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.
This week's narration, which is the fourth in a six-part series, goes further into Tal's ascent in the chess world and more specifically, his ideosyncracies behind the board. His extremely combative style, coupled with his otherwise joking demeanor and tongue-in-cheek catchphrases, made him an attractive player to watch in both sanctioned and unofficial games. This week's story also pinpoints the moment Genna first met Tal, in 1973.
Narrated by professional voice actor Nick Murphy, this week’s episode about Mikhail Tal is different from the two-part “My Misha” series from May of this year. Instead of an active participant, Genna is more of a background figure this time. However, this does not make his retelling of Tal’s stories175
Three weeks in 2025 and I thought it was time for me to update you a bit on what is happening with the New in Chess Group.
But first, I want to say a few words about New Year’s Resolutions. In 2023, I decided to hit 10,000 steps on average and succeeded, so in 2024, I decided to practice guitar for at least 20 minutes each day. I used an App created by a music student called Andante to keep track, which is very basic and has a few flaws (if you go to another time zone, your stats get all mangled up, and rather than having a day being 6 am-5.59 am, it runs from Midnight, which is inconvenient to night owls). When a friend decided to get serious about chess, I asked him to use the same app to keep track. His streak is way past 300 days now – while I crashed and burned at 120 or so. While I stopped using the app, once the streak died, it helped me get into a much better practice regimen. So, I failed to keep the streak and use the app – but I got into the habit of practicing the guitar, which175
This week’s guest on the New In Chess podcast is Dutch grandmaster Jorden van Foreest. On the eve of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Jorden van Foreest 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 to the 87th(!) edition of ‘Wijk aan Zee’, Jorden also gives his take on two news stories that got worldwide attention during the World Rapid & Blitz Championship in New York that he recently played in: ‘Jeansgate’, the scandal that erupted when Magnus Carlsen was fined for wearing jeans, and the controversial end of the Blitz championship, when Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi decided to share the title and the world chess federation FIDE went along in this breaking of the rules. Jorden was born into a175
This week’s guest on the New In Chess Podcast is Jacob Aagaard. Last year Jacob was interviewed on the podcast 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 the Rapid & Blitz World Championship in New York (in other words, Magnus Carlsen’s jeans and the uproar after Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi decided to share the world blitz title).When Jacob Aagaard appeared on the podcast for the first time, he was introduced as ‘a grandmaster, a prolific and successful writer, a publisher of chess books at Quality Chess, and a top coach who has worked with many big names that we know and no doubt various that have remained a secret.’Not long after that talk, it became publicly known that Jacob Aagaard had acquired175
A friend told me recently that he did “not understand why you are not 2600.” Obviously, this was a flattering reflection on my understanding of chess and ignoring my main weaknesses, such as a lack of reasonable openings, lack of physical fitness and lack of time to train – and also some motivation in developing my own chess, rather than that of my students. And finally, age.
Let’s not talk about me and why I am so obviously far from 2600 and instead look at the players over 50 who actually are over 2600.
Of these nine players, we need to exclude two from the list. Anand has played 1-2 Bundesliga games a year. We will discuss the flaws of the rating system at a later date, but for now, let’s ignore the top-rated player, as we would ignore Garry Kasparov, as he does not play tournaments (there are 19 inactive players over 2600). We can also exclude Afromeev (look him up for a laugh if you please).
This leaves us with seven players over the age of 50, with a rating over 2600. Shirov175
The news of the death of Robert Hübner, yesterday at the age of 76, after a long illness, filled me with great sadness. I remembered how we met at tournaments and at our homes, our conversations about serious and light-hearted matters, letters that we exchanged. The profundity of his thoughts and his great sense of humor. How, at breakfast during a tournament, he almost fell off his chair when I told him about a work of art by Joseph Beuys - the artist stroking a dead hare in his lap – entitled Wie man den toten Hasen die Bilder erklärt (How to explain pictures to a dead hare). How, at another breakfast, I found him reading a book and asked what he was reading. He said that he had started rereading Plato (in Greek, of course) and I teasingly wondered, ‘Is it any good?’ To which he matter-of-factly replied: ‘I don’t think much has been added after Plato.’
Robert Hübner: ‘You cannot read this book, on which I have worked for four thousand hours, in five minutes, that much is clear.’ (photo:175
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.
This week's narration, which is the third in a six-part series, delves into Mikhail Tal in relation to the Soviet political regime that he was a part of. Tal travelled far and wide for chess, but never considered becoming a dissident like some of his fellow professionals, including Genna himself. When rumors arose of his supposedly imminent defection, he publicly put these stories to bed, stating that he would never travel abroad without a return ticket.
Narrated by professional voice actor Nick Murphy, this series is distinct from the two-part “My Misha” series from May of last year. Instead of an active participant, Genna is more of a background figure this time. However, this does not make his retelling of Tal’s stories any175
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