Natasha Regan

Natasha Regan
Full name	Natasha Katherine Regan
Country	England
Born	(1971-06-12) 12 June 1971 (age 50) London, England
Title	Woman International Master (WIM)
Peak rating	2208 (July 2004)

Natasha Katherine Regan is a chess player and an award-winning chess author including the book: Game Changer. She has represented England at two Chess Olympiads.^[1]

She is also an accomplished game all-rounder. Partnering with Matthew Cocke, she has won the British pair Go championship 7 times and has taken bronze in 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 to him become the youngest person to ever obtain the maximum grade for a GCSE of A* 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[]

External links[]

• Natasha Regan rating card at FIDE