This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features the fourth part of a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits and stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. The subject of this week’s episode is Latvian grandmaster Mikhail Tal. With his fierce attacking style, “The Magician from Riga” dethroned reigning World Champion Botvinnik to claim the World Chess Championship in 1960. Widely acclaimed as a genius, Mischa’s tactical play would produce numero...
Jan 31, 2025•34 min•0Ep. 56
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Dutch grandmaster Jorden van Foreest. On the eve of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Jorden talks to Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam about his preparation for ‘the Wimbledon of chess’ and his adventures in earlier editions of this world-class event. Most notably, the 2021 edition that Jorden sensationally won ahead of a daunting field that included Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri. As they look ahead ...
Jan 17, 2025•1 hr 9 min•0Ep. 55
This week’s guest on the New In Chess Podcast is Jacob Aagaard. Jacob returns to the podcast after his last interview last year, in which he was interviewed about legendary Russian trainer Mark Dvoretsky, in his words ‘the biggest authority in my adult life’. This time host Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam invited him to talk about what 2025 will bring us (yes, Wijk aan Zee coming soon!) and to look back on two major events at the end of 2024: the World Championship match won by Gukesh in Singapore, and t...
Jan 10, 2025•1 hr 22 min•0Ep. 54
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features the third part of a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits and stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. The subject of this week’s episode is Latvian grandmaster Mikhail Tal. With his fierce attacking style, “The Magician from Riga” dethroned reigning World Champion Botvinnik to claim the World Chess Championship in 1960. Widely acclaimed as a genius, Mischa’s tactical play would produce numerou...
Jan 03, 2025•41 min•0Ep. 53
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Peter Doggers. Peter is a chess journalist from The Netherlands and the director of News & Events for Chess.com. In his book, The Chess Revolution, Understanding the Power of an Ancient Game in the Digital Age, Peter writes about the historical and sociological importance of chess through the ages and, in the second part, about the incredible boom the game has seen in the past years thanks to the pandemic and the succ...
Dec 27, 2024•1 hr 12 min•0Ep. 52
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features the second part of a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits and stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. The subject of this week’s episode is Latvian grandmaster Mikhail Tal. With his fierce attacking style, “The Magician from Riga” dethroned reigning World Champion Botvinnik to claim the World Chess Championship in 1960. Widely acclaimed as a genius, Mischa’s tactical play would produce numero...
Dec 20, 2024•41 min•0Ep. 51
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits and stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. The subject of this week’s episode is Latvian grandmaster Mikhail Tal. With his fierce attacking style, “The Magician from Riga” dethroned reigning World Champion Botvinnik to claim the World Chess Championship in 1960. Widely acclaimed as a genius, Mischa’s tactical play would produce numerous brilliancies, as...
Dec 13, 2024•34 min•0Ep. 50
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Russian grandmaster Daniil Dubov. Daniil, currently rated 2693, earned the grandmaster title in 2011, a few weeks before he turned 15. His biggest success to date was his win in the Rapid World Championship of 2018, ahead of Carlsen, Mamedyarov and Nakamura. Daniil is not only a perfect guest because of his perceptive views and thoughts on chess, but also because of the fact that on two occasions he was one of Magnus Carl...
Dec 06, 2024•1 hr 28 min•0Ep. 49
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. Subject of this week’s episode is Dutch grandmaster Max Euwe (1901-1981). This is the third part of Sosonko’s series on Euwe; Part 1 was covered in our October 19 episode, Part 2 on November 8. Machgielis “Max” Euwe was a chess grandmaster, mathematician, author and administrator, who became the f...
Nov 29, 2024•31 min•0Ep. 48
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Indian grandmaster Swayams Mishra. At the young age of 32, Swayams is already a decorated chess coach, having worked with the Indian national team for several years and coaching their women’s team to gold at this year’s Olympiad. His private coaching practice has also been successful: this year, his mentee Shreyas Royal became the youngest grandmaster in British history. Interviewed by Jacob Aagaard, Swayams talks about h...
