We wish Tony Kosten best wishes on his birthday, this day (July 24th) in 1958.

Tony was born in North Eastern Surrey, and eventually relocated to France where he now resides.

Tony is married to Gyongyver Kosten-Forintos, the daughter of Hungarian Grandmaster Győző Forintos.

Tony played for Lower Earley Chess Club in the Berkshire League and for Streatham & Brixton in the National Club competition.

He was =3rd in the 1982 British Championship in Torquay (won by Tony Miles)

He was =2nd in the 1984 Robert Silk Young Masters.

He won the Berkshire Chess Association Quickplay title in 1985.

Tony was runner-up to Yuri Balashov at Minsk 1986.

He won Naujac 2000 with 7.5/9

Tony won many other events : See his Wikipedia entry for details.

Tony is the founder of chesspublishing.com, a subscription based web site specialising in cutting edge opening theory with many contributors.

He plays for Guildford in the Four Nations Chess League (4NCL) is registered as a member of the French federation. He also plays for Schott Mainz in the German Team Championship.

According to Megabase 2020 his highest FIDE rating was 2551 in July 2002 at the age of 44.

With the white pieces Tony prefers the Ruy Lopez and Giuoco Piano with the English coming a close second.

With black Tony defends the Lopez and the Nimzo-Indian defence.

Here is his Wikipedia entry

[pgn]
[Event “BL2-Ost 9899”]
[Site “Germany”]
[Date “1998.12.13”]
[Round “3.1”]
[White “Kosten, Anthony C”]
[Black “Pribyl, Josef”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “C41”]
[WhiteElo “2515”]
[BlackElo “2430”]
[Annotator “Kosten,Antony”]
[PlyCount “101”]
[EventDate “1998.10.18”]
[EventType “team-tourn”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “GER”]
[SourceTitle “GER-chT2”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1999.07.01”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1999.07.01”]
[SourceQuality “1”]
[WhiteTeam “Schott Mainz”]
[BlackTeam “Bamberg”]
[WhiteTeamCountry “GER”]
[BlackTeamCountry “GER”]

