David LeMoir: Chess Scribe: A Fifty Year Anthology

This book contains an impressive collection of published articles written over the past fifty years. Mr. Le Moir has that knack of writing in an informative and entertaining way so that it is a pleasure to read, even without a chess board in front of you.Some of the pieces are reports of congresses and championships in local magazines, especially Norfolk’s en passant, to which he was a regular contributor before taking over as editor. Other are on points of strategy. One that caught my eye, from BCM in April 1982, is entitled “The Tal Pawn Push” (p 28) examining the extent to which masters like Tal and Alekhine were willing to sacrifice material to threaten queening a pawn. The article ends with “If you have a chance of getting a pawn to the seventh rank, consider it, even though you may lose your entire army in the process.”In contrast, a recent article (p254) gives guidance to aspiring chess authors on how to self-publish. Entitled “You too can be a Chess Author”, from CHESS Magazine Aug 2020, the author explains the new possibilities that exist in a world where companies like Amazon and Apple enable publishing to happen affordably, one copy at a time, as and when needed.He also includes extracts from his published chess books. For example, on p.58 there is “Getting Out of Jail”, an excerpt from “How to be Lucky in Chess (Gambit 2000), analysing the various features of an inferior position to consider which might help you to avoid losing a game, which I intend to study to see if I can convert more losses into draws.This eclectic collection of chess writings is fascinating, entertaining and educational and well worth a place on your bookshelf.

Having read and enjoyed David LeMoir's earlier chess books (in copies borrowed from the local library) I was pleased to see he had published an anthology and looked forward to reading it very much. I decided to tackle the book in two uneven sized chunks, not least to enable me to post this review in a relevant time-frame. So I have now read all the articles and essays and I can say they serve as an excellent history of half a century of chess at local and national level as well as being a personal memoir of the author's life in chess which is well worthy of the 5-star rating I have given. However, I am a slow student when it comes to game analysis and have just turned back to page 1 to start working through the games themselves - expect my review number 2 in several month's time!

As a subscriber to En Passant as well as having read the authors previous books I am well aware of the high quality of his writing. In this book I have gotten as far as his early years writing, being the ones I an unfamiliar with and was pleased to see that even then his chess writing was of a high standard. It was also good to see games from some old friends. As this is a collection it is a book to dip into and read over a period. The contents will entertain and educate, and I would highly recommend it.

Excellent book covering 50 years of articles written by the author. Will interest those who are interested in local Norfolk chess plus in-depth articles on the national and international chess scene. A collection of interesting stories which will interest anyone who enjoys playing and read about chess.

Former West of England Champion, Norfolk Champion and British Over-65 Champion David LeMoir has never quite been of master standard. However, a brilliant tactician – the 9 move deep “Quadruple Whammy” at page 201 of this book is something of which Tal himself would not have been ashamed – and a superb analyst, on his day he could be a match for almost anyone. (Frank disclosure #1 – the only time I encountered LeMoir over the board, I remembered in time having read one of the articles collected here, carefully steered clear of the hair-raising tactical line for which he was aiming, and secured a draw with which I was well satisfied).And the man can write. Two of his books, How to Become a Deadly Chess Tactician (Gambit, 2002) and Essential Chess Sacrifices (Gambit, 2003) are classics which should be on any serious player’s shelves, while a third, How to be Lucky in Chess (Gambit, 2001) is one which most club players would benefit from studying.This book includes excerpts from LeMoir’s three books together with a goodly selection of the articles he has written over the years. He thinks deeply about the game, and there is much here that is instructive – but above all it is LeMoir’s passionate love of chess which shines through.Strong players will appreciate LeMoir’s penetrating analysis; lesser mortals like me will enjoy his ability to explain what is going on, with clarity and gentle humour.The book is self-published, but of an impressively professional appearance. It would arguably be improved by an index of players and games, but that’s a minor cavil. Chess is difficult stuff to proof-read (I lost count of the number of typos I found in my copy of Jeremy Silman’s classic How to Reassess Your Chess), but LeMoir appears to have done a careful and thorough job.(Frank disclosure #2 – at p 256 LeMoir reprints an article from Norfolk Chess Association’s En Passant magazine in which he writes kindly of a book which I wrote. But I’d formed my favourable view of his book before encountering that).We live in horrible times. Writers like David LeMoir make things more bearable. Whatever your standard of play, treat yourself and buy this book.