Leonard Barden - Journalism, Books

Journalism, Books

In 1964, Barden gave up competitive chess to devote his time to chess journalism and writing books about the game. He has made invaluable contributions to English chess as a populariser, writer, organiser, fundraiser, and broadcaster. He was controller of the British Chess Federation Grand Prix for many years, having found its first sponsor, Cutty Sark. He was a regular contributor to the BBC's Network Three weekly radio chess programme from 1958 to 1963. His best-known contribution was a consultation game, recorded in 1960 and broadcast in 1961, where he partnered Bobby Fischer against the English masters Jonathan Penrose and Peter Clarke. This was the only recorded consultation game of Fischer's career. The game, unfinished after eight hours of play, was adjudicated a draw by former world champion Max Euwe.

Barden gave BBC television commentaries on all the games in the 1972 world championship. From 1973 to 1978 he was co-presenter of BBC2's annual Master Game televised programme. As of 2010, his weekly columns have been published in The Guardian for 54 years and in The Financial Times for 35 years. A typical Barden column not only contains a readable tournament report, but is geared toward promoting the game. His London Evening Standard column, begun in summer 1956, is now the world's longest running daily chess column, breaking the previous record set by George Koltanowski in the San Francisco Chronicle. Koltanowski's column ran for 51 years 9 months and 18 days including posthumous articles.

Barden has written the books A Guide to Chess Openings (1957), How Good Is Your Chess? (1957), Chess (1959), Introduction to Chess Moves and Tactics Simply Explained (1959), Modern Chess Miniatures (with Wolfgang Heidenfeld, 1960), Erevan 1962 (1963), The Ruy Lopez (1963), The Guardian Chess Book (1967), An Introduction to Chess (1967), The King's Indian Defence (1968), Chess: Master the Moves (1977), Guide to the Chess Openings (with Tim Harding, 1977), Leonard Barden's Chess Puzzle Book (1977) (a collection of his Evening Standard columns), The Master Game (with Jeremy James, 1979), How to Play the Endgame in Chess (1979), Play Better Chess (1980), Batsford Chess Puzzles (2002), and One Move and You're Dead (with Erwin Brecher, 2007).