare Soviet-era archival material and invaluable family archives, the author complements his account of Smyslov’s emergence as an elite player and title challenger with dozens of fascinating photographs, many never seen before, as well as 28 deeply annotated games.
The first volume won critical accolades, including 2020 Book of the Year from both FIDE and the Chess Journalists of America.
A Changing of the Guard?
Andrew Ledger reports from an exciting British Championship
Best of British
Two pivotal encounters, annotated by Shreyas Royal and Simon Williams
British Champions!
A round-up of several other leading results from the British Championship
60 Seconds with...Daniel Fernandez
We learn a little about the grandmaster selected by England for the Olympiad
Paul Littlewood shows how a fellow senior has dispatched some GMs
Daniel King on Jimmy Adams and the subject of his final book, Salo Flohr
Will you be playing any of the UK Open Blitz Qualifiers this month?
Can you do as well as the players at the Scottish International Open?
A Life in Chess
Ben Graff met the living legend that is Yasser Seirawan
Carl has recently created a new room at home, the Staunton Suite
Castling into Fresh Air
David LeMoir on why you don’t always need a well-protected king to go long
Project Sozin
Junior Tay on some Sozin shenanigans and the Magnus a-pawn punt
A Happy ‘Tourist’
Daniel Fernandez was pleased he elected to play at Vlissingen
Aronian, Praggnanandhaa, Sivanandan and the USA have enjoyed success
Danny Gormally and Jan Murawski have been amongst the winners of late
Studies with Stephenson
Brian on Oleg Pervakov and an intricate minor piece ending
Two companion books on attacking chess caught the eye of Sean Marsh
John takes a look at a forgotten surprise weapon for Black in the Sicilian
Dutch edition. We also offer an English edition.
Godfried Vos – de held van De Sponsor, deel I – ontdekt een sinister complot: de maffia bereidt een aanslag voor op het legendarische schaakfestival in Marostica.
Samen met de blinde detective Gino Cancellara gaat hij op onderzoek uit om de waarheid achter de zogenaamde 'Vierde Maffia', een meedogenloos netwerk van drugshandelaren in heel Europa, aan het licht te brengen.
Hun onderzoek leidt hen diep in de verborgen geschiedenis van Italië, waar de geheime vrijmetselaarsloge P2 en het clandestiene Gladio-netwerk ooit opereerden als een staat binnen een staat. Het landschap van De Sponsor II draagt nog steeds de littekens van de brute gevechten uit de Tweede Wereldoorlog tussen fascisten en de geallieerden – gevechten waarvan de gevolgen tot op de dag van vandaag doorwerken.
Tegen deze beladen achtergrond riskeren Godfried en Gino alles om de georganiseerde misdaad te bestrijden. Hun gedeelde passies – schaken, geschiedenis en de Italiaanse keuken – lopen als een rode draad door het verhaal en geven deze literaire thriller een unieke sfeer en emotionele diepgang.
Een speciale bijlage bevat gedetailleerde analyses van de schaakpartijen die in het verhaal voorkomen, evenals recepten voor de authentieke Italiaanse gerechten die de hoofdpersonen aten.
Fred Das was internationaal ondernemer, ontwikkelaar van onroerend goed en een verdienstelijk schaker. Na de verkoop van zijn bedrijf is hij voornamelijk huisvader.
Jeroen Terlingen was vakbondsjournalist, redacteur van Vrij Nederland en docent journalistiek.
Grandmaster Nikita Vitiugov narrates his journey through chess and life, with special focus on the 2020-2024 period, when he seconded his long-time friend Ian Nepomniachtchi. ‘Team Nepo’ dominated the 2020/21 and 2022 Candidates Tournaments, qualifying for the World Championship matches of 2021 and 2023, and finished second in the 2024 Candidates Tournament.
With memoirs of chess training camps, preparation, Candidates Tournaments and World Championship matches, punctuated by 58 annotated games spanning the 2001-2024 period, Chess Metamorphosis offers a unique backstage pass to chess at the highest level. Most importantly, the author shares his perspective of the raw human interactions, emotional highs and lows, and subsequent reflections after these tension-filled events.
Nikita Vitiugov is a world-class grandmaster with a peak rating of 2751. He won the 2021 Russian Championship, 2019 Prague Chess Festival Masters, 2017 Grenke Open and 2013 Gibraltar Masters. His performances for the Russian national team have yielded multiple team and individual medals, including team gold medals at the World Team Championship (2010 and 2013) and European Team Championship (2019). He now lives in London and has represented England since 2023.
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