0:00 – Intro

2:26 – How did “The Queen of Chess” come about?

11:48 – Did Judit have any doubts about Kasparov’s participation in the film?

20:11 – How does Judit look back on being the “guinea pig” of her father’s experiment?

24:40 – AD BREAK

25:12 – Mr. Polgar has no regrets!

27:02 – The influence of Judit’s husband Gustav

30:40 – How does Judit remember the late and great Jan Timman?

37:53 – Judit’s words of encouragement for talented young women

41:02 – AD BREAK

42:00 – Was Judit intimidated by Kasparov?

46:17 – Judit and Timman’s shared passion for the artistry of chess

53:43 – Outro

Besides his work for the magazine, Jan was one of our most beloved book authors. He wrote countless classics in an endless outpour of creativity. His most recent titles include his best games collection Timman’s Triumphs (2020), The Unstoppable American (2021), Max Euwe’s Best Games (2023), 100 Endgame Studies You Must Know (2024) and Timman’s Studies (2025).
The latter titles focus on one of his great passions in his later years, the beauty of the endgame study.
New In Chess has been blessed that the magazine started out when Jan was one of the best and most successful players in the world and that his love for writing never waned.

In the next issue of New In Chess, we will pay tribute to Jan Timman and review his magnificent career as a world-class player, his legacy as a writer, and the fond memories he leaves behind as a friend.

For those who want to feel his love for chess in its many facets, there are his books and his contributions to the Magazine. If you’d like to hear his enthusiasm about chess studies and his wide and infectious knowledge of the world of studies, you can listen to the New In Chess Podcast that we recorded last December, Jan’s last official interview.

As we have limited space in our magazine, there was some very interesting and entertaining material left that we would love to share with you. Below are some nice combinations selected by and commented on by Boris.

Sasa Martinovic – Mads Andersen
25th European Teams, Batumi GEO 2025
White missed a nice combination.
19. Bh7+ Kf8 20. Nxf7 Kxf7 21. Qh5+
Basically winning.
21…g6 (21... Kf8 22. Re3) 22. Bxg6+ Qxg6 23. Re7+ wins the queen.

Eytan Rozen – Volkan Sevgi
40th ECC Open, Rhodes GRE 2025
Another nice combination. OK, he did not find it in the game.
32. Nh4!
In the game, he took 32.Qxf5 and if Bxf6, it is already unclear. The engine says something like plus one, but you still have to win.
32... Ne7
32... Bxg4 33.Ng6#
33. Nxf5 Bxf6 34. Nh6 Rg7 35. Qf4 and White wins.

Jarkko Penttinen – Daniil Yuffa
40th ECC Open, Rhodes GRE 2025
Yuffa just played 22…Ne3?, but after 23.Nf6+, he can immediately resign.
23.fxe3 Ne2+ 24. Kh1 Rxf1# must have been Black’s idea.
In the game, White played 23.Nf3? and lost in 37 moves.
23... Bxf6
23... Rxf6 and now 24. d7 wins.
24. fxe3 and White wins as there is no Ne2+ trick.

Read Samadov – Spartak Grigorian
40th ECC Open, Rhodes GRE 2025
Black is playing for stalemate tricks. How can White win?
46. Rxd2!
He had to take, and now the king goes in a very funny way.
In the game, White played 46. Ra4? Rb4, and it already is a draw. 47. Ra5 Rb5 48. Ra1 Rb1 49. Ne4 Rxf2+ 50. Kxf2 Rxa1 51. Nc5 Ra5 52. d4 Kg8 53. Ke3 f6 54. exf6 Kf7 55. Kd3 e5 56. Ke4 exd4 57. Kxd4 Kxf6 58. Kc4 Kg6 59. Kb4 Rxa6 60. Nxa6 Kxh6 61. Nc5 Kg6 62. Ne4 h5 63. gxh5+ Kxh5 64. Nxg5 ½-½
46... Rg1+ 47. Kf3 Rg3+ 48. Ke4 Re3+ 49. Kd4 Rxd3+ 50. Kc5 Rc3+ 51. Kd6 Rd3+ 52. Kc7 Rc3+
And now hide on d8.
53. Kd8 Rd3+ 54. Nd7
A key move!
54…Rxd2 55. Kc7
There’s no stalemate, and the a-pawn decides.

As we have limited space in our magazine, there was some very interesting and entertaining material left that we would love to share with you. Below are some instructive endgames with Boris Gelfand’s comments.

Ukraine won the 2025 European Team Chess Championship in Batumi, which was somewhat of a surprise, as they were the 9th seed in the starting lineup. In the match England - Turkey, the young English prodigy Shreyas Royal had to defend a tricky rook ending against Vahap Sanal. In the end, he managed to secure the draw, but not without mistakes from both sides. Watch and learn!

