Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam (right) with Sagar Shah of ChessBase India showing the Just Checking questionnaire he filled out for New In Chess 2023/6.
In an earlier blogpost (July 21, 2023) I referred to an interview I had with Hikaru Nakamura in 2004 after he won the US Championship for the first time. One of the things that I vividly remembered, was young Hikaru’s opinion that he wasn’t sure there was a lot he could learn from the old champions. Smyslov’s endgames? Hikaru laughed, said nothing with twinkling eyes, and had to be urged to admit that he didn’t believe it made a lot of sense for him to study them. At the time this lack of interest in the old masters was still quite unusual and no doubt many readers were surprised when they read such a bold statement from a 16-year-old. Perhaps they even criticized him for such disdain.They’d probably no longer raise their eyebrows if they read something similar today. Now that computer engines have crossed the 3000 mark and GMs rely on them even175
Back in 2020 New In Chess published Strategic Chess Exercises written by Emmanuel Bricard.It is a practical exercise manual with carefully selected and tested training positions that teach you how to develop the right plan.
This September, Ben Johnson – in his Book Recap on the Perpetual Chess Podcast – reviewed the book together with a returning guest, Dr. Michael Franco, who is a Software Engineer and fast-improving amateur player, who is active in various online chess communities.
They both were very enthusiastic about the book and even called it a Hidden Gem. Here are some quotes from the podcast which you can listen to in full if you’d like.
Franco: “What I really like about the book is that it cuts to the core of what it takes to improve your position. It teaches you how to evaluate a position and focus on its key factors. The solutions to each of these 90 exercises start with the right moves, before transitioning to a full annotated analysis of the rest of the game. These are all175
For his “ChessCoach Andras” Youtube channel, International Master Andras Toth reviewed “World Chess Champion Strategy for Club Players” by our author Thomas Willemze. In a highly positive review, he highlighted the book’s accessible structure, carefully selected material, and quality analysis. The book, which focuses exclusively on World Champion games, takes the reader through their thought processes at these games’ most critical moments.
About the book’s structure, Toth praises the now-common use of flash cards as a learning tool at the end of each chapter, as well as the use of fragmentation to draw multiple lessons from the same game.
“The structure is really clever: many a time you will find the same game broken down into multiple diagrams, so you are going from one challenge to the next. In this way, and many other ways, the book is marvelously well-structured.“
In exercise 28, takes a detailed look at Kamsky – Karpov, taken from the sixth game of their 1996 World Championship match175
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