Three new titles show that the chess opening book is still relevant. However, the five-star reviews are for new volumes about chess greats Alekhine and Korchnoi.
These book reviews by Matthew Sadler were published in New In Chess magazine 2025#5
After diving into 4000 pages of Paul Keres last month, 300-page opening books now feel like an absolute breeze! This month, I reviewed a record number of titles.We start with Richard Palliser’s The Tricky Tromp from the rebranded Popular Chess label (formerly Everyman). One thing to note right away is that this book only covers the Trompowsky after 1.d4 ♘f6 2.♗g5, so it’s not a complete opening repertoire for White. But it will help you sidestep those pesky Nimzo-Indians and Grünfelds! In fact, Palliser pulls off a double sidestep by focusing on less popular Trompowsky lines. For example, after the main line 1.d4 ♘f6 2.♗g5 ♘e4rather than focus on the current main line 3.♗f4, Palliser picks up Julian Hodgson’s old favourite 3.h4 as well as re-examining175
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Dutch grandmaster Erwin l’Ami.
Erwin has been a chess professional for some twenty years now. Among his most notable successes are victories in the Reykjavik Open in 2015 and in the Dutch Championship in 2022. And let me not forget to mention his win in the Rabat Blitz in 2015, ahead of speedsters like Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Alexei Shirov, if only for the fact that I had the privilege of watching this victory from a front row seat in the Moroccan capital.
Erwin loves to play in tournaments – that remains his biggest passion - but his chess activities expand into other areas as well. He’s a prolific writer, has made popular courses for Chessable, and is a highly respected trainer. In that role, he has been on Veselin Topalov’s world championship team and has worked with Anish Giri for many years.I invited Erwin to the podcast to talk about his life in chess and to see where our conversation would lead us. Right175
One of our favourite authors, Viktor Moskalenko, was awarded a prestigious prize on 6 September this year… the Viktor prize! This prize, offered by the Emanuel Lasker Gesellschaft e.V., was not named after ‘Moska’ himself, but after his legendary namesake Viktor Korchnoi. It is presented to people who have made a special contribution to the promotion of chess as a sport. There is also a ‘female’ version of this prize, called Vera (after Vera Menchik). Last year, the ‘Viktor’ had gone to the long-standing editor of the German magazine Schach, Raj Tischbierek, while the ‘Vera’ had gone to Judit Polgar. Another prize, the ‘Lasker’, went to Magnus Carlsen in 2024.
The prize ceremony was held during the General Assembly of the Chess History & Literature Society, which took place in Valencia on September 5 and 6. Lasker Association board member Rebekka Schuster, who called herself one of Moskalenko’s biggest fans, gave him the prize. In her speech, she said: ‘I have played chess on a moderate175
This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with British grandmaster Jonathan Speelman.
Jon, as he's commonly referred to, is a three-time British Champion and a two-time Candidate for the World Championship. In the Candidates, he won matches against Nigel Short and Yasser Seirawan. He has also been successful with the English national team, as they twice finished second in the Olympiad, in Dubai in 1986 and in Thessaloniki in 1988, while finishing third in Novi Sad in 1990. At the peak of his career, Jon was a world top 10 player, his highest spot being number 5 in 1988. In 1987, he beat Garry Kasparov in a televised rapid game and then went on to win the event.
Jon has also authored several acclaimed books, and over the years has written literally hundreds and hundreds of chess columns. He was the chess columnist for The Independent and still is the chess columnist for the Observer. He also has a regular column on ChessBase. Besides writing about chess175
On his YouTube channel PowerPlayChess, Grandmaster Daniel King shares his expertise and passion for chess.
He recently interviewed one of our authors - IM Thomas Engqvist from Sweden - and looked at a few games from his latest book, Ulf - the attacker! The complete interview, which is over an hour long, can be watched on Power Play Chess.
In the shorter clip, Daniel and Thomas examine a specific game, which demonstrates that Ulf Andersson was more than a positional genius, possessing a crystal-clear style.
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 based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. The subject of this week's episode is Latvian chess master and trainer Alexander Koblenz.Â
Picking up where last episode left off, the second half of the story focuses on Koblenz's contributions to chess beyond his mentorship of Mikhail Tal. He co-founded a chess magazine in Latvia, directed the chess club of Riga, and authored several books. What drove his passion for chess is what he himself described as creativity. It was this creativity that sustained his passion for chess well into his seventies, radiating a "joie de vivre" that his friends described as contagious.Â
The story also goes deeper into Koblenz's national and ethnic identity. Born to a Jewish family in Latvia (later part of the Soviet Union) and fluent in German as well as Russian and Yiddish, Koblenz175
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