Shreyas Royal – Vahap Sanal
25th European Teams, Batumi 2025
White gave a check, which seems to be a mistake.
64. Rf8+?
Here, White had to include 64. g4! f4 and then check. 65. Rf8+ Ke5 66. Rf5+ Kd4 67. Rxf4
Still, it is not obvious, but White now has counterplay as the g-pawn will run.
64... Ke5 65. Re8+ Kd4 66. Rd8+ Ke3
Here, White tried the single rook endgame.
67. Rxd2 Kxd2 68. Kg2
This is a very important moment.
68…Re7!!
A very clever move. He wants to push the pawn.
If 68... e3 69. Kf3, and there is nothing for Black, so first he played Re7.
69. Rb2+ Kd3 70. b4 e3 71. Kf1 Rc7 72. Rb1
72…Ke4??
Here, Black missed a really instructive win.
72...f4! 73. gxf4 Ke4
Now the king has a shelter.
74. f5 (74. b5 Kf3 75. b6 Rh7 76. Kg1 Rg7+ 77. Kh2 e2 also wins)
And now 74... Rh7! on top to win a tempo.
If you start with 74... Kf3? then 75. f6 and White gets rid of the pawn. Rf7 (75... Rh7 76. Kg1= Now Black does not have Rg7+ anymore.) 76. Rc1 Rxf6 77. Rc8= When the f6-rook moves, the white rook can start giving check.
75. Kg2 Rg7+ Also an important point of 72...f4! as the g-file is now opened to give this crucial check. 76. Kf1 Kf3 77. Rb3 Ra7 78. Rb1, and now Rh7, of course.
73. b5 Kf3 74. b6 Rh7 75. Kg1 Rg7
Because of the pawn on g3, there is no check, and White has just enough counterplay.
76.b7 Rxg3+ 77. Kh2 Rg8 78. b8=Q Rxb8 79. Rxb8 e2 80. Re8 Kf2 81. Rf8 e1=Q 82. Rxf5+ Ke2 83. Re5+ Kd2 84. Rxe1 Kxe1
½-½

In Saint Louis, Fabiano Caruana won his fourth US Championship in a row, finishing half a point ahead of Wesley So. In his round 2 game, Caruana narrowly escaped against one of the rising American stars, Andy Woodward. Andy had a solid performance with 5½/11, but he could definitely have scored more points. After his missed opportunity against Caruana, he made an unfortunate mistake in a rook ending against Sam Shankland.

Andy Woodward – Sam Shankland
ch-USA, Saint Louis 2025
Woodward played 38. g4??
But he had to do it with the rook somewhere. He had to make a move, basically.
38. Rc5 Ra1 39. g4 wins easily.
38... a4 39. Rxf5
39. bxa4 allows b3 40. cxb3 The big difference is that here there is Rd2+
39... axb3 40. cxb3 Rd2+ 41. Ke4 Re2+ 42. Kd3 Rd2+ 43. Ke3 Rb2
Black's pawns are more advance and so he will never lose.
44. h4 Rxb3 45. h5+ Kg7 46. Rc5 c2+ 47. Kd2 Rf3 48. Rc7+ Kh6 49. Rc6+ Kh7 50. Kxc2 Rxf4 51. g5 Rh4 52. Rc7+ Kh8 53. Rc8+ Kh7 54. Rc7+ Kh8 55. h6 Rg4 56. Rc5 Rg3 57. Rb5 b3+ 58. Rxb3 Rxg5 59. Rb2 Rg2+ 60. Kb1 Rxb2+
½-½

Shortly after the ECC, Gukesh had to travel to Saint Louis for the Clutch Chess Champions Showdown. Magnus Carlsen was victorious, finishing ahead of Caruana and Nakamura with quite a considerable margin. In the ending that occurred in Gukesh - Carlsen, it was clear that with these faster time controls, even the best players in the world can make some big mistakes in what appears to be a simple position.

Gukesh D – Magnus Carlsen
Clutch Chess The Champions 2025

25. c4??
OK, now 25. Rxe4 Rd1+ 26. Kf2 Rd2+ 27. Kf3 Rxb2 28. Rxe6 is a draw, but they went into a pawn endgame.
25... Rxd4 26. exd4 Kf7 27. Kf2 Kf6 28. Ke3 Kf5 29. b4
In the game, Black played 29…a6?
Instead, 29... c6 was winning, actually, for some strange reason. 30. a4 g5 31. b5 e5! 32. d5 cxd5 33. cxd5 b6 with a mutual zugzwang. Black wins.
30. h4??
Now White should have played 30. a4! g5 (30... c6 31. g3 b5 32. cxb5 cxb5 33. a5 is a draw) 31. b5 axb5 32. axb5 b6 (Now after 32... e5?? Black even loses. 33. d5 b6 34. c5 White has a breakthrough.) 33. c5 h4, and again, the game should end in a draw.
30... b5 31. c5 c6 32. g3 e5
0-1

Both Jonathan and I were in Wijk aan Zee for the final rounds and witnessed how the Tata Steel Masters ended in a great victory for Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Finally, after several failed attempts, the 21-year-old star from Uzbekistan ended the ‘Wijk aan Zee’ curse that had plagued him in the past years. On more than one occasion, he had seen victory elude him on the final days. This time he remained in control till the very end and at long last won the tournament that he had dreamed of from when he was a kid. Finally, his photo will be included in the winners’ gallery of ‘the Wimbledon of Chess’. 

