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Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
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Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
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© Dr Tim Harding
Last modified:
13 June 2013
13 June: More praise for Eminent Victorian Chess Players: Extracts from new reviews.
13 June: Grandmaster Lothar Schmid obituary: Kibitzer column for June posted at the Chess Cafe website
9 May: Blackburne biography page updated again.
7 May : Kibitzer for May posted at the Chess Cafe website
12 April: Kibitzer information pages and indexes updated. Blackburne biography page updated.
10 April: Kibitzer article for April posted at The Chess Cafe: obituary of C-GM Adrian Hollis and a postscript on the exciting finish to the London Candidates tournament.
13 March: Kibitzer article for March posted at The Chess Cafe: a marathon game in the Staunton Gambit.
18 February: Page about Blackburne biography and game collection project updated: work is progressing well.
13 January: Kibitzer article for February posted at The Chess Cafe: reviewing Alex Dunne's new book on the USCF's Absolute Correspondence Chess Championships.
29 January: The Myanmar report revised; an annotated bibliography has yet to be added (big project).
28 January: Myanmar/ Burma links and tips for travellers have now been added.
28 January: Tim's home page updated. Indexes to Kibitzer articles rearranged.
22 January: Tim's tour in Myanmar has now reached the final day. Later in the wek some further pages will be added witha dvice for travellers, or those considering visiting Burma, some historical information on the country, and a reading list. You may also wish to review the pages from the start because some additional photographs have been added.
20 January: Links page updated again with some recommended sites not previously included.
19 January: Links and History links and Irish links pages updated with several changes and major elimination of dead links. We also included several new recommended sites.
9 January 2013: Tim's Kibitzer article for January looks back at the chess world a century ago.
8 January: 'My tour in Myanmar': Tim Harding begins his pictorial report on his recent holiday in Burma. New pages will be added for the next 14 days.
4 January : More Chess Mail magazine sets and other offers (not all to do with chess) are being offered for eBay auction. To find them, do an international search for "Chess Mail", or search for items from seller "kibitzer63" only.
13 December 2012: Tim's Kibitzer article for December discusses Bird's defence to the Ruy Lopez and Tim Harding's amusing but unsuccessful attempts to emulate Henry Bird.
14 November: Tim's Kibitzer article for November discusses Henry Bird's opening 1 f4 and Tim's unfortunately feeble attempts to employ it.
18 October: Update of Tim's homepage. My eBay offers of Chess Mail magazine sets have now ended but may be renewed in 2013, along with other items such as the recently refound copies of the UltraCorr3 database CD and some of my old books. Why not email an expression of interest?
10 October: Tim's Kibitzer article for October discusses issues arising from the digitisation of chess literature. Much from the 19th century is now free online if you understand descriptive notation.
19 September: Some copies of Robert Harding's book Copper Wire (the memoir of a World War 2 RAF pilot and prisoner of war) have just gone on sale on eBay. This book has been unavailable for over two years, but some more copies of the first edition were recently found.
19 September: Page about Joseph Blackburne project expanded. Tim now has a contract to do a book on Blackburne. Please help by searching your historic local newspapers and chess club records for games and news of his travels.
12 September: Chess Cafe website publishes review of Eminent Victorian Chess Players. (Review still available as a PDF in its archive.)
12 September: Tim's Kibitzer article for September concludes his King's Gambit survey.
6-19 September: Several Chess Mail magazine sets are being offered for eBay auction at low starting prices. The offer will be repeated at intervals while stocks last. This will be the very last chance to buy unused copies of this specialist correspondence chess magazine. A few as-new copies of some of Tim Harding's books will also be offered.
1 September: New research project about Joseph Blackburne launched: can you assist? Also: other research queries and reviews of Tim's new book.
8 August : Tim's Kibitzer article for August continues his survey of the King's Gambit.
31 July: Special Olympics pages posted. Plus updates to bibliography page about chess magazines, critique of Di Felice's books, and various other pages.
11 July: Tim's Kibitzer article for July deals with developments in the Kieseritzky Gambit, the first of three articles surveying the King's Gambit.
13 June: The Kibitzer article for June offers Tim's take on the Anand-Gelfand world championship match, asking does anyone really know for sure what were the final moves in the 3rd playoff game?
