About GM William Lombardy

In this video you can see Magnus Carlsen winning easily against a chess player via a proxy child with a hidden earpiece.

At 52" (also at 1'22") you can see GM William Lombardy watching the game 

Apart from Lombardy's own chess merits, according to Wikipedia:

•  he was the only World Junior Champion to win the title (year 1957) with a perfect score; 
•  he won three individual Gold medals between the Men's Chess Olympiads and the World Student Team Tournament (Under 26 Years Old)

Lombardy offered a meaningful support to Bobby Fischer during the 1972 match

As a 2016 ChessBase article reported that GM Lombardy was facing serious financial problems, please know that his chess autobiography is available through his website: http://williamlombardychess.com/books/

and on the same site he offers private chess lessons

A few considerations about Unorthodox Chess Openings

As soon as I gave up playing Unorthodox Chess Openings in Fide Rated Chess Tournaments, I started to gain elo points and I lost less games. Hard to admit but it happened.
Still I believe that some UCOs, such as 1.g4 or 1.e4 Nh6  are FULLY playable but they are impractical. I mean that they require an enormous amount of attention & energy to keep a balanced position...and as soon as you (the UCO player) make a slightly inferior move, the position risks to precipitate rather quickly...
For instance, this is not the case of the Colle System where you can obtain decent middlegame positions without risking too much.
As I am getting older, I get tired more easily and I do not feel comfortable to invest so much energy in the opening, although it is so much fun to play UCOs!
BUT in my opinion UCOs are FANTASTIC in rapid, blitz & bullet games/tournaments where the reduced time control & surprise effect may support the UCO choice.
Please consider that this is my opinion & experience...NOT the absolute truth.

Remembering IM Giorgio Porreca

IM Giorgio Porreca has been an important man in the italian chess world.

In these days it has been published a book about him, in italian language, full of anecdotes and a few games.

At this link:
"Il maestro dei maestri della scacchiera: Giorgio Porreca" di Achille della Ragione e Carlo Castrogiovanni
you can download the entire free pdf.

See also this web page http://scacchisalerno.arciragazzi.com/2015/05/05/il-maestro-dei-maestri/

These are some of Porreca's books upon which a whole generation of italian chess players has studied:

I've Got a Secret - Bobby Fischer

Bobby shows up at the beginning and at 17'40"

CBS videos on Fischer & Carlsen

 1972: Chess champ Bobby Fischer on 60 Minutes

Magnus Carlsen: A chess prodigy explains how his mind works

A message of hope dedicated to middle age players

Last week I was chatting with a chessfriend who is about 50 years old and his Fide rating is around 1600. He told me that before dying he would like to become a class A player. That would mean an increase of about 200 rating points. This subject made me think. How many players have reached a plateau in their rating increase and they seem to be "stucked" somewhere, including myself?  :-(
Today I want to share with you a success story. A story of a player who has obtained is 2nd and the 3rd & final IM norm when he became 50. I met FM Hans Klip in Bratto a few years ago. He was very kind to answer a few questions about an old game of his against Philip du Chattel. In recent times I have followed his games and not long go I discovered that he has become an International Master in 2010!  http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=1000845
I want to congratulate him for this success. Also, I want to thank him because through his example he has shown me and you that it is possible to improve even if we are no more youngsters but middle age men! "Never give up" is the motto!