Jonathan Tisdall was born in the US from a Japanese mother and Irish father, and then - long story short - he emigrated to London and next to Norway, where he has been living for many years.

Jon is a grandmaster and a prolific journalist, who has worked for Reuters as a chess correspondent, and has written many stories for New In Chess. He has also been the captain of the Norwegian team, with Magnus Carlsen as his top player. Jonathan has been active in the chess world for decades, wearing a multitude of hats. In fact, if you want to know who is who in a chess press room, then the gentleman with the hat is usually Jon Tisdall!
Jon is also the author of the widely acclaimed book Improve Your Chess Now, and he is working on a new book in collaboration with standup comedian (and chess fanatic) Nick Doody.

In our talk we look back on the achievements and under-achievements of the main actors in Wijk aan Zee, but we also return to the days when Jon was reporting on the legendary Karpov-Kasparov matches, and we touch on his books and their original ideas.

I hope, and trust, that you will enjoy this new episode of the New In Chess podcast!

0:00 – Intro

3:02 – Nodirbek and Sindarov

6:15 – Jonathan reviews some strange moves and decisions from Wijk aan Zee

9:35 – Hans’s mentality

11:15 – Abdusattorov’s strong performance

12:40 – Jonathan’s personal relationship with Arjun Erigaisi

16:25 – Why does Erigaisi perform so poorly in Wijk aan Zee?

19:56 – Jorden van Foreest’s performance

23:45 – Controversy around the time control in Wijk aan Zee

27:42 – Matthias Bluebaum’s strong development

29:20 – AD BREAK

29:52 – How strong is Gukesh right now?

35:28 – The role of psychology in chess

40:10 – Dirk Jan tells a story about the Spassky-Korchnoi match

44:51 – AD BREAK

45:43 – The Uzbeki revolution: why hasn’t Norway followed suit?

58:00 – Jon’s previous and upcoming books

1:07:41 - Outro 

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

Peter can look back on an incredible career as a player and he is one of the most knowledgeable and versatile experts in the world of chess. He is a three-time Candidate for the World Championship, an eight-time champion of Russia, and a World Cup winner. Among his many further successes are five gold team medals at the Olympiad.
Over the past years, as he began to play less, Peter has become one of the most popular and loved chess commentators in the world. In fact, it’s fair to say that he was one of the commentators that took chess broadcasts to a new level and did a lot for the professionalization of our game. 

For all these reasons, Peter is a perfect guest at the start of 2026, as we look ahead to a well-filled chess year that no doubt will bring us many highlights.
First we look back on the Rapid & Blitz World Championships in Doha, where Magnus Carlsen won the title in both time controls for the fifth time in his career.
Next, we talk about the Tata Steel tournament that starts tomorrow in Wijk aan Zee, the world-famous village on the Dutch coast. And, of course, we also touch on the Candidates Tournament that will take place in Cyprus in the first half of April.

Peter is an easy talker, who happily shares his stories and insights about many leading and upcoming great chess players. How does he see Magnus’s new victory? What is his take on rising stars Yazig Erdogmus and Faustino Oro? Or on Vincent Keymer, Anish Giri, Javokhir Sindarov, Leinier Dominguez, World Champion Gukesh and the other Indian stars? 

We discuss them all, and many more. If you’d like to warm up for the Tata Steel Masters and Challengers and get into the mood for more highlights in 2026, this episode of the New In Chess Podcast is a good place to begin. Don’t miss it!  

2:05 – Peter’s recap of the World Rapid and Blitz

3:50 – Which “new kids on the block” did Peter follow with particular interest?

10:36 – Peter’s match against Erdogmus

20:49 – Magnus’s outrageous Messi comparison

23:16 – AD BREAK

23:55 – Is it unwise for Oro to play in the Masters group in Wijk aan Zee?

27:20 – Keymer’s great form going into Wijk aan Zee

28:17 – Anish Giri

30:53 – Gukesh

33:36 – Why Peter thinks this World Championship cycle will be more exciting than before

40:15 – Jakovhir Sindarov’s dark horse status

42:56 – Fabiano Caruana’s chances

47:35 – Pragg

47:57 – AD BREAK

51:34 – What can we expect from Ivanchuk in Wijk aan Zee?

54:30 – Does Peter miss playing competitive chess?

59:03 – How has Uzbekistan become such a strong chess country?

1:02:53 – Will the “India conveyor belt” ever stop?

1:04:14 – What is the current state of chess overall according to Peter?

These book reviews by Matthew Sadler were published in New In Chess magazine 2025#8

I left you on a cliffhanger in the last issue with my finger poised over the ‘order’ button for both volumes of Forgotten Genius – The Life and Games of Grandmaster Dragoljub Velimirovic by Georg Mohr and Ana Velimirovic-Zorica. Well, the story continues happily, as I did order them and loved them both!
The book is co-written by the Slovenian player and journalist Georg Mohr and Velimirovic’s daughter Ana. Mohr also co-wrote a volume on Velimirovic’s contemporary Albin Planinc, reviewed in a previous issue. Ana’s involvement adds a special touch to these two volumes. She not only had a large collection of photos and cartoons of her father (many of which appear in both volumes) but also Velimirovic’s extensive annotations to his own games, which also, in passing, contained anecdotes and stories from his life. Mohr has spoken with Velimirovic’s contemporaries, who shared their memories of him.