Nov 22, 2024•30 min•0Ep. 47
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Danish grandmaster Peter Heine Nielsen. Peter is a five-time Danish chess champion, but is primarily known for his highly successful coaching career. From 2007 till 2023, he was continuously coaching the reigning World Champion, working first for Vishy Anand and later for Magnus Carlsen. In this capacity, he was a winning coach in a world championship match a record eight times. As always, this year’s world title match, w...
Nov 15, 2024•1 hr 10 min•0Ep. 46
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. This week features the second part of Genna’s story about Dutch grandmaster Max Euwe (1901-1981). Machgielis “Max” Euwe was the fifth World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 until 1937. After retiring as a player, he would later serve as FIDE president starting in 1970. In this capacity, h...
Nov 08, 2024•37 min•0Ep. 45
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with French grandmaster Joel Lautier. Joel has had a rich chess career: he became the youngest Junior World Champion in history in 1988, holds a lifetime positive score against Garry Kasparov and is, along with Vasily Ivanchuk, the only grandmaster of his generation to have defeated all world champions of his time: Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, Khalifman, Anand, Ponomariov, Kasimdzhanov and Topalov. He was also one of Kramnik’s s...
Oct 31, 2024•1 hr 15 min•0Ep. 44
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Dutch grandmaster Loek van Wely. Loek was the captain of the winning team, the Triveni Continental Kings, at the recent Tech Mahindra Global Chess League in London. Loek van Wely can look back on a rich career as a player. He won the Dutch championship 8 times and had his career peak in 2001, when he made it to the world top 10 with a rating of 2714. Besides his achievements on the chess board, Loek is a renowned coach, w...
Oct 24, 2024•1 hr 6 min•0Ep. 43
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. Subject of this week’s episode is Dutch grandmaster Max Euwe (1901-1981). Machgielis “Max” Euwe was the fifth World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 until 1937. After retiring as a player, he would later serve as FIDE president starting in 1970. In this capacity, he presided over the famo...
Oct 18, 2024•32 min•0Ep. 42
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with grandmaster Alex Colovic. Alex is a grandmaster from North Macedonia, who lives in Skopje, and is active in the chess world in many ways. He’s not only a player, but also a trainer, a blogger, a YouTuber, a former president of the Association of Chess Professionals, and a FIDE Fair Play Officer. We invited Alex this week to talk about his new book "Capablanca's Endgame Technique: The Astonishing Chess Logic of the Third W...
Oct 11, 2024•1 hr 5 min•0Ep. 41
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. As the title of his autobiography, Chess Is My Life, hints at, Korchnoi’s drive, passion and obsession for the game of chess were as strong as they had always been. He simply lived for chess: his energetic spirit never aged, he was often one of the last to leave the playing hall, and during his an...
Oct 04, 2024•30 min•0Ep. 40
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with American grandmaster Max Dlugy. Max Dlugy has had a rich and varied chess career: he was Junior World Champion, became president of the United States Chess Federation at the young age of 24, worked for IBM on the groundbreaking Deep Blue chess computer project, and today runs his own successful chess school, the Chess Max Academy in New York. Two years ago he got into the news for a different reason, when he was dragged i...
Sep 27, 2024•1 hr 13 min•0Ep. 39
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. Continuing where we left off in Episode #33, Sosonko invites us to sit beside him as Olga Clark continues her talk about Capablanca and the time that they spent together both in Europe and in America, punctuated by the actuality of being in the restaurant that she and Capa favoured and used to fre...
Sep 20, 2024•32 min•0Ep. 38
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Swedish grandmaster Tiger Hillarp Persson. Tiger is a three-time Swedish champion and has been described as one of the most creative and original players of our game. His creativity is on display in his latest book, “Tiger’s Chaos Theory”, in which, perhaps unsurprisingly, the topic of creativity in chess plays an important role. Interviewed by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Tiger talks about creativity, the development of his c...
Sep 13, 2024•59 min•0Ep. 37
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with American IM John Donaldson. At this year’s Olympiad, John will be captaining team USA, the top seeds in Budapest. John has a long history of captaining the American Olympiad team, making his debut in Dubai in 1986 and leading the team to gold in Baku in 2016. This year will be his fifteenth time accompanying the American team to the event, which he describes as arguably the most exciting chess event in the world. Intervie...
