Now past fifty, Matthew Sadler finds himself looking backward as much as forward – and correcting a few false assumptions. His most recent reappraisal was prompted by a 4,013-page project on Paul Keres.
These book reviews by Matthew Sadler were published in New In Chess magazine 2025#4
As I head towards my fifty-second year on this earth, I have the strange sensation of looking backwards as much as forwards. Plans for the future are tinged with a hint of melancholy because I’ve become aware that my life path has made some dreams very unlikely to happen. It’s the chess player’s equivalent of staring forlornly at your black pieces at move 30 and thinking, ‘What possessed me to play the Czech Benoni?’I don’t have too many regrets about the mistakes I’ve made in life, because life is something you figure out as you go along and accidents are bound to happen. However, I have felt quite irritated about some of the mistakes I’ve made in chess – strangely enough, not so much about the blunders175
As a company located in the Netherlands, we have the habit of sponsoring some local events with books and magazines.
Frank Erwich is a FIDE Master and an experienced chess trainer from the Netherlands. He holds a Master’s degree in Psychology. Frank is a book editor for New In Chess and has published the best-sellers: 1001 Chess Exercises for Club Players and 1001 Chess Exercises for Advanced Club Players. More recently, he published 100 Tactical Patterns You Must Know and an accompanying workbook.
On July 5, Chess Club Wassenaar celebrated their 100-year jubilee. As this was Frank’s first club, he was asked to give a simultaneous display as part of the celebration.
There was only room for 30 players, but players who finished early were replaced by people who were anxiously waiting to get a chance to participate. In the end, Frand played against 35 opponents, all of them getting a small prize sponsored by New In Chess.
On the club’s website, you can find more photos and an extensive report175
My guest in this week’s episode is a very special one, it’s none other than five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand. Commonly known as Vishy Anand, he is one of the greatest and most popular champions in the history of our game and one of its most admired and respected ambassadors. Anand was the first ever Indian grandmaster, and look what happened in his wake, today there are 85 grandmasters in India, it’s truly unbelievable. Although no one could blame him if he decided to rest on his laurels, Vishy Anand remains active as a player – and he is still ranked number 13 in the world (2743), which is frankly incredible - but in the past years he has also taken on new roles. He is Deputy Vice-President of FIDE and he is a partner in the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy in Chennai, where the cream of the highly successful young Indian generation is training and, no doubt, many youngsters whose names we do not yet know.Vishy Anand joins us from Leon, in Spain, where he is playing in the invitational175
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 in a two-part story about late Soviet grandmaster Semyon Abramovich Furman (1920-1978). A late bloomer in chess, who became grandmaster at the age of 45(!), Furman gradually made his way to the chess elite after the end of the Second World War. As a trainer, he is best known as a formative figure in the career of World Champion Anatoly Karpov, credited with developing the youngster's enormous talent. He also had other students, among which Genna, who refers to him as "essentially my only trainer".
Furman died in 1978 of cancer, just as Karpov was solidifying his dominance on the world stage. He is remembered as a brilliant mentor and theoretician, whose influence lived on through his students, including Genna.
Enjoy this week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast175
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