{[%evp 0,101,27,41,73,77,92,75,87,68,70,67,65,46,40,45,61,35,38,10,5,16,33,3,
13,22,22,17,20,7,27,18,75,19,22,-2,32,18,24,22,78,54,60,52,69,35,64,88,97,106,
137,113,135,63,148,112,115,101,110,122,153,169,169,159,166,170,150,123,116,81,
96,93,138,125,119,148,148,163,192,192,183,177,177,192,179,196,195,196,222,222,
363,398,579,586,586,386,29989,29988,29989,29990,29991,29992,29993,29994]} 1. e4
{Somewhat unusual for me. I haven’t played this very often in serious games
for many years, as I normally prefer the English Opening. Why, you are
probably wondering, did I play it here, then? For the simple reason that, in
my preparation, I noticed that my opponent liked to play Hanham’s Variation of
Philidor’s Defence. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it is a good
defence, it is just that I have played it many times myself, as Black, and
have even written a book about the Philidor. So, I hoped that my opponent
would play the Philidor against me, but I didn’t think that he would dare!} d6
{Phew! I don’t know what I would have done if he had played something else!} 2.
d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 e5 {I believe this to be the best way to reach this position for
Black, as the endgame following 4 dxe5 dxe5 5 Qxd8+ Kxd8 is nothing much for
White.} 4. Nf3 Nbd7 5. Bc4 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. a4 c6 {Thus, we have reached one
of the main Hanham positions. There were several different lines that I wanted
to try, but eventually I decided to play an aggressive one.} 8. Ba2 b6 9. Be3
Bb7 10. Nd2 {This is a good move, sometimes the knight can come to c4, to
pressurise the d6-square, but I had another idea in mind.} a6 {Correct, Black
prepares his queenside counterplay with …b5, if White does nothing he can
easily find himself at a disadvantage.} 11. f4 {The point, and similar to a
plan Alekhine once employed, White opens the f-file.} b5 12. Qf3 exd4 {I think
that this is the right moment for this, otherwise, White might play dxe5, and
f5, g4-g5, with a powerful attack.} 13. Bxd4 b4 14. Ne2 c5 15. Be3 Qc7 16. Ng3
Rae8 {Black targets the e4-pawn, and restricts White’s mobility.} 17. Bf2 {
This seems like a waste of a move, but e4 needed defending.} Bd8 18. Rfe1 {
The f-rook comes here, because the a-rook has its place ready on the open
d-file.} Qc6 {I had half-expected my opponent to try the pawn sacrifice} (18…
d5 $5 {when} 19. exd5 Nb6 20. Nde4 Nxe4 21. Nxe4 c4 {offers Black reasonable
compensation, as the black pieces seem active.}) 19. Bb3 {Played with the
intention of continuing 20 a5, and 21 Ba4, which explains my opponent’s reply.}
a5 20. Bc4 $1 {Coming to b5, there are a lot of black pieces on the a4-e8
diagonal!} Qc7 {With this pawn structure, Black can ill-afford to exchange
light-squared bishops by} (20… Ba6 21. Rad1 {as if} Bxc4 22. Nxc4 {the
d6-pawn becomes a real problem.}) 21. Rad1 g6 {Finally, Black defends against
the threat of Nf5.} 22. Bb5 Re6 $6 {Perhaps Black should have taken the
opportunity to get rid of his backward d-pawn by} (22… d5 23. e5 d4 {
although, it is true, after} 24. Nge4 {Black’s light squares are weak.}) 23.
Nc4 Rfe8 24. f5 $1 Rxe4 {Of course, Black is forced into giving-up the
exchange as} (24… gxf5 $2 25. Nxf5 Nxe4 26. Bxd7 Qxd7 27. Qg4+ {wins,} Rg6 $4
28. Nh6+ {and the queen is lost.}) 25. Nxe4 Rxe4 26. Rxe4 Bxe4 27. Qe2 d5 28.
Bg3 Qa7 29. fxg6 $1 {The sting in the tail, which reduces Black’s compensation
for the exchange to just one pawn.} hxg6 30. Nd6 {The second point, White will
exchange Black’s powerful e4-bishop.} c4+ 31. Bf2 (31. Kh1 $1 {may have been
even better, but I had seen a way to a simple win, and so I didn’t hesitate.})
31… Bb6 32. Bxd7 Nxd7 33. Nxe4 dxe4 34. Bxb6 Qxb6+ 35. Kh1 Qc6 {The position
is quite lost for Black, for instance, the tactical} (35… Nf6 {loses a pawn
to} 36. Qxc4 {as} Ng4 $4 {is impossible:} 37. Qc8+ {picking-up the knight.})
36. Qd2 $1 {Black is given no time to set up his defence.} Nf8 {Unfortunately
for Black, the natural move} (36… Nf6 {allows} 37. Qd8+ Kg7 $4 (37… Kh7 {
is better, but} 38. Qe7 {forces} Qe6 {which is hopeless.}) 38. Rd6) 37. Qd5
Qxa4 38. Qxc4 e3 39. b3 Qe8 40. Re1 {Winning the e-pawn. I expected my
opponent to resign here, but he must have felt that he still had a chance.} Qe5
41. Qd3 Qb2 42. h3 {A precaution against back-rank mates.} Ne6 43. Rxe3 Nd4 44.
Kh2 a4 45. bxa4 Nxc2 46. Re8+ Kg7 47. Qd6 Qc1 {This allows White to force mate
in two different ways, but which one should I choose?} 48. Qf8+ (48. Qe5+ f6 {
amount to the same} 49. Re7+ Kh6 50. Qxf6 {but why allow a spite check?}) 48…
Kf6 49. Qh8+ Kg5 50. Qe5+ f5 51. Qe7+ (51. Qe7+ Kh5 52. Rh8+ Qh6 53. g3 $1 Qxh8
54. Qh4#) 1-0
[/pgn]