NIC Podcast #89: GM Jacob Aagaard

My guest in this week’s episode is an old friend of the New In Chess Podcast, Jacob Aagaard. Jacob is a man of many trades and it’s not easy to fully describe all his activities in the chess world without running the risk that you’re forgetting something.
So, let’s try. Jacob is a grandmaster who occasionally still feels the lure of competitive chess, and he is a prolific and successful writer, who has authored more than twenty books.
Besides a writer, Jacob is also a publisher of chess books, and a top coach who has worked with big names such as Boris Gelfand, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Sam Shankland and many other prominent names that we know or names that are supposed to remain a secret.
You may also know Jacob from the online Killer Chess Training courses and the Killer Chess Training camps he organizes in Spain.
And as if this is not enough - and as this is the New In Chess Podcast - we should not forget to mention that Jacob is the owner and head of the New In Chess publishing group. A group that consists of Quality Chess, New In Chess, Everyman Chess, Popular Chess and Elevation Chess. In other words, full disclosure, Jacob is my boss.

As Jacob was visiting The Hague, we agreed to sit down and record a podcast. We talked about his ambitions and plans for the near future, and anything else that popped up. Such as his predictions about the upcoming Candidates Tournament in Cyprus, and his thoughts about the new Netflix documentary Untold: Chess Mates, about the controversy between Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann that made headlines all over the world. Will Carlsen and Niemann finally speak freely and clarify what really happened?
That’s a lot to hope for, but we do hope that you will enjoy this new episode of the New In Chess Podcast!

0:00 – Intro

2:11 – How does Jacob coordinate his many top-level roles in the chess world?

14:42 – Jacob compares the different publishers under his umbrella

24:22 – Daniel Naroditsky’s brilliance as a chess author and educator

29:36 – AD BREAK

30:09 – Jacob previews some other chess books in the pipeline

31:19 – How chess literature has developed throughout the computer age

36:53 – The genius of Mikhail Tal

38:26 – Jacob’s Killer Chess Training platform

48:48 – AD BREAK

49:47 – The Carlsen – Niemann saga

1:00:17 – The upcoming Candidates Tournament

1:10:02 – Some football talk

1:12:35 – Pragg