Educator, translator and writer of a huge number of books and prestigious chess magazines. Antonio is a worldwide reference in chess.

Mikhail Tal, Bobby Fischer, Boris Spassky, Jose Raul Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine

08 Chess anecdotes ♟️

Classical chess players: Mikhail Tal, Bobby Fischer, Boris Spassky, J.R Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine.

Classical chess players

Some funny anecdotes about Mikhail Tal, Bobby Fischer, Boris Spassky, Jose Raul Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine.

Mikhail Tal

Mikhail Tal: 11 points without playing a single game!

During the Havanna Chess Olympiad (1966), which was attentively organized by the Cuban government, the chess teams were treated very warmly. On one occasion, when Korchnoi and Mikhail Tal went to watch the spectacle of the famous cabaret Tropicana.

Mikhail Tal noticed a beautiful woman at the next table.

Being as he was, very sensitive to feminine beauty, he didn’t hesitate to pay her a compliment. Suddenly, the partner of beauty … Read more

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08 Chess anecdotes ♟️

Mijail Botvinnik and the USSR chess team in the Olympics.

The Soviet chess team and Mijail Botvinick

Mijail Botvinnik had many problems these years. In the summer of 1952, there was much nervousness in the Soviet chess team.

The Kremlin had announced that they were seriously considering their participation for the first time, in the Olympics. (Not only in chess, as the same year, also took place the Olympic Games in Helsinki).

Hence, many undiscovered intrigues, mini-assemblies, rumors and secrets were on the aisles.

Finally, the highest spheres had confirmed the decision – the USSR chess team will be in Helsinki.

Once the western world became aware that the Soviets … Read more

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Samuel Reshevsky, Miguel Najdorf, Mikhail Botvinnik, Nicolas Rossolimo and Efim Bogoljubov

08 Chess anecdotes ♟️

Classical chess players (II): Samuel Reshevsky, Miguel Najdorf, Mikhail Botvinnik, Nicolas Rossolimo and Efim Bogoljubov

Classical chess players

Some funny anecdotes about Samuel Reshevsky, Miguel Najdorf, Mikhail Botvinnik, Nicolas Rossolimo and Efim Bogoljubov.

Samuel Reshevsky

Samuel Reshevsky and Miguel Najdorf

In 1952 the grandmasters Samuel Reshevsky and Miguel Najdorf were playing chess in a double match for the title of Champion of America (North America, Reshevsky, vs. South America, Najdorf). Mr. Miguel Najdorf recalled this with much grace, in an old interview with Eduardo Scala:

“We had to play chess in three countries: United States, Mexico and El Salvador. When we played in New York, maybe because I enjoyed life in excess, I have lost … Read more

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08 Chess anecdotes ♟️

Wesley So: 1.000.000$ boy. Discover the story of this talent!

Wesley So: a chess prodigy!

A chess prodigy child, Wesley So in 2008 became the youngest player to cross the threshold of Elo 2600. He broke the record established by none other than Magnus Carlsen. Four years later he would do the same with the bar of 2700. And by February of that year, he was among the top ten worldwide.

His debut in international chess happened during Summer Olympics at Turin (2006) when he was 13 years old. And in 2007 he gained the Grandmaster’s title.

But this new GM from the Philippines reached some impressive results even before … Read more

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08 Chess anecdotes ♟️

47 chess anecdotes. Will you know the 32th? Humor

Chess anecdotes (I): The professional chess player: Pillsbury…

Let's start with some anecdotes about chess. From all indignities that a professional chess player must go through to earn a living, one of the worst would be getting inside a cubicle full of gadgets. Getting inside? Hiding. That was what the great American champion Harry Nelson Pillsbury had to do in one of the “Turkish” Ajeeb. A chess automaton-like many others did before him.

Our man spent some time like that, in the Chinese Museum in Philadelphia. Pillsbury, the professional chess player, moved the pieces that were supposed, moved

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08 Chess anecdotes ♟️

6 anecdotes about chess openings

Anecdotes about chess openings (I): Trend and research

Let's start with some anecdotes about chess openings. Back in the 1950s, the soon-to-be world champion Vasily Smyslov considered the King’s Indian Defense as incorrect. Playing the Scandinavian was seen as folly, not to say absurd. And because of that, there were no signs of it in the high competition. A man named Tigran Petrosian responded to all the openings for semi-open with a 2.d3 and the King’s Indian Defense. There was no news of the Giuoco Piano (or Italian chess opening) and its variant ‘pianissimo’.

A few decades later, the … Read more

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