Startling Correspondence Chess Miniatures: Typical Mistakes and How to Take Advantage

by Tim Harding

This collection of 100 entertaining and instructive short games contains a wealth of opening tricks and middle-game tactics played by email or post. All the games in the book end within 25 moves, the standard definition for a miniature game. Some games speak for themselves and have light notes, while the critical moments of other games are analyzed in depth. The notes to the games include numerous explanations (and corrections!) of opening theory, with many little-known sidelines and traps. As well as the 100 main annotated games, there are a further 20 complete games in the notes and twelve further games presented as tactical exercises for the reader to solve. Enjoy masterpieces by great players of the past and present - a fine book with something for everyone!

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Timothy David Harding was born in London in 1948, and started playing competitive chess while at school. After reading Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford, he was caught up in the Bobby Fischer boom and started playing chess at a quite high level and writing on the game (mostly under the byline T. D. Harding). He is now writing works of chess history and biography, published by McFarland.
(Please note that there are at least two authors with a similar name to me. Whatever the Goodreads database may say, if a title does not relate to chess, it is not by me!)
Tim's latest book, "Steinitz in London," was due to be published by McFarland in May but has been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic; it may now be available in September 2020. This is a biography (including games) of the first World Chess Champion, WIlliam Steinitz, focusing on the twenty years when he lived in England.
His last published work, "British Chess Literature to 1914" (April 2018), is a survey of writings on the game up to the First World War: discussing chiefly books, magazines and chess columns in periodicals. The book also includes good advice and reference sources for the aspiring chess historian.
Tim's first biographical work, "Eminent Victorian Chess Players: Ten Biographies" was published in February 2012, and was followed by a much more detailed work on one of its subjects, J. H. Blackburne (published in 2015). Tim is now researching a biography of the first chess world champion William Steinitz, who also featured in his 2012 work.
In 1976 Tim moved to Dublin, Ireland, where he worked in various literary capacities. He played on the Irish team at the 1984 Chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki, Greece, and earned the title of Senior International Master of Correspondence Chess.
From 1996-2005 Tim edited the magazine Chess Mail but became increasingly interested in the history of the game, which has been the subject of his recent books. In 2009 Trinity College Dublin awarded Tim the degree of PhD at for his dissertation on chess history and he works there as a part-time tutor in modern European history. His book “Correspondence Chess in Britain and Ireland, 1824-1987”, which expanded on some aspects of his dissertation, was shortlisted for the English Chess Federation’s Book of the Year award in 2011. Some of his articles can be read online at http://www.chessmail.com.
Four of Tim's earlier books are still in print and he is considering launching e-books of some of them.
Since completing his doctorate, Tim has also been developing an historical project on links between Ireland and Burma/Myanmar, the country where his mother was born, and he expects to publish on this subject eventually.