Walter Browne News Today

It is the ability to mentally picture things. That seems the most natural thing in the world, but some people are unable to do it at all. They cannot imagine a sunset, see any vivid details, vibrant colours, in their minds. Or they may only produce a mental image that is blurry and lacks detail. Michael Bacon, the Armchair Warrior, is a USCF Expert with aphantasia. He has written about how the condition relates to chess. | Image Credit: Andrew Mason

Today, legendary Grandmaster Vlastimil Hort celebrates his 80th birthday. A long stay of several weeks in the hospital when he was five years old and a caring doctor who played correspondence chess and explained the chess rules to him gave way to his great passion. Eduard Frey celebrates the legend’s anniversary!

See title. It's 17 minutes off the WR. the OTQ time is a complete joke

Hello chess friends! This month’s column is dedicated to Abraham Wilson of Mililani, Hawaii, a long-time competitor in the Absolute Championships and the Golden Knights Championships. Abe has retired from competitive correspondence chess after 36 years of competition. His accomplishments are worthy of recognition, and so this month we salute Abe Wilson, Correspondence Warrior!

Few individuals have had as great an influence on American chess as IM Jeremy Silman, who died on September 21 in Los Angeles, California. The cause was complications from primary progressive aphasia frontotemporal dementia.  

I take a break from my usual historical articles to pay tribute to a countryman who has been recently honored with one of the highest distinctions in chess — his induction into the World Chess Hall of Fame. In a sense, this tribute is still partly historical, as his long career is now all part of chess lore. He is none other than Grandmaster Eugenio Torre of the Philippines, who turns 71 today. To Eugene, a joyous birthday, and our heartfelt congratulations!

The well-known grandmaster and author Lubomir Kavalek <a href="https://en.chessbase.com/post/lubomir-kavalek-1943-2021">passed away last year in January</a>. A prolific writer, he penned dozens of well-read chess columns, including one he shared on ChessBase over the years. Here we reproduce one from February 2017, in which Kavalek shows us a failed queen sacrifice by Jan Timman against him, and Caruana’s successful 19.Qxf6!! sac against Nakamura at the London Chess Class...

Lubomir Kavalek was born in Prague in 1943. He left his country in 1968 and found a new home in the USA. In the 1970s he was one of the world's best players and also successful as a second and coach, including helping Bobby Fischer in Reykjavík. He was also a prolific writer, with dozens of well-read chess columns, including one he shared on ChessBase over the years. Kavalek passed away on January 18 at the age of 77. He will be sorely missed.

After the first two traumatic games World Champion Boris Spassky was leading 2-0 in the Match of the Century. But then Fischer started to play and struck back: in the next eight games he scored 6½ points, chalking up a 6.5-3.5 lead. Games 8, 9 and 10 were quite spectacular, and are the subject of today's report – exactly fifty years after game ten. Younger players will also learn about "adjournments" and how exactly "sealed moves" were handled. Some were born after...

75 years ago, on 28 May 1947, the American Grandmaster and renowned writer Andrew "Andy" Soltis was born in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. In an extensive interview Soltis talks about his chess and his writing career, chess in New York, the Marshall Chess Club, playing blitz against Bobby Fischer and about Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen. | Photo: Marcy Soltis