NIC Podcast #86: GM Loek van Wely
On the final free day of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, I invited Dutch grandmaster Loek van Wely to talk about the ten rounds of ‘the Wimbledon of Chess’ that have been played so far. Much to my delight, Loek - who is in Wijk aan Zee as the coach of Dutch grandmaster Max Warmerdam - accepted the invitation.
With three rounds to go, Uzbekistan’s top player Nodirbek Abdusattorov is leading the Tata Steel Masters, half a point ahead of three pursuers: his countryman Javokhir Sindarov, Jorden van Foreest (winner in 2021) and Germany’s Matthias Bluebaum. In the Challengers, Azerbaijan’s biggest promise, Aydin Suleymanli is in the lead. He is being chased by Andy Woodward, MarcAndria Maurizzi and good old Vasyl Ivanchuk (56).
The final three rounds promise an abundance of tension and excitement. Especially, as so far this year’s edition has seen a remarkable mix of gross errors, oversights and brilliant chess.
We had a lot to discuss. Why have we seen so many mistakes? Should the new time control be blamed? Have some of the participants, particularly the Indian stars, been travelling and playing way too much in the past months? Why have top-seeds such as World Champion Gukesh, Vincent Keymer and Arjun Erigaisi performed so unevenly?
Wijk aan Zee veteran Loek van Wely sheds light on these and other questions and looks at the performances of the main protagonists. Of course, we pay special attention to the sensational play of 14-year-old Yagiz Erdogmus, the Turkish super-talent who has been praised to the skies by Magnus Carlsen.
Warm up for the final rounds of the Tata Steel tournament by listening to this lively episode of the New In Chess podcast. You won’t regret it!
0:00 – Intro
1:40 – Welcome back once again, Loek!
4:47 – Loek criticises the tournament’s time control
11:58 – Is the FIDE tournament calendar too busy these days?
22:44 – Do players really care about Freestyle?
25:08 – AD BREAK
26:01 – Anish’s bad tournament
28:40 – Bluebaum’s strong performance thus far
31:23 – Jorden’s strong play so far
33:40 – The Uzbeki stars: Abdusattorov and Sindarov
36:35 – Erdogmus, the young superstar: how serious should we take him?
46:40 – Vasyl Ivanchuk’s performance in the Challengers
50:33 – AD BREAK
51:34 – The rest of the Challengers group
54:25 – Abdusattorov: a safe bet with three rounds to go?
56:30 – Hans
59:43 – Loek’s master plan to overtake Erwin l’Ami in the Dutch rating list
1:04:50 – Fedoseev’s beautiful Rc3 against Erigaisi!
1:06:30 – Outro