And of course there are the games! Just like Planinc, Velimirovic was a Modern Benoni addict but handled it completely differently (...♘bd7 instead of Planinc’s inveterate ...♘a6) and there are many Open Sicilians with the inevitable Velimirovic knight sacs on f5 and d5! I dare anyone to play through the games in this collection without regular ‘Oohs’ and ‘Aahs’!
For example, there is no shortage of Velimirovic Attacks!

1.e4 c5 2.♘f3 ♘c6 3.d4 cxd4 4.♘xd4 e6 5.♘c3 d6 6.♗e3 ♘f6 7.♗c4 ♗e7 8.♕e2
With the typical follow-up:
8...a6 9.0-0-0 ♕c7 10.♗b3 ♘a5 11.g4 b5 12.g5 ♘xb3+ 13.axb3 ♘d7 14.♘f5
I knew absolutely nothing about Velimirovic’s life before reading this book, and it was somewhat of a shock to read that a player whose name will always remain immortal in the collective chess memory had such an unsteady position with his national chess federation. His career was characterized by strange hiccups and odd twists of fate that slowed his progress and likely robbed him of the opportunity to reach still greater heights. For example, at the very start of his career in 1962, he finished 3rd/4th in the Yugoslav Championships – a sensational result for a Category I player. He might have finished higher but for his only loss as White to Parma in the penultimate round, sacrificing a queen for insufficient material in a rather cavalier style inappropriate for such a critical game. No disaster: the top five places qualified for the Zonal anyway! Only... they didn’t. Unbeknown to him (and perhaps also to most players in the tournament) the Yugoslav federation had decided that his placing would only qualify him for a qualifying tournament for the Zonal. Velimirovic believed that an injustice had been done to him and had an absolute nightmare, finishing far behind the other participants with 3/14.

Also in 1966, despite finishing in shared 4th-5th place in the Yugoslav Championships, he was again denied one of the six qualification places for the Zonal when the national federation suddenly decided to organise a playoff for the qualifying spots between the players who had finished 4th to 10th! This time he managed to qualify but only thanks to a bizarre final-round win! His opponent, Mario Bertok, thought for a long time on his 40th move and lost on time in a drawn position.

So Velimirovic qualified for the Zonal, but that year – perhaps as a result of his complaints about the qualifying process – he was kicked out of the national team for the Havana Olympiad. The Zonal at The Hague finished in desperate disappointment as he failed to advance to the Interzonals at the last hurdle, unable to win a very promising position against the Spanish player Diaz del Corral.
Sad, but there would always be more chances in the next cycles? True and indeed there were. But in Velimirovic’s career, you can see how much importance he placed on the qualification cycle for the World Championship and how much effort he put into peaking at the right moment for this tournament. And how great the disappointment was when it went wrong: both after 1962 and 1966, the next couple of years were somewhat empty years for Velimirovic, which must have cost him some opportunities to shine when he was still young and full of energy!
Of course, Velimirovic’s playing style and general chess approach also played a role in his peaks and troughs. For example, in the 1965 National Championship, he finished with 10 wins, 7 losses, and a single draw in the last round (after a sacrificial Sicilian Poisoned Pawn!). With such a style and fighting spirit, it’s not surprising to encounter a mix of triumphs and disasters!
Perhaps the most surprising thing about Velimirovic’s career was the esteem he enjoyed as a trainer and analyst, first as an assistant to Gligoric, then as a second to Viktor Korchnoi in 1982 and 1983, and finally as a coach to many juniors from the former Yugoslavia, such as Ivan Sokolov and Alexander Indjic. I hadn’t expected a great player and fighter like him to be able to share easily the knowledge he had acquired, but judging from the many warm tributes from his students, he most certainly was!

How do you choose one single game for this review to illustrate such a wonderful player? In the end, I discovered a game in this book that perfectly demonstrates Velimirovic’s remarkable feel for Benoni positions, overwhelming the extremely strong Mikhail Gurevich, who had sensationally won the Soviet Championship in the year this game was played.

