In this episode, the last one about the Candidates Tournament 202X, Eric talks (again) to GM Jon Tisdall. They discuss the Candidates Tournament 202X, the winner with the unspeakable name, the right format to qualify, wildcards, the retirement of GM Wang Hao, GM Peter Leko being the decisive factor in the Candidates and the upcoming World Championship in Dubai. And yes, they managed to pronounce the name of the winner, GM Yan Nepomniachtchi! Enjoy this new episode.  Jonathan D. Tisdall (born...

In episode 28, Eric talks to chess historian Douglas Griffin, who is a chess author/blogger, translator, and an indispensable source of historical chess perspective on “chess twitter”. He is particularly interested and knowledgeable about chess in the Soviet Union and has a very interesting blog. Over the course of the past 15 years he has translated the annotations to a great many games from classic Soviet-era books and periodicals such as 'Chess in the U.S.S.R' and '64', many of which have...

In episode 27 of the podcast, which is another special "Candidates Storytellers" episode, Eric talks to one of the best and most famous chess journalists in the world: Leontxo Garcia Olasagasti (1956), who is a Spanish lecturer, presenter, commentator and journalist specialized in chess.  Tireless chess propagandist, Leontxo promotes the teaching of this game to both children (in Spanish schools and abroad and adults. "Regular chess exercise improves brain aging and may even be useful in...

In episode 26, Eric talks to his compatriot Lennart Ootes. He is well known for the marvellous pictures he makes during chess tournaments. However, Lennart is an allrounder and he calls himself an creative chess professional. Lennart has a passion for chess coverage. Since 2012 he has provided services for chess events, including many of the most prestigious tournaments in the world. By attending over 25 tournaments a year, Lennart is the most experienced chess broadcaster on the...

In this episode, Eric talks to GM Elshan Moradiabadi. He is a chess grandmaster who was born in Tehran, Iran, and is a naturalized citizen of the US. Elshan was one of the top two players in Iran between 2003-2016. He moved to the US in 2012, where he participated in several US collegiate chess events, having won the Final Four in 2012 and 2015 Pan Americans with Texas Tech University’s chess team. He won the prestigious Rilton Cup in Stockholm, Sweden in 2020.  Moradiabadi co-authored two...

In this episode, Eric talks to WGM Dr. Jana Krivec (1980). She is a Slovene chess player, Woman Grandmaster and Slovenian woman champion in 1997, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, and in 2009. She played in 11 Chess Olympiads for her country Slovenia.  In this episode Eric and Jana talk about her career and her book "Improve your life by playing a game", published by Thinkers Publishing in 2021.  Jana Krivec graduated from the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Ljubljana in 2004, where...

In this episode, Eric continues his conversation with the Indian number two of Indian chess: Super Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna (1986) from India. In this episode Eric and Hari talk about the first book Harikrishna wrote, "Beat the French with 3. Nc3". Hari explains that it is not only a book about the French Defence, but also a book about general opening principles, strategies and he explains that is is not always useful to pick the best computer move and to trust your instincts. There is...

In this episode Eric talks to the Indian number two of Indian chess: Super Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna (1986) from India about the TATA Steel Chess Tournament 2021. Hari, as he is often called, played for the 8th time in Wijk aan Zee. He tells us how it was to play the first super tournament of 2021 in COVID conditions. He tells us a bit how it was to be tested before every rest day, to be in quarantaine before the event and of course about his games. He scored 50% in the event, after a...

In this last episode of the "Wijk aan Zee Storytellers", Eric talks to his compratiot GM Loek van Wely, who played 25 times in the highest group in Wijk aan Zee. He played the most games on the highest level in the history of the event and shares the record with the legendary GM Jan-Hein Donner: 297 games! Loek debuted in 1990 though , in the B group and in that tournament he lost to all the three Polgar sisters!  In this episode "KingLoek" , as he is often called, talks about his best...

In this fourth episode of the "Wijk aan Zee Storytellers" series, Eric talks to GM Ivan Sokolov, who played twelve times in the highest group of the tournament in Wijk aan Zee, in which he played 134 games. He played his most famous game in 1999 in Wijk aan Zee against GM Garry Kasparov, who was in the lead with 7,5/8 and had just played one of the most spectacular games ever against Veselin Topalov. However, Sokolov crushed Kasparov in round 9 and shocked Kasparov and the chess world. He...

In this new episode of the Wijk aan Zee Storytellers, Eric talks to GM Ian Rogers (1960), mainly about his debut in WIjk aan Zee in 1977, where he met the best players of the era for the very first time. He has a story to tell about the great Dutch chess world champion GM Max Euwe. Ian also remembers the greatest game he ever saw in Wijk, and it is not the game Kasparov-Topalov! We talk about the crazy game Bellon vs. Jamieson from the B-group in 1977. "Two cavemen going at each other. That's...

Does this man still need an introduction? Eric talks to five-time world champion GM Viswanathan Anand (1969) from India about the tournament he won five times: in 1989, 1998, 2003, 2004 and 2006. Anand played 20 times in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands in which he played 247 games (the most number of games by a non-Dutchman) and won 75 games, making him the number two on the all-time Wijk aan Zee list. Only the legendary Dutch GM Jan-Hein Donner won more games (85).  Vishy talks about his...

