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Wijk aan Zee Storytellers (5) - Loek van Wely
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.
€19.95
In this fourth episode of the Wijk aan Zee Storytellers series, Eric van Reem 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.
€29.90
Wijk aan Zee Storytellers - Ian Rogers
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.
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Wijk aan Zee Storytellers - Part 1: John van der Wiel
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 . All the information about the tournament and links that will guide you to the right place, can be found on the official website of the tourname
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Eric van Reem and Venkat Saravanan talk about chess
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!