Alex Polak

NIC Podcast #76 - GM Jon Speelman

NIC Podcast #76 - GM Jon Speelman

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

NIC Podcast #72 - IM Willy Hendriks

NIC Podcast #72 - IM Willy Hendriks

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Dutch IM Willy Hendriks, one of today’s most entertaining and interesting chess authors. Willy Hendriks’s debut Move First, Think Later was an instant success. In a highly original and witty manner, the book looks at the sense and nonsense of methods to improve in chess. The book won the 2012 ECF Book of the Year Award and was runner-up in the 2012 ChessCafe.com Book of the Year competition. In the meantime, Hendriks has written three more books, page turners that challenge the traditional view of chess history. All three have met with wide acclaim. First there was On the Origin of Good Moves (2020), which was followed by The Ink War, Romanticism versus Modernity in Chess (2022), starring William Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort, and most recently, The Philosopher and the Housewife (2025), a riveting tale about Tarrasch, Nimzowitsch and the evolution of chess expertise.Willy Hendriks is interviewed by Dirk Jan175

NIC Podcast #65 - GM Jan Timman

NIC Podcast #65 - GM Jan Timman

This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman. As one of the world's leading players during the late Soviet era, Jan played and befriended countless legendary players. Today's conversation centres specifically on two of his late colleagues, both of whom passed away recently: the tenth World Chess Champion, Boris Spassky, and the father of Icelandic chess, Fridrik Olafsson.  Interviewed by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam in his own chess library, old chess books and paraphernalia scattered around the area, Jan fondly remembers the lives and careers of his two late friends. The conversation about Spassky complements the latest edition of the New In Chess Magazine, in which both Jan and Dirk Jan wrote about the late Russian grandmaster. Enjoy this week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast!0:00 – Intro  1:20 – Jan’s first meeting with Boris Spassky 4:05 – Jan’s assessment of Spassky as a person 5:55 – Spassky’s interest in Russian politics175

GM Robby Kevlishvili

NIC Podcast #19 - GM Robby Kevlishvili

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Georgian-Dutch grandmaster Robby Kevlishvili. Robby is a varsity chess player for St. Louis University, currently representing them in his fifth season while simultaneously completing his finance and business degrees. Robby has won numerous national prizes with his teammates, especially in the online blitz format, where St. Louis University has dominated the American collegiate scene for the past few seasons. Interviewed by Alex Polak, Robby talks about his life as a chess player on the American collegiate circuit, his own strong performances in blitz play, and his impression of St. Louis, deemed by many to be the chess capital of the world. In addition to our usual streaming platforms, this time a full video version of the interview will appear on YouTube as well! Subscribe to the New In Chess YouTube channel for future podcasts and related chess content. In addition to our usual Spotify player, an embedded YouTube175

IM Thomas Willemze

NIC Podcast #12 - IM Thomas Willemze

This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with International Master Thomas Willemze. Thomas is one of New In Chess’s most prolific authors, with a varied body of work that includes opening books, puzzle books, endgame books, and strategy books. His two latest works, “What Would You Play” and “World Chess Champion Strategy for Club Players”, have received positive reviews for their high-quality analysis and educational approach, which aims to simulate over-the-board situations as much as possible. In addition to his authorship, Thomas has had 30 years of experience as a coach and draws heavily from his coaching experience when structuring his material. Perhaps surprisingly, he has found that a game does not have to be played at grandmaster level to be educational. “What Would You Play” draws lessons from games played at all levels, including by a very young Magnus Carlsen, popular online streamer and influencer Alexandra Botez, and Thomas himself. Interviewed175

Paul van der Sterren

NIC Podcast #1 - GM Paul van der Sterren

Dit is de eerste aflevering van de New In Chess Podcast. Gast van vandaag is grootmeester Paul van der Sterren. Paul heeft een indrukwekkende carrière als profschaker achter de rug. Zo won hij tweemaal het Nederlands kampioenschap, plaatste zich voor het kandidatentoernooi van 1994, en vocht schaakgevechten uit met de grootste namen van zijn tijd, onder wie Karpov, Timman, Korchnoi en Najdorf. Het schaken is Paul altijd blijven boeien. Na zijn actieve carrière als speler bracht Paul meerdere boeken uit, waaronder zijn autobiografie, "In Black and White", en "Mindful Chess: The Spiritual Journey of a Professional Chess Player", waarin Paul verder ingaat op zijn spirituele zoektocht op en naast het schaakbord.

IM Andras Toth on “World Chess Champion Strategy for Club Players”

IM Andras Toth on “World Chess Champion Strategy for Club Players”

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