"It's now cool to play chess," says Shahade ... so hard that her fingers left red marks on her cheeks. She squirmed in her seat and twisted her feet in her black boots. There was no defense ...

crisscross back in black and gold is tantalising enough. IMAGE: In the swirly ocean-hued co-ord set is she vying to become a 21st century Caissa, the patron nymph of chess?

I have three chess puzzles ... by any queen. If you want to play around with configurations on a digital board, I’ve set one up here, cordoning off a five-by-five region with black pawns.

There’s no doubt the Netflix series, "The Queen’s Gambit", made chess cool. The fictional tale of chess phenom Beth Harmon, who was launched on the road to stardom by school janitor Mr ...