Archive - Checkmate Stories

Chess in the Ghettos – Checkmate in a Cage?

The Board Behind Barbed Wire

May 11 •

The Grass Arena Gambit: John Healy and the Game That Saved His Soul

The Ring, the Board, and the Bottle

May 7 •

The Prisoner’s Defence: The Strange Life and Silent Games of Claude Bloodgood

The Prison Boardroom

May 6 •

The Forgotten Genius of Mir Sultan Khan

The Opening Moves – A Pawn Rises in Punjab

May 4 •

🎙️ The Silent Grandmaster: The Forgotten Genius of Mir Sultan Khan

He came from the fields of colonial Punjab, spoke no English, and had never played chess with a clock—yet within months of arriving in Britain, he was…

May 4 •

15:00

🎙♟️ The Violent Genius: John Healy’s Escape Through Chess

From prison cells to chess halls, John Healy's life defies belief.

May 4 •

13:00

🎧 Podcast Ep. 1 — The Grandmaster Who Cheated Death

Some stories demand to be heard.

May 1 •

27:30

April 2025

The Exile’s Gambit: The Haunted Brilliance of Akiba Rubinstein

The Stillness Before the Storm (Introduction)

Apr 30 •

The Grandmaster Who Cheated Death: The Many Lives of Ossip Bernstein

The Firing Squad

Apr 24 •

The Queen Who Died Standing: Spassky, Bronstein, and the Art of Pressure

Start writing today.

Apr 23 •

The First Move: Why Every Game Tells a Story

Before the first pawn inches forward, there is silence.

Apr 23 •

This is Checkmate Stories.

Apr 23 •

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