Let's talk about chess

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 the sort of chess I'm happy to see".  

Rogers is the first Australian-raised chess grandmaster and he attained the Grandmaster title in 1985 after becoming an International Master in 1980. He was Australia's highest-rated player for over twenty years, and represented Australia at fourteen Chess Olympiads (twelve of them on first board). 

Throughout his competitive career and more so since his retirement from competitive chess in July 2007, Rogers has reported on many tournaments for various media outlets, with photographic assistance from his wife Cathy Rogers. 

Rogers was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 1996 Australia Day Honours for his service to chess.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 first visit to The Netherlands in 1989 in which he debuted in Wijk aan Zee. He tells us what it was like to walk through the streets of the small village, being perplexed by the open curtains of the villagers. Since the five-time winner played so many games in Wijk aan Zee, he tells to the listeners which are his personal favourites. And he has some good news: he would love to be back in WIjk aan Zee in 2022, when the pandemic allows it. 

Enjoy this relaxed talk about a great tournament with one of the legends of the game: GM Vishy Anand.  

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 tournament was called the Corus chess tournament. Corus Group became Tata Steel Europe in 2007. Despite the name changes, the series is numbered sequentially from its Hoogovens beginnings. In 2021, the 83. edition was played. 

Since there are a lot of stories to tell about the tournament, Eric decided to invite a few former players and winners to the podcast to ask about their memories of this remote little village on the Dutch coast, that became "The Wimbledon of Chess". 

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. 1999 was the year in which one of the most legendary games ever was played, the game Kasparov-Topalov, which is called "The Pearl of Wijk aan Zee".  Jeroen tells us about this legendary game and Kasparov and has many more stories to tell. 

My guest also tells us something about the COVID - safe edition of 2021, which is challenging for him and his team. Jeroen tells us about the authorities that are involved in the process. The  tournament director also reveals some information about the online activities that are planned for the amateur players, who cannot come to Wijk aan Zee to play one of the famous "vierkampen" or "tienkampen". It is an lovely interview with the organizer of the "Wimbledon of Chess", Jeroen van den Berg. 

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 and by Vishy Anand (The Anand Files and Mind Master). Saravanan also tells us how difficult it is to buy affordable chess books in India. 

Books that are mentioned in this episode:
Hendriks - On the origin of good moves, Gelfand - Technical Decision Making and Decision making in major pieces endgames, Daniel King - Sultan Khan, Stuart Rachels - The best I saw in chess, Alexander Münninghoff - Hein Donner, Dvoretzky & Müller - DEM - 5th edition, Bezgodov - Defend like Petrosian, Karolyi - Petrosian year by year 1942-1962, Soltis - Magnus Carlsen 60 memorable games, Navara - My chess world, Keith Arkell - Arkell's endings, Timman - Timman's Triumphs, Nikitin- Vasiukov and Coaching Kasparov 1982-1990, Donaldson- Fischer and his world, Terekhov- Life and games of Vassily Smyslov, Smirin - Sicilian Warfare, Negi - 1.e4 vs. the minor defences.   

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 correspondent to national newspapers and news channels. In this episode, he talks with Eric about the Chess Year 2020, with the highlights being the Candidates Tournament, Online Chess, stand-up comedian Samay Raina, the Online Chess Olympiad, the upcoming Vishy Anand biopic and much more! In part 2 Eric and Saravanan talk about the best chess books of 2020! 

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 and his why chess was a key for him to succeed in life. "Chess is the only all-inclusive sport", explains Thomas. Luther is also a prolific writer of chess books. Some of his book are translated into English,, like "Luthers Chess Reformation", Chess Coaching for Kids-the U10 project, the Thinker's Chess Acadamy volume 1 &2 and he talks about his new project "Handbook for chess trainers (in German).   

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 famous names in computer chess and is used by chess players from beginners to world champions all over the world.

The Shredder chess programs by Stefan Meyer-Kahlen provide a game playing and analysis tool for everybody and are accepted as one of the best chess programs of the world. Since 1996 Shredder has won nineteen titles as World Computer Chess Champion which makes Shredder the most successful chess program ever.

Shredder 13 was released in 2016, but Stefan will be back with version 14 of his program in 2021. He has implemented many new ideas in his engine. In this episode, he talks about the early days of his engine, working with GM Vladimir Kramnik, cheating in chess and his ideas for the future.   

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, like Bernardo Bertolucci, Tom Tykwer and Heath Ledger. The two also talk about former chess world champion Garry Kasparov, who was one of the chess consultants, the splendid locations in Berlin and about the book by Walter Tevis.  And: is there going to be a second season? What will happen next to Beth Harmon? It's a fascinating exclusive interview with Mr. Allan Scott providing a lot of new background information about The Queen's Gambit. 

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 Gambit", the emotional year 2017, online chess, her idol world champion GM Magnus Carlsen and of course about the book "Sherlock's Method".