Show Notes
This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Dutch grandmaster Erwin l'Ami. Erwin is an old friend of the New In Chess Podcast. The Dutch Champion in 2022, among his other notable results are his victories in the 2015 Reykjavik Open and in the Rabat Blitz that same year, where he was even too quick for specialists like Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Alexey Shirov.
While Erwin continues to love playing competitive chess in tournaments and club leagues, he has expanded his chess activities in various chess directions over the past years. He’s been working as a trainer for stars such as Veselin Topalov and Anish Giri, and he’s been producing training courses and writing books.
It was in his capacity as a writer that Erwin was invited this time, as together with Dutch GM Paul van der Sterren, he has just authored a new book on Max Euwe, who sensationally robbed Alexander Alekhine of his world title back in 1935. The title of the book is Max Euwe World Champion!, with an exclam, and it looks in detail at the brief reign of Euwe, who lost the chess crown again to the same Alekhine in 1937. The book is a heartfelt reappraisal of Euwe, who has often been described as a lesser champion. A champion who won the title by some sort of luck. In their fine book, the authors demonstrate convincingly that in spite of such reservations, Euwe truly was the best chess player in the world, or among the very best, in those years.
Erwin talks to Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam about his special interest in Max Euwe, how the book came about, and the remarkable qualities of the fifth World Champion; about the sensation he caused when, as the underdog, he defeated the great Alexander Alekhine in 1935; about his achievements in his years as champion, and why he lost the title again in 1937. In the second half of the podcast, we talk about Max Euwe’s celebrated successor in the Netherlands, Jan Timman, who died three months ago, on February 18. Link to the Antwerp interview with Timman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0WTfRRzVsU 0:00 – Intro
2:35 – Has Erwin’s appreciation of Max Euwe as a player changed throughout the years?
9:21 – Why is Euwe so underappreciated by chess history?
15:45 – How strong was Euwe actually?
19:55 – The Lasker feud
23:05 – Euwe’s “modern” emphasis on opening preparation and physical preparation
27:06 – AD BREAK
28:05 – The historic 1936 Nottingham tournament
32:33 – Euwe as FIDE president
34:49 – While doing his analyses for this book, did Erwin discover any new things about Euwe?
42:50 – Euwe’s loss in the Alekhine rematch
49:21 – Dirk Jan tells his own personal Euwe story
50:32 – AD BREAK
51:08 – Erwin’s friendship with Jan Timman
56:30 – Jan Timman’s incredible memory
1:00:08 – Timman’s incredible career
1:03:49 – Erwin recalls an old interview with Jan (Link in description!) 1:11:23 – Outro
More from New In Chess Podcast
This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri. Anish barely needs an introduction. He is one of the world’s strongest and most popular chess grandmasters, he’s the top board of the national team of the Netherlands and he is a contributing editor to New In Chess Magazine (and, of course, he is much more, such as a great chess influencer and instructor with his own YouTube channel and his own instructional platform ChessMonitor.com). Anish has just returned from the Olympiad, where 206 teams competed in the Open Section, and an amazing 189 teams in the Women’s section. As you may have seen or heard the Women’s section was won by China and the Open section ended in a triumph for Uzbekistan. Besides the chess on the board, there was also a huge chess political contest, as FIDE, the international chess federation, elected a new President. Timur Turlov, a billionaire businessman from Kazakhstan will be FIDE’s president for the coming four years. Speaking to Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam from his home in The Hague, Anish answered my questions about the impressive winners from Uzbekistan, the special character of the Olympiad, the performances of the most prominent stars (What was Gukesh doing on Board 4 of the Indian team? What should we think of yet another exceptional result of Yagiz Erdogmus?), and much more. Such as his meetings with all three candidates in the presidential elections and his take on the new president Timur Turlov. If you know Anish, you know that you should not miss this episode! 0:00 – Intro 2:35 – Anish explains what makes the Chess Olympiad a unique event 6:10 – The varying degrees to which different chess federations support their players 10:44 – The Global Chess League 15:35 – The Dutch team’s performance at the Olympiad 20:25 – Jorden losing out on winning a board gold medal 22:14 – AD BREAK 23:12 – The winners of the Olympiad: Uzbekistan 28:52 – Gukesh playing fourth board for India 32:45 – Ding’s performance for China 34:40 – The US team’s performance 37:20 – Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus’s performance 43:40 – AD BREAK 44:12 – The FIDE presidential elections 1:03:02 - Outro
This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Dutch grandmaster Paul van der Sterren. Paul is a two-time Dutch Champion and between 1982 and 2000, he represented the Netherlands at eight Olympiads. Arguably his most memorable feat on the chess board was his second place in the impressively strong 1993 Biel Interzonal that earned him a spot in the Candidates matches of the World Championship cycle. The match he lost to Gata Kamsky could hardly be called a failure, as Kamsky was at the peak of his powers at the time and defeated none other than Vishy Anand in the next stage of the Candidates. When Paul ended his professional career in 2001, he became even more active as a writer than he had already been. Besides books on chess openings, he wrote a stunning autobiography that was first published in Dutch in 2011 and was translated into English in 2023. That book, entitled In Black and White, won the ECF Book of the Year Award, and is in my opinion easily the most deep-digging autobiography in chess literature. For its frankness and deep soul-searching the book might also have been entitled Open, if that title had not already been taken by Andre Agassi. Paul also wrote, together with fellow Dutch grandmaster Erwin l’Ami, "Max Euwe, World Champion!", a reappraisal of the fifth World Champion. It’s a marvellous book that argues convincingly, both in Paul’s compelling story and in Erwin’s annotated games, that the Dutchman fully deserves his place in the gallery of World Champions. Another reason is, that rumour has it that the same authors are preparing a book on another Dutch great, Hein Donner. A book in which they hope to give an honest answer to the question how strong the legendary Donner, who we mainly know from his brilliant writings, really was. So, if you want to hear great stories about these two giants of Dutch chess, don’t miss this episode of the New In Chess Podcast. You could not hope for a better expert to guide you than Paul van der Sterren. 