Mikhail Gurevich
Dragoljub Velimirovic
Vrsac 1985
Modern Benoni
1.d4 c5 2.d5 d6 3.c4 ♘f6 4.♘c3 g6 5.e4 ♗g7 6.f3 0-0 7.♗g5 ♕a5
A Velimirovic speciality with a pretty good result against strong players: 3½/4!
8.♕c2!?
The queen normally goes to d2, but Gurevich reserves this square for the dark-squared bishop to oppose the queen on the a5-e1 diagonal if necessary.
8...a6 9.♗d2
To meet 9...b5 with 10.♘xb5.
9...♕d8 10.a4 e6 11.♗g5 exd5 12.cxd5 ♖e8
The net result of Black’s ...♕a5-d8 manoeuvre is that White has played a normal system with the white queen on the unusual square c2 rather than the normal d2.
13.♘ge2 h6 14.♗e3 ♘bd7 15.♘g3 h5
A typical disruptive idea for Black in this line when White plays 15.♘g3. Gurevich, however, tries to use the unusual position of the queen on c2 to turn the chasing of this knight into a strong redeployment: the knight will be transferred to c4 via f1-d2.
16.♗e2 h4 17.♘f1 ♘e5 18.♗g5
A very ambitious move from Gurevich. Most players would have developed with 18.♘d2 followed by 0-0 and been happy to get the king out of the centre!
However, the engines prefer 18...♘h5 19.0-0 g5 for Black. This explains why they prefer Gurevich’s move, which obstructs Black’s attempts to take over the kingside dark squares.
18...h3 19.g3 ♕a5
Velimirovic can’t resist putting the queen back on a5!
20.♗d2
And Gurevich responds in kind!
20...c4 21.♖a3 ♗d7
Other options, such as 21...♘d3+ 22.♗xd3 cxd3 23.♕xd3 ♘d7 aimed at exploiting White’s weak light squares all over the board (c4, d3, f3) was another approach, but Velimirovic’s calm development remained strong. Gurevich tries to draw some advantage from the opposition of queen and bishop along the a5-e1 diagonal, but only manages to increase Black’s dynamic advantage. And those are situations in which Velimirovic truly excelled.
22.♘b5 ♕d8 23.♘xd6 ♗xa4 24.♖xa4 ♕xd6 25.♗b4 ♕d7 26.♖a3
26...a5
26...♘xd5 immediately was also very strong, but Velimirovic wants the a-file open too!
27.♖xa5 ♖xa5 28.♗xa5 ♘xd5 29.♗d2
29.exd5 ♘xf3+ 30.♔d1 ♕xd5+ is catastrophic for White of course.
29...♕b5
A very nasty and far from obvious move, reinforcing the entry of the black knight on d3.
30.♘e3 ♘d3+ 31.♗xd3 ♘xe3 32.♗xe3 cxd3 33.♕c1 ♗xb2
Pretty much the nightmare of any player of the Sämisch structure! The solid Sämisch centre counts for nothing and your king is still caught in the centre after more than 30 moves!
34.♕c7 ♕b4+ 35.♔f2
First move of the king!
35...♗d4 36.♕c1 ♖a8 37.♖e1
First move of the rook!
37...♖a2+ 38.♔f1 ♖c2 0-1
The type of game that makes you want to take up the Modern Benoni as Black!

The book is a wonderful tribute to a fantastic player. I also loved it for the insights into the players and events of Yugoslav chess (as it then was) at a time when Yugoslavia was the second strongest country in the world.
Definitely recommended for all those adult ‘chess enjoyers’ out there! 5 stars!
Many years ago, waiting idly with some other players for the tournament prize-giving to start, I got into a little game of thinking up the most unlikely chess book titles. I’m pretty sure that ‘Ulf Andersson’s Attacking Games’ came up as one of those! No disrespect meant, of course, to the great Swedish player, but with him, it was the (long) endgames we watched out for, not the king hunts! However, that unlikely book is now here: Ulf the Attacker – 56 Thrilling Games from Sweden’s Chess Legend by Thomas Engqvist annotates 56 games and game snippets, highlighting a less appreciated side of Andersson’s play.

The unwary reader may be shocked to see Ulf playing the White side of the 6.♗g5 Najdorf, or the Modern and Pirc as Black, but indeed until about 1973 he kept on playing the openings
with which he had grown into chess. Somehow, after that date, however, he seemed to switch style and opening repertoire quite significantly. The examples of attacking play after that date are a little less convincing until his correspondence games enter the scene which are indeed again full of verve and aggressive play.

It’s intriguing to think about what might have happened with Andersson around that time: did a change in openings allow him to discover his true style and make him realise his full potential, or did he simply become more conservative as a practical strategy? I always think of the change I made when I was around twelve, when I moved from rather stodgy, nontheoretical openings to sharp lines like the King’s Indian Four Pawns and Sämisch system against the Nimzo-Indian. I made a huge jump in strength and got close to International Master level and I’ve always believed that this switch in openings was needed to get me into the types of positions I played best. If I hadn’t made that switch, the chess skills I had might have remained buried for a lot longer. I wonder if this was something similar for Andersson?

However, let me show you Ulf on the attack in this 1969 game!

