Natasha Regan

Natasha Katherine Regan is a chess player and an award-winning chess author, best known for her book Game Changer. She has represented England at two Chess Olympiads.[1]

Natasha Regan
Full nameNatasha Katherine Regan
Country England
Born (1971-06-12) 12 June 1971
London, England
TitleWoman International Master (2002)
Peak rating2208 (July 2004)

She is also an accomplished Go player. Partnering with Matthew Cocke, she has won the British pair Go championship seven times and has taken bronze at the European Pair Go Championship.[2] Natasha has represented the UK at Go at the first World Mind Sports Games in Beijing 2008 and again in 2012.[3][4] At the Mind Sports Olympiad, her medals include silver in the Women's Pentamind in 2018.[5]

Personal life

Natasha studied mathematics at King's College, Cambridge University[6] and is a professional actuary with twin daughters and a son, Oscar Selby. She taught Oscar math, leading him to become the youngest person ever to obtain the grade of A*, the maximum grade for a GCSE, in 2010 for Mathematics.[7]

Chess

While at Cambridge University she became the first female player to play above Board 8 (formerly known as the ladies' board) in the 1992 Oxford and Cambridge Varsity Chess Match.[8][9] Natasha represented England at the 1992 Chess Olympiad in Manilla and the 1994 Chess Olympiad in Moscow. Natasha was awarded the FIDE rank of Woman International Master in 2002.[8] In September 2019, she was elected to the Board of the English Chess Federation (ECF).[10]

Books

Natasha has co-authored two chess books alongside English chess Grandmaster Matthew Sadler. Their first collaboration Chess For Life won ECF book of the year.[11] It interviews and details the way several notable chess players' styles and games evolved throughout their chess careers.[12]

Game Changer

Natasha Regan came up with the idea for her and GM Matthew Sadler's second collaboration Game Changer[13] which won the FIDE chess book of the year.[14] It details the lessons that can be learnt from how DeepMind's revolutionary computer program AlphaZero plays chess.[15]

The book has been influential upon competitive chess. At the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2019, after a draw with Teimour Radjabov, number 1 ranked chess player and world champion, Magnus Carlsen commented about Game Changer: "I found the book quite inspirational. I was thinking at several points during the game: How would AlphaZero have approached this?"[16]

Bibliography
  • Regan, Natasha; Lalic, Susan (1997). Trends in the Smith-Morra Gambit. Tournament Chess. ISBN 978-1859320730.
  • Regan, Natasha; Lalic, Susan (1998). Trends in the Bird's Opening. Trends Publications. ISBN 978-1859320372.
  • Sadler, Matthew; Regan, Natasha (2016). Chess For Life. Gambit. ISBN 978-1910093832.
  • Sadler, Matthew; Regan, Natasha (2019). Game Changer. New In Chess. ISBN 978-9056918187.

References
  1. British Chess News page about Natasha Regan retrieved 1 December 2020
  2. BGA Pair Go results retrieved 1 December 2020
  3. BGA WMSG team page retrieved 1 December 2020
  4. BGA results summary from WMSG 2012 retrieved 1 December 2020
  5. MSO Results page navigate to player retrieved 1 December 2020
  6. Cambridge University results website retrieved 1 December 2020
  7. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-11069666 "Seven-year-old maths whizz-kid gains A* in GCSE exam", BBC, 24 August 2010
  8. "Chess For Life Sadler and Regan » Matthew Sadler". Matthew Sadler.
  9. "BritBase Chess: 110th Varsity Match, Oxford v Cambridge, 1992". www.saund.co.uk.
  10. ECF officers webpage, retrieved 1 December 2020
  11. ECF page on award presentation retrieved 1 December 2020
  12. "Awards – Resource".
  13. ChessBase interview with Natasha Regan and Matthew Sadler, retrieved 1 December 2020
  14. FIDE Averbakh-Boleslavsky Award 2019 webpage retrieved 1 december 2020
  15. Chess Base article on FIDE book of the year 2019 retrieved 1 December 2020
  16. Hans Schut book of the year review and chess.com, retrieved 1 December 2020
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