En passant

Neil is still shamelessly trying to flog his book …

Greetings all.

Chess magazines are not cheap.

New In Chess €89.99 a year; CHESS £49.95; British Chess Magazine £55.00.

I am going to suggest that even though, naturally, it is primarily aimed at Norfolk’s chessplayers (I accept you are not going to be greatly interested in reports of the Norfolk League), you could do a lot worse than look at the online version of En Passant, Norfolk Chess Association’s monthly magazine. For £5 a year, you get twelve issues, normally 24 pages each issue, accompanied by a separate file containing all the games in that month’s issue in PGN format. (A printed version costs £30 a year). It is edited by David LeMoir, author of a number of excellent books on tactics, with much of the analysis from Senior International Master Mike Read. Because LeMoir does it very much as a labour of love, the price has remained unchanged for eleven (!) years.

As well as plenty of well-annotated games and tactical puzzle positions, En Passant carries some interesting theoretical articles – there was, for instance, a very good survey of the Vienna Gambit a while back. John Wickham, the Norfolk Chairman, is a qualified arbiter and there have been some interesting and useful articles by him about changes to the rules.

LeMoir is currently having a subscription drive among those of Norfolk’s chessplayers who do not currently take En Passant. With his agreement, I am circulating this among my contacts in Bedfordshire. The November 2019 edition is attached, to give you an idea of what you might expect. David LeMoir’s contact details are included on page 2.

Yes, I do draw your attention to LeMoir’s book review at page 12…

Best wishes,

Neil Hickman