Let's talk about chess

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 August 26, 1958 in Buffalo, New York) is a chess grandmaster (title awarded 1993) and works as a freelance journalist. An American citizen by origin, he became Irish and later Norwegian. He was Norwegian Chess Champion in 1987, 1991 and 1995. Jon also acted as a team captain for the Norwegian team and witnessed the rise and development of his compratiot, chess world champion Magnus Carlsen. His book "Improve your chess now" from 1997 is a modern classic. 

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 never been published in the West. In October 2019, Quality Chess published his translation of Grigory Levenfish's memoir and in the podcast Douglas reveals that some more interesting work and translations will be published later this year! 

Douglas played with Vishy Anand and Vasik Ivanchuk in the World Youth Championship in Sharjah, in 1985. 

In the podcast, Eric and Doug, both born in 1967,  talk about chess history in general, chess books, the history of the Candidates Tournament, and much more! Another very enjoyable and relaxed talk about...chess! 

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 preventing Alzheimer's and other senile dementias", he says. 

Leontxo Garcia was awarded a medal for sporting achievements in Spain, he is included in FIDE’s Golden Book for his services to chess, he was given an award by the University of Oviedo for exceptional efforts in promoting culture and he was recognised with a national chess award. 

Today, Leontxo Garcia remains one of the leading chess journalists in Europe, who attends all the major contemporary competitions. “Chess is a golden mine practically unexplored by the press!” the famous observer likes to remark. And: he is one of the nicest persons in the chess business. 

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 circuit. 

Nowadays, Lennart works freelance for chess tournaments, chess websites and other publishers of digital media. For many tournaments, he combines his work as a DGT board operator with photography. 
In 2018 Lennart was awarded as Chess Photographer of the Year by the Russian Chess Federation. 

In 2020 he was also present at the Candidates Tournament 2020 in Yekaterinburg and he has many stories to tell from that event. He will also be in Russia for the second part of the event to take pictures. 


  

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 chess books: “Chess and the Art of War: Ancient Wisdom to Make You a Better Player” with Al Lawrence and "Sherlock's Method - the working tool for the club player", with his partner WGM Sabina Foisor. Eric interviewed her in episode 10.  Elshan has coached the US Junior national team, US Open national team, Iran’s Junior national team, and over 350 individuals in the past 10 years.

Eric and Elshan talk about chess in Iran, his work as a coach and author and the upcoming Candidates Tournament. And why does Elshan like to wear hats? 

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 she successfully defended her doctoral thesis entitled "Cognitive Information Processing: the Case of Chess" in 2011. In 2004 she worked with the Faculty of Computer and Information Science on a project in which researchers developed a program for automatic annotation of a chess game. She was a researcher at the Department of Intelligent Systems at Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana in the field of artificial intelligence. Her work was presented at several international conferences and published in scientific publications.

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 a lot of text in the book, which makes it interesting for a wide range of players. The book was published by Thinkers Publishing. LTAC recommended!

However, there is another amazing story Hari has in store for us: he tells about his meeting with the legend of all legends, Bobby Fischer. He met him in Reykjavik, Iceland in 2006. Don't miss it!

Pentala Harikrishna became the youngest grandmaster from India on 12 September 2001, a record now held by Gukesh D. He was Commonwealth Champion in 2001, World Junior Champion in 2004 and Asian Individual Champion in 2011.

Pentala won the Tata Steel Group B in 2012 and the Biel MTO Masters Tournament Open event in 2013. He represented India at seven Chess Olympiads from 2000 to 2012 and won team Bronze at the World Team Chess Championships in 2010. At the Asian Team Championships, Pentala won team gold once, team silver twice and individual bronze once.

In July 2020, he won with 5.5 points out of 7 games the Chess960 event, that was part of the chess tournament in Biel. He also represented India in the Online Olympiad 2020 where India won the gold medal along with Russia.

In February 2013, Pentala's FIDE rating passed 2700 for the first time. He broke into the top ten players in the world in November 2016 with a FIDE rating of 2768. His current rating (February 2021) is 2730. 

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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 good start. Harikrishna also has something to say about the Firouzja case and the tie-breaks. Eric and Hari also talk about the first event he played in, back in 2001, in which he shared the stage with players like Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik and Ivanchuk. In the 2021 edition, Hari was the oldest player! 

Pentala Harikrishna became the youngest grandmaster from India on 12 September 2001, a record now held by Gukesh D. He was Commonwealth Champion in 2001, World Junior Champion in 2004 and Asian Individual Champion in 2011.

Pentala won the Tata Steel Group B in 2012 and the Biel MTO Masters Tournament Open event in 2013. He represented India at seven Chess Olympiads from 2000 to 2012 and won team Bronze at the World Team Chess Championships in 2010. At the Asian Team Championships, Pentala won team gold once, team silver twice and individual bronze once.

In July 2020, he won with 5.5 points out of 7 games the Chess960 event, that was part of the chess tournament in Biel. He also represented India in the Online Olympiad 2020 where India won the gold medal along with Russia.

In February 2013, Pentala's FIDE rating passed 2700 for the first time. He broke into the top ten players in the world in November 2016 with a FIDE rating of 2768. His current rating (February 2021) is 2730.  
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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 games, the rivalry between Dutch players like Van der Wiel, Piket and Timman, the famous football matches on the restdays and other Wijk aan Zee stories. He also has a fun story to tell about the Netflix series "The Queen's Gambit". When watching an episode, he suddenly recognized a game that he played in the 2000 edition of the tournament in Wijk aan Zee against GM and former world champion Garry Kasparov. 

Loek van Wely (1972) is a Dutch chess player and politician. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1993, and was rated among the world's top ten in 2001 with a rating of 2714. In March 2019, he was elected to the Dutch Senate. He has won the Dutch Chess Championship on eight occasions: six consecutive times from 2000 through 2005, in 2014 and in 2017.

Van Wely participated in the elite tournament held in Wijk aan Zee (originally named Hoogovens, then Corus, now Tata Steel) 25 times, consecutively from 1992 to 2010 and again from 2012 to 2017. His best result occurred in 2003, when he shared fourth place with Alexei Shirov, Alexander Grischuk, Vassily Ivanchuk and Vladimir Kramnik scoring 7 out of 13 points.
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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 talks a bit about that game, but there are other, sometimes hilarious stories to tell. Sokolov also talks about the 2021 edition of the event and tells us why he is not surprised that the youngsters play such a great tournament this year.

Ivan Sokolov (1968) is a Bosnian-born Dutch chess player, coach and writer. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster (GM) by FIDE in 1987. Sokolov won the 1988 Yugoslav Championship and in 1995 and 1998 the Dutch Championship. The former world top player defeated no less than 6 world champions. 
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