Ulf Andersson
Zbigniew Doda
Lodz 1969
Sicilian Defence, Closed Variation
1.e4 c5 2.♘c3 ♘c6 3.g3 g6 4.♗g2 ♗g7 5.d3 d6 6.♘h3
Ulf played the Closed Sicilian a few times but varied the position of his knight each time: once on h3, once on e2 and once on f3 (after f4).
6...♘f6 7.♗e3 ♖b8 8.0-0 0-0 9.♔h1 b5 10.f3
A slightly odd move, most likely to prepare f4 after a preliminary ♘f2 so as not to allow ...♘g4.
10...b4 11.♘e2 ♘d7 12.♖b1 ♕a5 13.♕d2
Ulf sacrifices a pawn for an attack!
13...♕xa2 14.♗h6
Exchanging the opponent’s fianchettoed bishop was a favourite mechanism of the young Ulf.
14...♕a5 15.♗xg7 ♔xg7 16.f4
White’s compensation for the pawn is pretty speculative, but as we know from modern engines, the rook’s pawn is the best pawn to lose/sacrifice: it causes the least structural damage to the sacrificer and activates a rook!
16...♘d4 17.♘xd4 cxd4 18.f5 ♘f6 19.♖f4
A rook lift from Ulf! I don’t think that anyone would ever guess who was handling the white pieces!
19...♖h8 20.♖bf1 h6 21.♖h4 ♗d7 22.g4 ♕c5
It’s not very easy to see what White is actually threatening in this position, despite the number of pieces he has moved to the kingside.
23.♗f3 ♖bg8 24.g5 hxg5 25.♖xh8 ♖xh8 26.♘xg5 gxf5 27.♖g1 ♔f8 28.♕g2
The pieces are lined up, but the threats are still hardly overwhelming.
28...♘g4
But now they will be!
29.exf5 ♘xh2
29...♖xh2+ 30.♕xh2 ♘xh2 was Black’s intention, I guess, but 31.♘h7+ ♔e8 32.♖g8 is mate!
30.♘h7+ 1-0
This also leads to mate! 30...♔e8 31.♕g8+ ♖xg8 32.♖xg8#.

All in all, an interesting examination of a lesser-known facet of a great player’s style: 3 stars!
Boris Spassky’s Best Games 2 1969-2000 by Tibor Karolyi examines the second part of the great Soviet player’s career, presented chronologically, with a chapter for each year. Karolyi does his usual excellent job of cycling through Spassky’s career and furnishing key games with detailed annotations while providing a few anecdotes along the way. I also liked his summaries of Spassky’s tournament and match results at the end of each chapter. In some ways, it must have been quite a difficult book to write. After the match against Petrosian in 1969, Spassky did not play much in 1970 and 1971; indeed, his first tournament in 1971 was only in July!

Karolyi had already written a book on the immortal 1972 match against Fischer (Fischer-Spassky 1972 – Match of the Century Revisited) so only a summary of the match is presented in this book. And after the 1972 match, Spassky’s career became a strange story of games played at the very highest level interspersed with an ever-growing number of short draws and lapses of concentration. Probably 1977 – when he won the Candidates quarter-finals and semi-finals – and 1978 – when he shared first in the extremely strong Bugojno tournament – was the final period in which he still competed consistently at the very top level.

I always have a strange feeling when looking at Spassky’s career. It’s clearly ridiculous to view a player who became World Champion, was a World Championship Candidate on seven occasions (the last time in 1985 at the Montpellier Candidates tournament) and twice Soviet Champion as not quite having fulfilled his potential, but I can never shake that impression. For me, the quality of his best games is so high, and the manner of his victories so varied and versatile, that anything less than domination of his era feels like a disappointment!

Let me show you what I mean with this really lovely win out of nothing in the 1977 Candidates semi-final as Black against Lajos Portisch, who was possibly at his very peak.