24 May: Tim's profiles of Mary Rudge, Captain Evans and Isidor Gunsberg went online in the latest update of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
9 May: Tim's Kibitzer article for May reports on the KWA meeting in Norwich (see 14 April entry for more details).
9 May: Irish CCA homepage updated with an interesting game that recently finished.
4-5-6 May: Updated several pages in the research zone, and added a new article about the first Irish postal tournament. Some new lines of research are inaugurated: can you help?
24 April: Updated my bibliography page. I have uploaded my profile on amazon.co.uk, and amazon.com and the specialist book site goodreads.com, and am endeavouring to have some inaccuracies about my titles corrected there.
18 April: Today the first copies arrived of Tim's new book, Eminent Victorian Chess Players.
This book can now be ordered direct from the publisher, McFarland, and will soon be available from the usual booksellers and chess dealers.
Please note that this book cannot be bought direct from us.
14 April: The Ken Whyld Association met in Norwich on Saturday 14 April. This meeting included several interesting talks. Former British Chess Magazine editor Bernard Cafferty spoke about the 130-year history of that journal. Gordon Cadden revealed how he found the burial place of Philidor. Owen Hindle and Dr Michael Negele discussed two leading figures in Norwich chess history, and Tim spoke about aspects of the research for his new book, particularly in relation to Blackburne. For details see the KWA website and Tim's May Kibitzer article.
11 April: The Kibitzer column for April takes a look at the correspondence chess scene today.
18 March: 
The Chess Cafe website shop is currently offering for €12 a PDF format e-book of Tim Harding's entertaining and instructive 2000-vintage
book Startling
Correspondence Chess Miniatures.
14 March: The Kibitzer looks at unusual gambit involving an early queen sacrifice against the Sicilian.
14 March: Updated our links page, weeding out some dead or diseased entries. Warn us of any more that should be eradicated, please!
14 March: Proof-reading of Eminent Victorian Chess Players is close to completion.
8 February: The Kibitzer reviews a wide selection of new chess books at the Chess Cafe website.
2 February: Further additions to our research article about Steinitz's 1881 visit to Dublin.
12 January (previously 22 Dec): Further information about Tim's next book, Eminent Victorian Chess Players.
11 January 2012: The Kibitzer looks at chess in the years 1862 and 1912 in his monthly Chess Cafe column.
15 December 2011: Updates for Christmas. Including the origins of the Frankenstein-Dracula Variation in the Vienna Game, as unearthed by Tim Harding.
15 December 2011: Updated Irish links and Irish Correspondence Chess Association page.
14 December 2011: The Kibitzer presents, at the Chess Cafe website, the second part of his two-part major article about Polish/British chess player Adolphus Zytogorski. Did he really beat Staunton 6-0?
10 November 2011: This month's Kibitzer column reveals the double private life of Zytogorski.
3 November 2011: text of a new book by Tim Harding, Eminent Victorian Chess Players delivered to McFarland.
12 October 2011: The Kibitzer visits Scheveningen, in the Netherlands, where three famous tournamnets were played.
5 September 2011: Tim Harding's book Correspondence Chess in Britain and Ireland, 1824-1987 was one of the four nominated titles for The English Chess Federation's jannual Book of the Year award. The eventual winner was John Nunn's 2-volume work Nunn's Chess Endings.
The first phase of the Research Zone is now complete. If you are a new or occasional visitor, you should find plenty to read here. It is hoped to add some new articles before Christmas.
10 August 2011: Kibitzer column 183 at the Chess Cafe, reviewing an important new book on computer chess
4 August 2011: Added further information to the research article about the Chess Player's Chronicle.
17 July 2011: Kibitzer column 182 at the Chess Cafe, reviewing some new books on the openings.
17 July 2011: Added quotation and link for British Chess Magazine review of my book.
8 June 2011: Kibitzer column 181 at the Chess Cafe, looking at more endgames and the role of tablebases.
6 June 2011: Updated link to Tim's radio interview on 29 May, about his book. The interview, conducted by Irish historian Dr Patrick Geoghegan, is now available as an MP3 file that you can hear on this website.
