New In Chess Podcast

This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with American international master John Donaldson.
The first time John appeared on the podcast, he was invited as the captain of the American team, on the eve of the 2024 Budapest Olympiad. This time, he talks about his latest book on what may safely be called his hero, Bobby Fischer. John has written a lot about Fischer and in 2022 he published his magnum opus "Bobby Fischer And His World", a thick book of 644 pages bringing together an enormous amount of material about the 11th World Champion.


His latest work is called "Inside The Mind of Bobby Fischer". In a voluminous book of 400 pages, John revisits everything he could find that Fischer has written as a chess analyst. Which means that he not only presents annotated games from Fischer’s very first book, Bobby Fischer’s Games of Chess, but also all the columns he wrote for Boys’ Life, a magazine for the boy scouts of American, and his columns in Chess Life. And there is much more that anyone interested in Fischer would like to see or revisit.
So, if you are looking for a sneak peek or a few teasers of John Donaldson’s fascinating new book, then this podcast is a good place to start!
0:00 – Intro


2:20 – What inspired John to write a new Fischer book?
14:26 – Fischer’s incredible dedication and discipline as a teenager

18:02 – Fischer’s mother Regina

26:25 – Fischer’s lost games

40:50 – AD BREAK

41:23 – The value of Fischer memorabilia

1:01:03 – AD BREAK

1:02:05 – How did John go about analysing Bobby’s old annotations?
1:08:10 - Dimitrije Bjelica

1:11:05 – Is John contemplating a next book about Fischer?

1:17:38 – Outro

This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with grandmaster Anish Giri.
Today’s podcast once again reaches you from Paphos, in Cyprus, where at the luxurious Cap Saint Georges hotel the Candidates tournament has come to an end after two weeks of excitement and captivating chess. Anish was one of the pretournament favourites and one of the absolute stars of the 2026 Candidates, but in the end he, too, had to bow to the exceptional performance of the winner, twenty-year-old Javokhir Sindarov from Uzbekistan.
Together with Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Anish talks about his mixed feelings and looks back on the Candidates tournament from his perspective. 
0:00 – Intro

1:32 – Does Anish have mixed feelings at the end of this tournament?

5:35 – Not beating Wei Yi in the twelfth round

8:40 – Is Anish “not dangerous enough”?

14:35 – Fabiano Caruana’s performance

20:11 – AD BREAK

20:44 – The switch from increment to non-increment play

29:18 – Javokhir Sindarov

33:27 – Erdogmus

37:00 – The hidden coach: Roman Vidonyak

39:25 – Anish’s theory about Javokhir’s rise

45:33 – Modern chess training and coaching

58:30 – AD BREAK

59:50 – Untold: Chess Mates

1:02:20 – Anish’s venture with ChessMonitor

1:08:08 – Outro

This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with grandmaster Boris Gelfand.
Today’s interview reaches you from Paphos, in Cyprus, on a rest day of the Candidates tournament, after ten of the fourteen rounds have been played. With four rounds to go it looks like Uzbek star Javokhir Sindarov is heading for first place and a World Championship match against World Champion Gukesh from India at the end of this year.
Boris has himself successfully played in the Candidates, won Interzonals and a World Cup and was the Challenger of Vishy Anand in the World Championship match in Moscow in 2012. Together with Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Boris reflects on his own participation in the Candidates tournament and the unique pressures of playing at such high stakes.
0:10 - Intro 
2:47 - Boris reflects on his own experiences at the Candidates Tournament
14:48 – AD BREAK

15:19 – Qualifying for the World Championship in 2012

23:50 – The difficulty of dedicating one’s self completely to one chess tournament

27:51 – Jakovhir Sindarov’s performance

34:56 – How did Boris psychologically deal with losing his lead over Anand in 2012?

35:43 – AD BREAK

36:42 – Boris thinks Fabiano has taken too many risks in this tournament

38:34 – Boris’s current chess life

40:38 – Outro

This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Danish-Scottish grandmaster Jacob Aagaard.
Jacob is arguably the most versatile chess professional in the world. At the risk of turning this episode description into an essay, we'll summarise his activities. Jacob is a grandmaster who occasionally still feels the lure of competitive chess; a prolific and successful writer, who has authored more than twenty books; a chess publisher; a coach for world-class players such as Boris Gelfand, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Sam Shankland and many names that are supposed to remain a secret; the proprietor of the Killer Chess Training brand; and, last not but least, the owner of the New In Chess Group, which comprises New In Chess, Quality Chess, Everyman Chess, Popular Chess and Elevation Chess. In short, he is the boss of everyone involved in the production of this podcast. 
Together with Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Jacob talks about his ambitions and plans for the near future, and anything else that pops up. These include his predictions for the upcoming Candidates Tournament in Cyprus and his thoughts about the new Netflix documentary Untold: Chess Mates, about the controversy between Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann that made headlines all over the world. Will Carlsen and Niemann finally speak freely and clarify what really happened?
0:00 – Intro

2:11 – How does Jacob coordinate his many top-level roles in the chess world?

14:42 – Jacob compares the different publishers under his umbrella

24:22 – Daniel Naroditsky’s brilliance as a chess author and educator

29:36 – AD BREAK

30:09 – Jacob previews some other chess books in the pipeline

31:19 – How chess literature has developed throughout the computer age

36:53 – The genius of Mikhail Tal

38:26 – Jacob’s Killer Chess Training platform

48:48 – AD BREAK

49:47 – The Carlsen – Niemann saga

1:00:17 – The upcoming Candidates Tournament

1:10:02 – Some football talk

1:12:35 – Pragg

This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Hungarian grandmaster Judit Polgár.
Judit is universally considered the greatest female chess player of all time. After breaking Bobby Fischer's record to become the youngest grandmaster of all time at age 15, she topped the women's rankings for 25 years, from 1989 until her retirement in 2014. She is the only female player to have every broken into the world top 10. Over the course of her career, she amassed victories over no fewer than eleven current or former World Champions in classical or rapid chess. 
With a life so filled with records, firsts and extraordinary achievements, it should come as no surprise that a Netflix documentary about her unique career has come out. "Queen of Chess" was directed by Rory Kennedy, daughter of late US attorney general Bobby Kennedy, and focuses on her strict upbringing and her intense matches with then-World Champion Garry Kasparov.
A second topic of conversation is Judit's relationship with the late Jan Timman, who passed away a few weeks ago and with whom Judit had a strong relationship, having had many training sessions together, as well as a shared love for endgame studies. 
0:00 – Intro

2:26 – How did “The Queen of Chess” come about?
11:48 – Did Judit have any doubts about Kasparov’s participation in the film?
20:11 – How does Judit look back on being the “guinea pig” of her father’s experiment?
24:40 – AD BREAK

25:12 – Mr. Polgar has no regrets!

27:02 – The influence of Judit’s husband Gustav

30:40 – How does Judit remember the late and great Jan Timman?
37:53 – Judit’s words of encouragement for talented young women
41:02 – AD BREAK

42:00 – Was Judit intimidated by Kasparov?
46:17 – Judit and Timman’s shared passion for the artistry of chess

53:43 – Outro