0:00 – Intro 2:25 – Paul’s life as retired chess professional 8:50 – Dealing with the highs and lows of being a full-time chess player 12:30 – Paul’s autobiography, “In Black and White” 16:22 – Paul’s Max Euwe biography, co-authored with GM Erwin l’Ami 20:05 – Why Paul considers himself too old to analyse games 21:23 – Paul’s interest in the “human behind the player” 23:10 – What did Paul find out about Max Euwe, the human being? 25:10 – Why Alekhine was a dishonest man 27:25 – AD BREAK 28:00 – Has Euwe’s legacy been impacted by his own modesty and humility? 31:25 – Max Euwe’s double life as a teacher and chess player 35:55 – When Paul personally met Max Euwe as a young player 41:45 – Hein Donner 51:11 – AD BREAK 52:10 – Paul’s personal experience with Donner 59:20 – Being asked by Euwe to revise his earlier works 1:05:03 - Outro
This week's episode of the New In Chess podcast features an interview with Icelandic grandmaster Margeir Petursson. Margeir first became a national celebrity in Iceland as a chess player. He won the Icelandic championship twice, in 1986 and 1987, and had further successes at home and abroad, winning classics such as the Hastings Premier in 1986 and dozens of strong Opens around the world. He was also a member of the legendary Icelandic national team that finished 5th at the Dubai Olympiad in 1986 and 6th at the Manila Olympiad in 1992. The ‘Golden Team’ that he played on together with Johann Hjartarson, Helgi Olafsson and Jon Arnason. While many still saw him first and foremost as a chess player, Margeir also embarked on a banking career and founded his own bank, MP Bank (indeed, Margeir Petursson bank!). He became internationally known as the owner of the only Icelandic bank that did not collapse in the big Icelandic banking crisis in 2008. Those turbulent days were far from the last time that he had to operate in chaos and crisis. In the following years, Margeir switched his activities to Ukraine where he acquired Bank Lviv, and faced entirely new challenges, particularly when the country was invaded by Russia and became a nation at war. Enjoy this week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast! 0:00 – Intro 2:14 – Margeir’s memory of Reykjavik 1972 9:06 – How Margeir developed his passion for chess 21:46 – AD BREAK 23:27 – Margeir’s decision to pursue chess while working as a banker 28:30 – How did Margeir work on his chess? 35:04 – Why Fischer “pushed” Margeir out of chess 38:50 – Margeir’s banking career 42:40 – How Margeir ended up in Ukraine 49:55 – AD BREAK 50:54 – Did Margeir’s skill in chess translate to his banking career? 1:05:37 – Outro
This week’s episode of the New In Chess podcast features an inverview with Dutch grandmaster Loek van Wely. A friend of the podcast, for this edition Loek invited Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam to his home in the south of the Netherlands. Loek is currently in preparations for the Dutch Chess Champiopnship, which starts on Saturday, July 4, in Aalsmeer (for more information check out the website of the Dutch Chess Federation). Over the years, Loek has won the Dutch Chess Championship 8 times. His first win, in 2000, was the beginning of a unique series of six consecutive victories. Now, 26 years after that first title, he is going to try to win it a 9th time. If he succeeds, that would mean that in the list of all-time greats, he’d catch up with 9-time winner Jan Timman, while moving a little closer to the father of Dutch chess, Max Euwe, who won the title twelve times in a time span of 34 years. Besides the Dutch Championship, Loek also wanted to talk about Jan Timman, a dear colleague of his and an inspiration for many years, who passed away earlier this year, on February 18, at the age of 74. Jan meant a lot to Loek and he wanted to pay homage to a great player whose books he devoured as a kid and with whom he fought many fierce battles after he had become a grandmaster himself. Loek also reflects on his ambitions as a chess pro, speaks about the stellar career and lasting legacy of Jan Timman, and explains why he has political ambitions in the upcoming presidential elections of the European Chess Union. 2:23 – The Global Chess League 10:30 – Loeks “worldwide” chess activities in the past month 14:05 – Loek’s preparations for the upcoming Dutch national championship 22:57 – The late Jan Timman’s role in Loek’s chess life 25:08 – Loek’s first games against Timman in the 90’s 32:00 – People’s tendency to overlook Timman’s greatness 33:36 – AD BREAK 34:28 – Timman’s never-ending passion for chess 37:48 – Loek’s favourite Timman memories 39:16 – Loek’s brutal 1998 match against Timman 45:28 – Chess politics and Wadim Rosenstein’s bid for FIDE president 55:40 – AD BREAK 56:14 – Loek’s view for the future of the chess world 1:03:03 – Loek’s love of winning
This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Danish grandmaster Peter Heine Nielsen. Today’s interview reaches you once again from Oslo, where the 14th edition of Norway Chess ended in a stunning victory for Indian grandmaster Praggnanandhaa. ‘Pragg’ sensationally won his last four games and on the final day he leapfrogged Wesley So to pip the American at the post. In the Norway Chess Women’s tournament, first place had already been secured in the penultimate round by the new star of women’s chess, Bibisara Assaubayeva from Kazakhstan.