Lighter Side of Chess

Georg Mohr was born in Maribor, Slovenia in 1965 becoming a Grandmaster in 1997. He joined as a member of the FIDE Trainers Commission from 2002, becoming a FIDE Senior Trainer in 2004 and a FIDE International Organizer in 2011. Georg has been a professional chess trainer for many years. He was coach and captain of Slovenian national team from 2003 – 2010 and since 2011 he has been Turkish national youth trainer. He is a chess writer and was editor of Slovenian chess magazine Šahovska Misel from 1999 and editor of Fide Trainers Commission trainers’ surveys. He is also an organiser of chess events acting as tournament director of the European Club Cup (Rogaška Slatina 2011), the World Youth Championship (Maribor 2012) and the World Senior Championship (Bled 2018). Adrian Bohdanovych Mikhalchishin was born in Lvov, Ukraine in 1954 and became a Grandmaster in 1978. In 1995 he took Slovenian citizenship and became a FIDE Senior Trainer from 2002 and was chairman of FIDE Trainers Commission from 2009. Adrian was a trainer of many famous chess players. Amongst others he was in Anatoly Karpov’s team during matches with Garry Kasparov. He has worked with Maja Chiburdanidze, Nana Aleksandria, the Polgar sisters, Alisa Maric and Nana Dzagnidze. He was coach and captain of the national teams of Slovenia and the Netherlands. In recent years he has been coach of the Turkish woman team. He has written many chess books and thousands of articles for many chess magazines.

The Lighter Side of Chess:Games, Goofs and Funny Facts by Grandmasters Adrian Mikhalchisin and GeorgMohr is the rare chess book whose pages can be read in any order while lying onone’s couch. As the title implies this is a book to be enjoyed but it is muchmore. After reading this volume one cannot help but realize that at thechessboard anything is possible. The number of blunders presented in this book,by the best of the best, will give hope to even the lowliest club player. Time pressure explains some of the howlersbut others defy a logical answer. Mikhalchisin and Mohr, who have a deepknowledge of Soviet and Eastern European chess, have provided many examples ofindividual and mutual mass hallucinations that will leave one scratching theirhead. There is an entire chapter devoted todraws which is filled with dozens of humorous incidents, several involvingSammy Reshevsky who is one of the all-time greats but never a model for goodsportsmanship.While enjoyment may be the primary focusthere is plenty of instructive material with numerous examples of ingeniousstalemates saving the day, artistic yet practical studiesIM John Donaldson - Chess Newsletter - Mechanics' Institute April 2026.