About Neil McDonald

Death on the river

I was born in Gravesend, which used to be the main sea port on the River Thames before you reach London. For two centuries petty criminals were put on board and transported from Gravesend to Australia, just like that guy in Charles Dicken's Great Expectations, and also no doubt the ancestors of one or two Australian chess players. Pocohontas, of Walt Disney fame, did the local tourist board a huge favour by dying on the river as she passed Gravesend, and is now buried in a local churchyard.

Into these grim surroundings I was born in 1967. I learnt to play at about 12, when I became obsessed by the 1978 Karpov-Korchnoi match in Baguio City.

Miracles

I was rooting for Korchnoi who made a fantastic comeback from 5-2 down to 5-5 but then lost the decisive game. I remember seeing the final position of this game and couldn't understand why Korchnoi had resigned. OK, Karpov had two connected passed pawns, but I was sure I could have found a way to trick him. Jumping ahead six years, I got the chance to test this opinion when I played against Karpov in a simul' except he had three passed pawns, not two. But by that age I had ceased to believe in miracles. However, in another simul' I tricked Kasparov into a stalemate trap when completely losing, so perhaps youthful optimism is a good thing.

Defunct ritual

Although never outstandingly strong, I improved quite rapidly and became an IM at 19, which 13 years ago was regarded as fairly young. I then took part in a now defunct ritual which involved an inexperienced young western IM being invited to the USSR to have his Elo rating points redistributed among Soviet Grandmasters. I finished with 4/14 at Tbilisi 1987, but still won a prize for 'the best score by a foreign player against other foreign players', i.e. I lost against all the home players!

My post mortem against Tal from this tournament was the moment when I realised I would never be World Champion. The depth of his analysis was incredible. I think such talent is innate and cannot be learnt-World Champions are born, not made, though of course it still requires an awful lot of hard work for a genius to make it to the top.

Devoted to chess

After studying English and American Literature at University, I devoted myself to chess. For the next four years I played in mainly French Opens but without much success. The influx of strong Eastern European players made it virtually impossible to make a living.

During the past six years I have been primarily a chess writer and trainer, occasionally venturing out to play in a minor all play all tournament. Between 1994 and 1998 I played in 28 closed tournaments ranged across Europe from Ireland to Russia, winning ten outright with one shared first. I became a Grandmaster in 1996. My last outing was an uncharacteristically solid +1=8 in an International in Oxford, which amounted to equal 4th place behind Hodgson, Hector and Nunn.

Books and blondes

My ten chess books include works on the middlegame, planning and the endgame, besides some specialist opening books. I have written, jointly with Andrew Harley, a book called 'Mastering the French'. My next book, which I'm currently compiling, is 'The French Winawer'. I am also training three young players who all play the French as Black. As an escape from chess, I have written a novel along the lines of poor Englishman goes to Russia and meets willing blonde heiress...stay tuned.