Podcast

NIC Podcast #77 - GM Erwin l'Ami

NIC Podcast #77 - GM Erwin l'Ami

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

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 #75 - Alexander Koblenz (2/2)

NIC Podcast #75 - Alexander Koblenz (2/2)

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.  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.  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

NIC Podcast #74 - Alexander Koblenz (1/2)

NIC Podcast #74 - Alexander Koblenz (1/2)

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. The subject of this week's episode is Latvian chess master and trainer Alexander Koblenz.  A four-time Latvian national champion, Alexander Koblenz (1916-1993) is best known as the coach of another, more famous Latvian: the eighth World Chess Champion, Mikhail Tal. Born into a prosperous Jewish family, Koblenz discovered at an early age that his profession would deviate from the well-trodden path laid out for him by his parents. At the age of nineteen, he began writing his first chess book, a hobby he would maintain for the rest of his life. There was also tremendous hardship: his mother and sister perished in World War II, and the annexation of Latvia by the Soviet Union brought its own set of challenges.  Enjoy this week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast! 

NIC Podcast #73 - GM Semyon Furman (2/2)

NIC Podcast #73 - GM Semyon Furman (2/2)

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 second in a two-part story about late Soviet grandmaster Semyon Abramovich Furman (1920-1978). As the formative influence in the career of future World Champion Anatoly Karpov, Furman's own skills as a grandmaster have not always received the attention they deserve. At the age of 56, only eleven years after becoming grandmaster and a year before his death, he finished third in the Bad Leuterberg tournament of 1977, which was won by Karpov.  He also had many other interests. When bridge became popular in the 1960s, "Syoma" became obsessed with it. He was also an avid radio listener, a sometimes frowned-upon activity in the totalitarian former Soviet Union. But amongst all of his hobbies, chess always remained number one. And even after some of his pupils overtook him175

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 #70 - GM Viswanathan Anand

NIC Podcast #70 - GM Viswanathan Anand

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

NIC Podcast #71 - GM Semyon Furman (1/2)

NIC Podcast #71 - GM Semyon Furman (1/2)

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

NIC Podcast #69 - WGM Tania Sachdev

NIC Podcast #69 - WGM Tania Sachdev

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Indian chess star Tania Sachdev. Tania is a two-time Indian Women’s Champion, she was a member of the Indian Women’s team that wrote history when they won gold at the Budapest Olympiad last year, and she is one of the most popular chess commentators in the world. Relying on the broad knowledge and deep insights of the professional, and the unbridled enthusiasm of the true chess fan, Tania can entertain and speak to audiences of all levels.I interviewed Tania on the final day of Norway Chess, a couple of hours before the prizegiving and closing dinner. For close to two weeks, she had been working in the Chess.com studio in Stavanger alongside fellow commentators Jovanka Houska and David Howell, but, as I had hoped and expected, that did not stop her from being as energetic and passionate as ever as she answered my questions with a stream of stories, memories, observations and thoughts.We spoke about her family background175

NIC Podcast #68 - James Altucher

NIC Podcast #68 - James Altucher

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with James Altucher, an ardent chess lover and one of the most inquisitive and inspiring persons I have met in recent years. James Altucher is an investor, a venture capitalist and a firm believer in AI and crypto. He’s also a bestselling author – you may know his book Choose Yourself – and he has a popular podcast with 50 thousand subscribers, The James Altucher Show. In his podcast, he dives into the world of entrepreneurship, personal development and out-of-the-box thinking. Or, as he puts it himself, he interviews the world’s peak performers in every area of life. You will find a wealth of thought-provoking conversations at https://jamesaltuchershow.com/But the main reason why I invited James Altucher to the New In Chess Podcast, is the great column he has been writing for New In Chess Magazine for the past four years. In his column, he describes his struggle to regain his old chess strength after he returned to our175

NIC Podcast #67 - Vladimir Zak: A Great Teacher Inspires

NIC Podcast #67 - Vladimir Zak: A Great Teacher Inspires

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 Soviet chess player and coach Vladimir Zak. Vladimir Gregorievich Zak (1913-1994) was the head coach of the Leningrad Pioneers' Palace, a premier chess institution in the Soviet Union, for forty years. He was known for his classical approach to chess, which emphasised self-analysis and disciplined study. His stall of pupils included several future grandmasters, including Boris Spassky, Viktor Korchnoi, Gata Kamsky, and of course, Genna Sosonko himself. He was a strict teacher who demanded total commitment from his pupils, but in exchange, he offered them something rare: inspiration. Despite his limited playing strength, Vladimir Zak has an enduring legacy as a teacher of chess. Genna explains why: a good teacher explains, a great teacher inspires. And Vladimir Zak175

NIC Podcast #66 - GM David Navara

NIC Podcast #66 - GM David Navara

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Czech grandmaster David Navara. For more than 20 years, David Navara has been the leading chess player of the Czech Republic. Thirteen times he won the national championship. In 2015, he was ranked number 14 in the world, with a peak rating of 2751.I spoke to David last week, in Prague, the city where he was born 40 years ago and where he still lives. Over the years, we met on many occasions, but for some inexplicable reason we never sat down for a proper interview. Now we did and to begin with we returned to our first meeting, in 2001 at the European Team Championship in Leon, in the north of Spain, where 16-year-old David  was one of the stars as he scored an impressive 7 out of 9. Even if we’d only just met, he kindly showed me three of his games, giving me a first taste of his phenomenal talent.After this nice memory, David talked with great openness about his upbringing, his loving parents, the crises in his175