Sep 06, 2024•1 hr 9 min•0Ep. 36
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a riveting interview with the First Lady of Chess, Judit Polgar. With the Olympiad in Judit’s home city Budapest around the corner, it’s hard to think of a better guest! Judit Polgar is the strongest female chess player of all time. At the age of 15 years and four months she broke Bobby Fischer’s record to become the youngest grandmaster in history. For more than two decades she competed successfully with the very best and became the first...
Aug 30, 2024•1 hr 9 min•0Ep. 35
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Indian grandmaster Vishnu Prasanna, better known as Coach Vishnu. Vishnu is best known as the first trainer of Gukesh D, who will challenge reigning champion Ding Liren for the world title later this year. Vishnu has deep ties to the Indian city of Chennai, where he and his wife operate the Vishnu Chess Academy. Interviewed by our brand new host Jacob Aagaard, Vishnu talks about his school, the city of Chennai, and the me...
Aug 23, 2024•32 min•0Ep. 34
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. This week’s episode features the first half of the story of legendary World Champion Capablanca. José Raúl Capablanca (1888–1942) was a Cuban chess prodigy who became the third World Chess Champion, reigning from 1921 to 1927. Often referred to as the "Human Chess Machine" due to his exceptional e...
Aug 16, 2024•29 min•0Ep. 33
This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from Genna Sosonko's “The Essential Sosonko” on Lev Polugaevsky. An expert on the Sicilian Defence, Polugaevsky wrote two books on the opening and has one variation named after him. He was one of the strongest chess players of the late 1960s and early 1970s, but had to bow to his nemesis Viktor Korchnoi twice in the Candidates Tournament. Narrated by professional voice actor Nick Murphy, in “‘I must work, I must work…’” Sosonko...
Aug 09, 2024•45 min•0Ep. 32
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with American FIDE master and chess author Charles Hertan. Charles’s latest work “The Real Paul Morphy” focuses on the life and career of one of the most enigmatic figures in chess history. Paul Morphy (1837-1884) learned chess at a young age and quickly made a name for himself as a prodigious talent. Known for his brilliant, aggressive style and deep understanding of the game, Morphy quickly vanquished all opposition in the U...
Aug 02, 2024•1 hr 4 min•0Ep. 31
This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features the second half of the narration from Genna Sosonko's “The Essential Sosonko” on Mikhail Botvinnik. Continuing where we ended two weeks ago, we find Botvinnik giving his perception on several his chess colleagues. He then proceeds to talk about other matters that are close to his heart, such as the future of computer chess and his own painful losses. Narrated by professional voice actor Nick Murphy, in “His Journey to Immortality” Sosonko ...
Jul 26, 2024•37 min•0Ep. 30
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with FIDE Master Jimmy Adams. Jimmy has had a rich career in chess publishing, both as an editor (CHESS magazine, Batsford and others) and as a writer and compiler of countless books. Among his best-known books published by New In Chess are impressive tomes on Breyer, Chigorin and Zukertort. His latest chess-historical gem is an impressive four-volume set dedicated to the career of late Estonian grandmaster Paul Keres. Paul Ke...
Jul 19, 2024•1 hr 10 min•0Ep. 29
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. This episode is the first of a two-part story about Mikhail Botvinnik. He won the 1948 World Chess Championship tournament and thus became the sixth World Chess Champion, thereby succeeding Alekhine who had died two years prior. He lost and regained the title twice – to Smyslov and Tal respectivel...
Jul 12, 2024•34 min•0Ep. 28
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with American grandmaster Robert Hess. A former US #5 with a peak FIDE rating of 2639, Robert is renowned as one of Chess.com’s star commentators, covering its largest events such as the World Chess Championship and the Candidates Tournament. Growing up in New York City, Robert showed promise in chess at an early age, but he credits his success to one man in particular: the late Soviet-born American grandmaster and coach Miron...
Jul 05, 2024•1 hr 1 min•0Ep. 27
