Carl Portman MBE: Chess Was My Light
From prison cells to tournament halls, chess became a source of discipline, purpose and hope - revealing the extraordinary power of the…
chess
An Evening with Carl Portman MBE: Chess in Prisons And Why It Matters
The Howard Staunton Society is delighted to invite members and friends to an evening of talk and dinner with Carl Portman MBE,…
Chess as metaphor for Life
As a chess grandmaster, author of over 200 books on chess and mind sports, and someone who has dedicated his life to…
Chess Treasures of Raymond Keene OBE
As a Chess Collector, my visit to the home of Raymond Keene was an eyeopener. I was not expecting the variety of…
The Samurai Mind
Five centuries after Miyamoto Musashi wrote The Book of Five Rings, its lessons on strategy, discipline and decision-making remain startlingly relevant. Grandmaster…
Why The Future Belongs to Players
Beginning with Terence Tao's provocative observation, Grandmaster Raymond Keene OBE examines how chess, football, philosophy, and modern competition reveal a profound shift…
Staunton, Shakespeare and Chess
Howard Staunton devoted years to editing Shakespeare, but was England's greatest chess master equally drawn to the Bard because Shakespeare himself understood…
Does the word chess originate with Julius Caesar’s name?
Do words carry hidden histories? Beginning with neglected lines from Hamlet and Tamburlaine, Grandmaster Raymond Keene follows an eccentric trail through Shakespeare,…
Howard Staunton Society Celebrates World Chess Day with Grandmaster Ray Keene OBE
The Howard Staunton Society marked World Chess Day with an evening that reflected its mission of celebrating chess, history, culture and conviviality.…
Barry Martin - In Memoriam
For Barry Martin, chess was never merely a game and art was never merely an image. Somewhere between Staunton and Duchamp, the…
The Second Battle of Waterloo
Waterloo was not England's last great victory on French soil. In 1843, Howard Staunton crossed the Channel to fight a very different…
Defender of the Faiths
The first great chess grandmaster did not play in London, Paris or Moscow, but in the dazzling court of the Abbasid Caliphs.
Gens Una Sumus
Chess has crossed more frontiers than any army, conquered more hearts than any empire, and united more cultures than perhaps any other…
World Chess Day Comes to Soho with a Grandmaster Celebration at L'Escargot
The occasion holds particular significance in Soho, where L'Escargot, London's oldest French restaurant, has long been associated with British chess.
How a mediaeval thinker out of the box: Stupor Mundi, helped me to solve a Chinese puzzle
Inspiration often comes from unlikely sources.
On the Shoulders of Dwarves
The greatest discoveries are often made not by choosing between science and the humanities, but by refusing to recognise the divide.
The Obliteration of Memory
Empires are conquered twice: first by armies, and then by the erasure of memory.
The Art of the Draw
Not every deadlock is a stalemate, and not every defeat is a checkmate. Chess teaches us the difference.