This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with grandmaster Alex Colovic. Alex is a grandmaster from North Macedonia, who lives in Skopje, and is active in the chess world in many ways. He’s not only a player, but also a trainer, a blogger, a YouTuber, a former president of the Association of Chess Professionals, and a FIDE Fair Play Officer.

We invited Alex this week to talk about his new book "Capablanca's Endgame Technique: The Astonishing Chess Logic of the Third World Champion". In his new book, he pays tribute to one of his chess heroes, the Cuban genius who became the third World Champion and is admired by many as one of the greatest natural talents our game has ever seen. Capablanca was famous for his impeccable endgame technique and Alex is convinced that studying his endgames is beneficial for players of all levels. In his book, Alex looks at 15 endgames of Capablanca in great depth. Not with ultradeep variations, but with a lot of verbal explanations, general observations and with lots of exercises in between for the reader. 

In our conversation, Alex explains the underlying ideas and his fascination with the Cuban and much more. An eager talker with a broad knowledge of chess and its history, Alex also speaks about sleeping problems for chess players and his work as a FIDE Fair Play Officer. In this capacity he will be at the World Championship match in Singapore in November between Ding Liren and Gukesh, and he provides great insights in the precautions that will be taken there.

Lots of insights, great suggestions to improve and wonderful stories. Don’t miss this talk with Alex Colovic!

The New In Chess podcast is published every Friday and can be listened to on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and the New In Chess website.

Alex's book on Capablanca is available for purchase on the New In Chess website: https://www.newinchess.com/capablanca-s-endgame-technique 

0:00 – Intro

2:32 – What inspired Alex to write about Capablanca?

5:42 – Does Alex notice Capablanca’s influence in his own games?

8:08 – Why Alex thinks it’s valuable to study the old masters

9:51 – What lessons can modern players learn from Capablanca’s play?

18:22 – Does Capablanca deserve to be counted among the greatest of all time?

21:01 – Capablanca’s personality and superstar status

27:38 – Alex’s biggest revelations when studying Capablanca’s legendary endgame play

32:22 – Should done always study with a board and pieces or is this an outdated concept?

37:20 – What other sources on Capablanca does Alex recommend?

41:19 – AD BREAK

42:17 – Emmanuel Lasker’s appraisal of Capablanca’s play

45:32 – Capablanca’s incredibly deep understanding of the game and ranking among the all-time greats

49:20 – AD BREAK

50:53 – Alex’s career in content creation, the importance of sleep

58:44 – Alex’s upcoming projects and work as a FIDE Fair Play Officer

1:04:18 – Outro