Review "Never Mind the Grandmasters - Here Come the Amateurs"

by Jan Cheung, 29 July 2025

Have you read Carl Portmans book "Chess Behind Bars", published in 2017? This year, he has published a new book, called "Never Mind the Grandmasters - Here Come the Amateurs".
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There are relatively not many publications of chess books that fall outside the categories Opening, Strategy, Tactics and Endgame. A special category are chess psychology books, with the goal of improving your game handling. A very small category are chess stories. The book that is being reviewed, falls within this category.

It contains a mix of stories, with the amateur chess player at the stage. Carl writes lively stories about his encounters with Grand Masters in chess simultaneous sessions, with encounters with fellow amateur chess players in which the game is seen from an amateurs point of view. His experiences of Military Chess is also written. One of the chapters in this book is about the NATO Chess Championship 2018.
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If you are tired with reading professional opening books, this book is a nice change.