Steely Dan: Haitian Divorce

Walter Becker of Steely Dan died last Sunday. This isn't the bands best record, but it is the one I remember most from the British charts.

It was Christmas 1976 and a friend had bought me How to Beat Bobby Fischer - a collection of all the competitive games the American world champion had lost.

I suppose the central idea was a gimmick, but it turned out be that most valuable of things for the improving player: a collection of well-annotated grandmaster games. The great Russian player Peter Svidler says it was the book that made him fall in love with chess.

Anyway, I spent that Christmas sitting by the fire and playing through these games. As I remember it, Haitian Divorce was always on Radio 1.