Malcolm Bernard Pein (born 14 August 1960) is a British
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
player, chess organizer, author, and journalist. He holds the title of
International Master
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...
.
Chess biography
Pein earned the title of
International Master
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...
(IM) in 1986. Pein has been an influence in British chess for over thirty years, in the roles of player, coach, journalist, publisher, organizer, fundraiser, and entrepreneur.
Pein won his first tournament in 1965 and was British Junior Champion in 1977. His most notable victories in tournament play include Jon Speelman, Vishy Anand and Lev Psakhis.
In June 1992 he purchased Chess & Bridge Limited and set up a chess shop on the Euston Road in London which was relocated to Baker Street in 2010.
In 1997 Pein was appointed as a consultant to IBM for the iconic Kasparov vs Deep Blue match. He was appointed Match Director for the ''Brains in Bahrain'' match between Vladimir Kramnik and the computer program Fritz in 2002. Pein was used as the ‘voice’ of the program in Version 5.32.
In 2009, Pein devised, fundraised, and organized the
London Chess Classic
The London Chess Classic is a chess festival held at the Olympia, London, Olympia Conference Centre, West Kensington, London, West Kensington, London. The flagship event is a strong invitational chess tournament, tournament between some of the w ...
, the UK's first world-class elite all-play-all tournament since the
Phillips & Drew GLC Chess Challenge of 1986, and was the strongest UK chess tournament by rating to date. The tournament was run annually up to 2019, with the 2020 tournament cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2010, Malcolm Pein founded ''Chess in Schools and Communities'', a UK-registered charity whose aim is to improve children’s educational outcomes and social development by introducing them to the game of chess. Malcolm has been the charity's CEO since inception, and by the end of 2020 the charity has taught the game to over 250,000 children.
Malcolm Pein's journalistic career started with spells as the chess correspondent for the short-lived
Today
Today (archaically to-day) may refer to:
* Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now''
* Current era, present
* The current calendar date
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 A ...
and
The European newspapers. Pein started writing reports for ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'' in 1987 before becoming their full-time correspondent in 1988. Pein has written a daily
chess column every day for the 33 years, over 11,0000 columns in total. He is also the owner and executive editor of ''
CHESS magazine'', a monthly publication with an international readership.
Pein is also the representative to FIDE for the English Chess Federation (ECF) and in October 2015 was elected as ECF's International Director. In 2018, Malcolm Pein stood for election as FIDE Deputy President on Georgios Makropoulos' ticket but was unsuccessful. Malcolm Pein told Chess.com he "would be interested" in running for president in the 2022 FIDE Elections.
Malcolm has been the captain of the England Open team since October 2015, with the team enjoying notable successes at the 2016 Olympiad in Baku against China and Azerbaijan. Pein captained England to a bronze medal finish at the 2019
European Team Chess Championship
The European Team Championship (often abbreviated in texts and games databases as ''ETC'') is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9. This more ...
s in Batumi, Georgia.
Books
In addition to his newspaper columns and magazine editorial, Pein has written a number of chess books and booklets, including:
* ''Grunfeld Defence'' (Batsford, 1981) –
*Trends in Spanish Marshall (Trends Publications, 1990) –
* ''Blumenfeld Gambit''
ith Jan Przewoznik(Everyman, 1991) –
*Bobby Fischer: The $5,000,000 Comeback
ith Nigel Davies and Jonathan Levitt(Cadogan, 1992) –
* ''Daily Telegraph Guide to Chess'' (Batsford, 1995) –
* ''The Exchange Grunfeld''
ith Adrian Mikhalchishin(Everyman, 1996) –
Example game
Malcolm Pein vs.
GM Vladimir Bagirov
Vladimir Konstantinovich Bagirov ( rus, Влади́мир Константи́нович Баги́ров; lv, Vladimirs Bagirovs; August 16, 1936 – July 21, 2000) was a Soviet- Latvian chess player, author, and trainer. He played in ten USS ...
, Zehlendorf-HSK II 1995:
M. Pein–V. Bagirov, 2.BLN 9495 Zehlendorf-HSK II 1995
/ref>
1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 c6 3.d4 e6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.Bg5 f6 6.Bf4 b5 7.e4 Bb7 8.Be2 Ne7 9.h4 Ng6 10.Bg3 Be7 11.h5 Nf8 12.Qc2 Na6 13.Rd1 Qa5 14.h6 g6 15.0-0 Rd8 16.Rfe1 Kf7 17.a3 Rg8 (see diagram) 18.d5 cxd5 19.exd5 Bxd5 20.Nd4 Qb6 21.Ndxb5 Rd7 22.Nxd5 Rxd5 23.Rxd5 exd5 24.Bxc4 Qc5 25.Rxe7 Kxe7 26.Bd6 Qxd6 27.Nxd6 Nc7 28.Nb5 Nfe6 29.Nxc7 1–0
References
External links
*
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph chess articles
* https://archive.today/20130411064316/http://new.livestream.com/WorldChess/Round1
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pein, Malcolm L.
1960 births
Living people
English chess players
British chess writers
Sportspeople from Liverpool
Chess International Masters