Lajos Portisch
Boris Spassky
Geneva, Candidates semi-final 1977
Nimzo-Indian Defence
1.d4 ♘f6 2.c4 e6 3.♘c3 ♗b4 4.e3 c5 5.♗d3 d5 6.♘f3 0-0 7.0-0 b6 8.cxd5 exd5 9.♘e5 ♖e8
10.♗d2
I played the White side of this line a lot as a professional, and to avoid Spassky’s idea of ...♗a6, against the Canadian IM Bryon Nikoloff I came up with 10.♗b5 ♖e6 11.♘e2, to transfer the knight from c3 to f4 with tempo and at the same time leave the bishop on b4 hanging in thin air and vulnerable to trapping with a3. The irony is that after 11...a6 12.♗a4 c4 I thought that I stood clearly better as I had forced Black to release the central tension with ...c4. However, the engines consider this perfectly fine for Black and indeed after my continuation 13.♘g3 ♗b7 14.f4 b5 15.♗c2 ♗f8 16.♗d2 a5, they only see an advantage for Black! Always dangerous revisiting your old games with an engine, although I think such positions are quite easy to handle poorly as Black.
10...♗a6
I always worried that Black players would play this type of idea against me, but somehow I escaped! The exchange of light-squared bishops flattens out White’s position, removing any hope of a kingside attack.
11.♗xa6 ♘xa6 12.♕a4 ♕c8 13.♖fc1 ♕b7 14.♕c6 ♖ab8 15.♖c2 ♗xc3 16.♗xc3 ♘e4 17.♗e1 f6 18.♕xb7 ♖xb7 19.♘d3 cxd4 20.exd4
The position is balanced. Potentially Black might be able to claim the advantage of a good knight against a bad bishop tied down to the d4-pawn, but we are quite some way from that, as White has plenty of activity and his pieces are quite well-placed.
20...♘c7 21.f3 ♘d6 22.♗f2 ♘e6
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen knights like that before, but they are beautifully placed, attacking White’s weakest structural point, controlling central squares, and eyeing the outpost on c4.
23.♘b4 ♖d7 24.♖d1
24.♘xd5 ♘f5 25.♘c3 ♘exd4 26.♗xd4 ♘xd4 27.♖f2 would be my choice for a very even game, though the engines claim a slight advantage for Black. I imagine that Portisch was not yet looking for dead equality as White.
24...♔f7 25.♔f1
25.♘xd5 ♘b5 26.♘c3 ♘bxd4 27.♖cd2 ♖ed8 28.♔f1 would be even more equal!
25...♖c8 26.♖xc8 ♘xc8 27.♗g3 ♘e7
Spassky reshuffles his knights and the knight moves to f5 via e7.
28.a3 ♘f5 29.♗f2 a5 30.♘a2 ♘d6
The knight moves back to d6 and threatens to invade on c4 winning a pawn.
31.b3 ♖c7 32.♖d2
The engine suggests a number of moves leading to Black’s advantage, but Spassky’s is beautiful and unusual.
32.♖c1 is suggested by the engines. It looks obvious, but it isn’t as obvious if you look a little deeper, as Black can win a pawn with 32...♖xc1+ 33.♘xc1 ♘b5 34.a4 ♘bxd4. However, after 35.♔e1 Black has a problem with his queenside pawns, as the knight on d4 cannot shield the b6-pawn forever and White threatens ♔d2-d3 to chase it away. After 35...b5 36.axb5 ♘xb5 37.♗b6 White wins the a-pawn and reestablishes material equality. Not easy!
32...♘b5 33.a4 ♘a3
A really lovely idea. The offside knight actually has two good follow-up squares on c2 and b1.
34.♗g3 ♖c6 35.♖d3
34.♗g3 covered f4 in order to prepare this move, which threatens to activate the miserable knight on a2 with ♘c3.
However, Black can prevent this beautifully!
35...♘b1
Another unexpected jump by the knight, threatening ...♖c2 and the knight on a2 is trapped.
36.♖d1 ♖c2 37.♖xb1 ♖xa2 38.♗f2 h5
Classic play: Black has many advantages on the queenside and now looks to expand his advantage across the whole board, starting by gaining a space advantage on the kingside.
39.♗e3 g5 40.h4 gxh4
An unexpected capture, not really done for the pawn but for the possibility of splitting open the white kingside pawns with ...h3.
41.b4 ♘g7
Another lovely knight redeployment! The knight will settle on f5, attacking d4 and eyeing the e3- and g3-squares.
42.♗f4 ♘f5 43.♔g1 ♘xd4 44.♗c7 h3
Here it is!
45.gxh3 ♘xf3+
From a6 to f3 in six moves!
46.♔h1 ♖xa4 47.bxa5 bxa5 48.♖b5 ♖c4 49.♗g3 ♔e6 50.♖xa5 ♘g5 51.♖a6+ ♔f5 52.♖d6 h4 53.♗h2 ♖c1+ 0-1
A wonderful game from Spassky!

I enjoyed the book a lot as I nearly always do with Karolyi’s efforts: 4 stars!
The final two books formed a pairing I just couldn’t resist: Powerhouse Pawn Sacrifices by Ivan Cheparinov and Converting an Extra Pawn in Chess by Sam Shankland. It reminded me of my favourite expression at work when explaining why an upgrade – while solving old problems – has also created fresh problems: the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away!

Both are excellent books, though definitely on the advanced side of chess. Cheparinov’s manual discusses the subject of pawn sacrifices for activity, first through two more general chapters entitled ‘Dynamics’ and ‘Long-term factors’ and then through opening-specific chapters: ‘Vienna’ (the Queen’s Gambit variety), ‘Catalan’, ‘Advance French’ and ‘Queen’s Indian’ before finishing on ‘How do the Greats do it?’. Funnily enough, the last chapter ends with two games of Veselin Topalov grabbing a pawn and surviving, which is a nice segue into Shankland’s book! I particularly liked the chapter on the Advance French, which deals with a type of long-term pawn sacrifice I first saw in engine games:
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 ♘c6 5.♘f3 ♕b6 6.♗d3 cxd4 7.0-0 ♗d7 8.♖e1 ♘ge7 9.♘bd2 dxc3 10.bxc3
The e5-pawn is the only important pawn for White in this pawn structure, taking f6 away from the black pieces (thus making development of Black’s kingside pieces more laborious) and creating an outpost for a white knight on d6. Sacrificing a pawn in this way gives White’s pieces access to the active d4-square and the open b-file while the isolated c-pawn even gives White the lever c3-c4 against the black centre. In the good old days, it would have been enough to end this line with a sweeping gesture and the conclusion ‘with compensation’. Cheparinov shows through a mixture of analysis and illustrative games how concrete the play becomes at certain stages of the game, often when you would never really imagine it would need to be!
Shankland’s book is composed of three chapters, each dedicated to a phase of the three-phase approach he describes for converting an extra pawn: ‘Stabilize’, ‘Make the Right Changes’ and ‘Plan for the Pawn’. I very much liked that last concept. I think it’s a common psychological error during practical games to lazily assume that the extra pawn will do the work for you. It’s important to actually think consciously about how your extra pawn can be woven into play appropriate to your position. Sometimes it’s as trivial as exchanging all the pieces off and creating a passed pawn in a pawn endgame but it can also be much more subtle than that.

