Down-Home Chess: The Best of En Passant Volume 1 by David LeMoir
The John Charman Years

En Passant: one mans humble home-grown brainchild becomes a multi-award-winning chess magazine!
The late John Charman was controller of the chess league in the English County of Norfolk. In 1995, he had the idea of publishing a monthly magazine which would feature a lot more than just the usual results and league tables it would carry articles written by its readers. He named it En Passant. 28 pages each month was a lot of space to fill, but the articles soon came flooding in and Charmans brainchild got off to a great start. Nearly thirty years later, it is still going strong.

John Charman edited and published the first fourteen volumes of En Passant, during which it was awarded Magazine of the Year on three occasions, first by the British Chess Federation and then (when that organisation changed its name) by the English Chess Federation.

As League Controller, County grader and organiser of several chess events in Norfolk, Charman became overburdened and, in 2009, persuaded well-known chess author, and Norfolk resident, David LeMoir to continue his work. This first anthology of items from En Passant has been collated by LeMoir and covers those first fourteen years.

Here you will find some fine chess (and some not-so-fine!) but mainly articles and features with a real local feel. All of the content is written by local players, from the magazines loyal readership. There are precisely (and co-incidentally) fifty contributors represented here, with their reminiscences, favourite games, experiences in tournaments and matches at home and abroad, problems, humour and much more.

Some of the writing is of real quality, demonstrating how many lights may be hidden under local bushels.

ISBN: 9798329362589, Paperback, 262 pages,