6 June 2011: Added more information to listings page about early British chess magazines.
18 May 2011: Added an article about the history of Dublin University Chess Club.
10 May 2011: Updated my personal home page and pages about my column, The Kibitzer.
6 May 2011: Page with extracts from reviews of Tim's book. Linked on homepage to a new review of Tim's book.
6 May 2011: Updated our links and chess history links pages.
2 May 2011: Tim scheduled to appear on radio on 29 May to talk about his book.
2 May 2011: Advance information on Tim's work in progress.
30 April 2011: New article listing corrections to Pagni's histories of CC games between clubs.
28 April 2011: Added a photo of Stanley Monck.
26 April 2011: Some additions and corrections to the article on Irish cricketer and chess-player G. F. Barry.
23 April 2011: Fixed some broken links and eliminated some ancient and redundant files. The March 1879 page images of Our School Times have been restored.
22 April 2011: Added further pages to the Research Zone, including an article about Steinitz that includes a recently rediscovered game of his.
22 April 2011: Added more games to the free additions and corrections PGN download database.
21 April 2011: Added new chess history links page in the research zone and updated our general links page.
20-22 April 2011: All pages from the Our School Times chess column are now added to the Research Zone.
16-18 April 2011: The Chess History Research Zone is launched.
Tim Harding is reorienting this site around chess history matters. Many pages are now up, including bibliographical aids for researchers. A lot more will follow later including some discoveries that didn't fit in his book. We are currently presenting the history and page images from the long-lost chess column of Our School Times.
13 April 2011: Kibitzer column 179 at the Chess Cafe, looking at King & Pawn and Queen & Pawn endgames.
2 April 2011: Neil Limbert has posted his favourable review of Tim's Correspondence Chess in Britain and Ireland, 1824-1987 at the BCCA website.
15 March 2011: Dr. Fritz Baumbach retires as Germany's correspondence chess president; his successor as head of BdF is Dr. Uwe Staroske.
9 March 2011: Kibitzer column 178 at the Chess Cafe, looking back to chess in 1911.
19 February 2011: Death of pioneering chess historian Jeremy Gaige, author of Chess Personalia, Chess Tournament Crosstables, etc., aged 83, in Philadelphia.
9 February 2011: Kibitzer on a forgotten Victorian expert.
1 February 2011: Tim's new book Correspondence Chess in Britain and Ireland, 1824-1987 is officially published by McFarland this month. Glowing review of Tim's book by Steven B. Dowd is posted at The Chess Cafe.
SOME MAJOR UPDATES IN THE PAST YEARS:
10 November 2010: Kibitzer column, debunking the myth that the Irish invented chess.
20 July 2010: Chess Mail Ltd. ceases trading as the directors decided to retire.
This website continues as Tim Harding's private site. Thank you for your custom over recent years. Our sales pages have been withdrawn. DO NOT send us any money by bank transfer or in the post; if you do, it will be returned.
27 June 2010: Added a book review on Victorian sport in Westmeath (NOT chess).
10 June 2010: More background information added to the pages about my late father's book Copper Wire.
23 May 2010: Added a free PGN download file of corrections and late additions to our database. This file is updated from time to time with corrections sent to us and games that we found since finalising UltraCorr 3A.
26 May 2010: Updated my bibliography and publications list.
23 April 2010: Feature about GM Zukertort added. Some of this material was on the Chess Mail website a few years ago, but has now been updated. A new article by Tim Harding has been added, about Zukertort's visit to Dublin in 1879.
13 July 2009: Tim Harding's homepage updated with PhD graduation photograph.
14 March 2009: Article about the late Prof Carlo Alberto Pagni's researches into correspondence chess.
14 February 2009: ICCF pioneer Erik Larsson died at his home in Landskrona, Sweden, aged 93. My Chess Mail interview with Erik was updated as the March 2009 article in the Kibitzer series at the Chess Cafe, and Chapter 14 of my history of CC includes much information about Larsson's work in reviving of international correspondence chess after World War Two.
8 January 2009: Chess Mail editor Tim Harding successfully defends his thesis on chess history and is recommended for the award of a Ph.D. (awarded July 2009).
July 2007: Site transferred to a new host.