Brutally Frank
Canada's Frank Marshall didn't succeed in conquering the world of chess, but his aggressive tactics were universally feared
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
The Swindler and the Swindled
In chess one should never take one's opponent in trust: it leaves one open to the swindle
Judit and Holofernes
In a male dominated game it was an 15-year-old girl who became the youngest ever grandmaster. She is now chess's finest female player
The Art of the 64 Squares
While not all artists are chess players, all chess players are artists. So said Marcel Duchamp, a mean player himself
Going Mainstream
Television networks have long since abandoned chess but a multi-millionaire promoter plans to catapult it back into the limelight
Collusion in Curaçao
In 1962 Bobby Fisher claimed "the Russians have fixed world chess". He was certainly paranoid but was proved to be partially right
War Games
Despite being a keen chess player, Napoleon Bonaparte was more a pawn than a king on the board
Time Trouble
Some of the game's greatest have had trouble playing against the clock. Not so Bobby Fischer, who was a lord of time.
The Flowers Plucked Too Soon
The mystique surrounding those chess players who passed before their primes is best tipified in the mercurial Hungarian, Rudolf Charousek
Rook of Gibraltar
In a sport over-populated with men, 17-year-old Chinese wunderkind Hou Yifan's sheer focus establishes her as a contender to be reckoned with
The Tartar Terminator
The unheralded Kazakh Rashid Nezhmetdinov was universally admired by his peers for his astonishing attacking ferocity
The Killer Instinct
The chess player's mind is not necessarily a criminal one - but two consummate players did turn out to be murderers