This example from a Grischuk game impressed me a lot:

Alexander Grischuk
Michael Adams
Calvia 2007
As Shankland explains, Black has sufficiently active pieces to equalize. But White still has chances for an edge if they come up with a plan which makes the extra pawn useful. What are the doubled d-pawns doing for White? They are restricting the black knights to some degree. For example, the d4-pawn is protecting the c3-square by blocking Black’s queen, as well as denying the c4-knight the e5-square. In fact, the knights are stuck on the queenside and rendered incapable of joining the fight on the kingside.’
Michael’s next move made it much more difficult to create counterplay on the queenside, which gave Grischuk a free hand to mass on the kingside.
29...d6
29...♘cb6 was necessary, to create counterplay on the c-file, and would have been almost equal.
30.♖c2 ♖c7 31.♗e4 ♖ec8 32.♖e1 ♘ab6 33.♖ce2 ♖f8 34.h5 ♕d8 35.♕f3 ♘d7 36.♗d3 ♘f6 37.g4
Black has been unable to find a good defensive configuration and White’s kingside play has become unstoppable. Note once again how the extra doubled d-pawn prevents Black from adding defence to the kingside with ...♘e5.
37...♘b6 38.g5 ♖xc1 39.♖xc1 hxg5 40.♕f5 ♘bxd5 41.♕xg5 ♔h8 42.♔h2 ♕b6 43.♖g1 ♖g8 44.♕h4 a5 45.♗g6 1-0

Shankland concludes: ‘I quite like how Grischuk demonstrated the importance of building a plan that makes your extra pawn count. The extra pawn was doubled, so he could never hope to trade down to an endgame and make a queen. But the importance of his extra pawn was the focal point nonetheless. By restricting the black knights from coming to their king’s defense, the two white d-pawns played a decisive role.’
Very well explained!

The three-phase approach sounds quite simple to implement, but after working my way through the book, I wasn’t so sure. I’d seen so many obvious moves being wrong, and so many strange moves being right, that by the end I was mainly left feeling that chess is quite a complicated game! I almost missed Shankland’s Conclusion at the end, which sort of matches that feeling: ‘For anyone who has studied the preceding sections closely, you may find yourself asking something along the lines of “Okay how do I put this into practice? What rules and guidelines can I learn from having gone through these 29 games?” I hate to break it to you, but beyond a few nuggets of overall chess wisdom you may find scattered through the pages, there are no major guiding points that will suddenly turn pawns into points. My main hope is that by instilling the right thought process of breaking the conversion into three distinct phases, and then showing a lot of examples of each phase, both done well and done poorly, your instincts will have improved.’

Both Cheparinov’s and Shankland’s books had me smiling and saying, ‘that’s cool!’ at regular intervals, but I wasn’t quite sure what I’d picked up after the first careful read apart from lots of pleasure and hopefully some inspiration!

One thing I would say, though: if you want to make use of the exercises to test yourself, get someone else to put the positions on the board for you! With four diagrams on the page, I found it impossible not to sneak a peek ahead. The material in both books is of the highest quality, and I would highly recommend them to ambitious players looking to increase both the dynamism of their play and the solidity of their conversion technique. 5 stars for both! ■

0:00 – Intro

2:55 – Matthew’s tells the story of Captain Mackenzie

12:14 – AD BREAK

12:52 – Matthew’s favourite books of 2025

15:30 – The forgotten genius of Albin Planinc

17:50 – Velimirovic

21:40 – Chess history’s tendency to forget non-world champion players

23:50 – David Bronstein

26:40 – Sergio Mariotti

33:42 – AD BREAK

34:45 – Matthew previews the Candidates Tournament 

37:55 - Vincent Keymer   

38:58 - Javokhir Sindarov

40:38 - Who are Matthew's favourites to win the Candidates?

43:50 – Why 2026 will look very different in terms of top level chess

49:21 – Has Freestyle been a success in 2025?

53:05 – AD BREAK

53:47 – Matthew’s field of expertise: computer chess!

55:48 – Why humans are moving towards a more engine-like style of play

1:03:45 – Is the Benoni still alive?

1:05:10 – Is English chess entering a new Golden age?

1:09:00 – Outro

"Luka" is another lesser-known name in the Essential catalogue, but his story is no less interesting. Coming from a working-class background, Genna describes how "with his independent character, recklessness, and his entire manner of behaviour, he somehow did not fit in with the academic regime of tournaments on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and theoretical lessons on Fridays. His sole trainer became play itself."  

Lutikov's recklessness translated to the chessboard, where he was an attacking player feared by everyone in the Soviet chess elite, and beyond. When a fifteen-year old American boy named Bobby Fischer visited Moscow for a series of blitz matches, he crushed several masters in a row before the "big guns" were called in. Luka showed up and beat the youngster 20/30.

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