This is the first episode of the "Wijk aan Zee Storytellers". Eric talks to GM John van der Wiel (1959) from The Netherlands, who participated no less than 28 (!) times in the tournament in Wijk aan Zee. The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Steel to form the Corus Group in 1999, after which the...

In this episode, Eric talks to his compratiot, the tournament director of the TATA Steel Chess Tournament, 58-year old Dutchman Jeroen van den Berg. Jeroen has not missed a single day in Wijk aan Zee since 1984, which was the first time Jeroen played a role in the tournament as a board boy and member of the press team. In 1999, the Dutchman became the tournament director of the tournament in WIjk aan Zee, and followed in the steps of the legendary Piet Zwart, who had been the TD for 45 years....

This is the second part of the interview with IM Venkat Saravanan from Chennai. In this spisode, Eric and Saravanan chat about the best chess books of the year 2020. Saravanan loves chess books and there are two very popular videos on You Tube, made by IM Sagar Shah of ChessBase India, in which Saravanan shows his personal chess books collection and gives advice which chess books should be read by ambitious chess players. In this episode Eric and Saravanan discuss about two great books about...

In this episode, part 1 of a long interview, Eric talks to IM Venkatchalam Saravanan from Chennai, India. He is an International Master and has been an active chess player in the Indian circuit, and has been consistently writing on chess since late 1980s. He turned complete chess professional in 2012, actively playing and being a second and mentor to a handful of Indian players. Saravanan is Secretary of Chess Players Forum (India). He reports on chess tournaments, occasionally being a...

In this episode Eric talks to German Chess Grandmaster Thomas Luther (1969). He is a three times German Champion (1992, 2002, 2006) and won a silver Olympic Medal at the Chess Olympiad 2000 in Istanbul. Luther, who suffers from dysmelia, is the chairman in the FIDE Commission for the Disabled. He speaks about the first Online Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities, which was played from 20.11.2020-03.12.2020. Poland won, ahead of Russia and the Ukraine. He also talks about his own career...

In this episode Eric talks about computerchess with computer chess programmer Stefan Meyer-Kahlen, from Düsseldorf Germany. Eric and Stefan met for the first time in 2000 for an interview for the Dutch magazine Computerschaak. Shredder Chess is run by Stefan Meyer-Kahlen who works on Shredder since 1993. The Shredder chess programs are commercially available since 1997 and have been sold in many different versions in more than 100 countries over the years. Today Shredder is one of the most...

In this episode, Eric talks to 79-year old Mr. Allan Scott, one of the executive producers and creators of the Netflix hit series "The Queen's Gambit, the series that made it to the Top 10 in 90 countries and was ranked #1 in 63 countries. The filmmaker and writer Allan Scott had been attempting to sell his script for The Queen’s Gambit to studios for 30 years before it finally got made. Eric talks with Mr. Scott about this long process and the many directors that wanted to make the movie,...

In this episode Eric talks to WGM Sabina-Francesca Foisor, a Romanian-American chess player who competed in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2008 and 2017. Sabina won the women's US Championship in 2017. She works as a chess coach and in October 2020 her first book  "Sherlock's Method - the working tool for the Club Player" was published by Thinkers Publishing. She wrote the book together with her fiancee GM Elshan Moradiabadi. Sabina and Eric chat about the Netflix Series "The Queen's...

In this episode Eric talks to the Russian grandmaster Andrey Deviatkin. Andrey decided to quit his chess career a couple of years ago, because he wanted to try something else: Chess960. But why did Andrey stop playing "traditional chess"? He said: "I understood that chess has become an absolutely different game from the one I have played in my childhood and youth. The computer has changed it dramatically. I have been working hard to become a chess grandmaster, but now my interest is over"....

Jesús Medina Molina launched “Urban Chess” in 2018, a social initiative in the Netherlands to place public chess tables in city parks. In March that year, the first three public tables were inaugurated in Máxima Park in Utrecht. Two and a half years later, 17 Dutch municipalities have followed already, and his initiative has already received words of endorsement from chess personalities like Anish Giri, as well as Judit and Susan Polgar. Eric talks to Jesús about his project in The...

In this episode your host Eric van Reem does not only talk about chess, but also about music with the Icelandic musician Hjörtur Ingvi Jóhannsson. He is the keyboard player of the band Hjaltalín, and he is active in the country's music scene as an independent songwriter and arranger. Hjörtur wrote songs for the movie Autumn Lights, and one of those songs, "Seconds", was shortlisted for nomination to the Oscars 2017. Eric also talks to his father, legendary Grandmaster Jóhan Hjartarson about...

In this episode, Eric talks to his compratiot IM Merijn van Delft, born in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands on 13.03.1979 about his new book "Mastering Positional Sacrifices: A Practical Guide to a Vital Skill in Chess", published by New in Chess in the summer of 2020. Since Merijn is incredibly active in the chess world as a trainer, organizer, tournament director, commentator and promoter of chess, there is a lot to talk about. Merijn also reveals something about a completely new chess project...