NIC Podcast #82: GM Jan Timman

In this week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast, my guest is Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman. Jan returns to the podcast to talk about his latest book, Timman’s Studies, an impressive volume of 455 pages in which he presents his collected endgame studies and explains how they originated.

Of course, Jan Timman is primarily known as the most successful Dutch chess player of the past fifty years; a world-class player who won countless elite tournaments around the world and rose to second place in the world rankings, behind Anatoly Karpov, in 1982.
However, in recent years, after Covid, Jan’s appearances as a player had become less frequent, and a few weeks ago he announced in an interview with Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, that he has ended his active career as a player.

Of course, he still follows chess closely – and he stresses that this is classical chess and not rapid chess, even if Magnus Carlsen plays, and certainly not Freestyle chess.
As Honorary Editor, Jan also continues to write for New In Chess Magazine, but he will no longer seek the tension and excitement of the chess arena.

One thing Jan will definitely not forego is the pleasure of endgame studies! Jan has been fascinated by endgame studies for most of his chess life and composing studies gradually became one of his biggest chess passions. As he puts it in our talk, during the last 10 years endgame studies have actually been the most important part of his chess life.

In 2011, Jan wrote his first book on endgame studies: The Art of the Endgame, My Journeys in the Magical World of Endgame Studies. And last year he paid tribute to all the great composers who have inspired him, and wrote 100 Endgame Studies You Must Know, a treasure trove of greatest hits from the world of endgame studies of the past century. Beautiful studies composed by greats such as Kasparian, Troitzky, Kubbel, Mattison and Réti, and contemporary giants such as Pervakov and Kralin.

And now Jan has written Timman’s Studies, My Collected Endgame Studies and their Origins. As said, it’s a thick book of more than 450 pages and it contains 186 of his endgame studies composed in a period of more than half a century, between 1971 and 2025. What’s more, the final chapter, with 31 studies in total, consists entirely of new work.

One week before his new book went to press, I interviewed Jan at his home and it’s a true pleasure to share our talk in this podcast.
If you’re interested in studies and what they mean to Jan, this is certainly a podcast for you. But I’d also recommend you to listen to this episode if you’re simply interested in Jan Timman, one of the modern legends of our game.

Enjoy this week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast!

0:00 – Intro

4:10 – Jan’s lifelong passion for endgame studies

5:57 – Jan tells stories about his father, Max Euwe and Paul Keres

12:40 – Jan’s great admiration for fellow endgame composers like Troitsky, Kubbel and Kasparyan

17:40 – How Jan started composing endgame studies himself

23:09 – AD BREAK

23:41 – How much do we know about famous chess composers?

30:39 – Chess composers who were also strong players

35:12 – Composing chess studies without a board

37:27 – Why grandmasters are often appreciative of chess studies

42:49 – AD BREAK

44:50 – What can composers do to increase general interest in chess studies?

46:15 – Why studies are the most important part of Jan’s chess life these days

49:00 – Will endgame studies inevitably become more complicated?

51:40 – Will solving studies make you a better player?

53:41 – Outro