My guest in this week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast is grandmaster Alex Colovic. The reason I invited Alex is the publication of his new book Capablanca's Endgame Technique, The Astonishing Chess Logic of the Third World Champion. The book is published by New In Chess and is also available as a Chessable course.

Alex Colovic 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.

And a prolific writer. In his new book Capablanca's Endgame Technique, Alex Colovic 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.

He's speaking from experience, as he describes in the introduction to the book: ‘The year 2005 was pivotal in my chess career. After a deep personal crisis that lasted several years, I spent three months studying Capablanca’s games using his books and the books written about him. My first tournament after this study was the strong Malaga Open, which I managed to win, and where I scored my second grandmaster norm. The level of my chess strength and understanding increased significantly as a direct result of my study of Capablanca’s games. (..) The magical simplicity of Capablanca’s moves gave me the impression that I could also play like that and it gave me the confidence I had always lacked. I scored my final grandmaster norm in 2007.’

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 the podcast we speak about his book and about Capablanca. Alex explains the underlying ideas and his fascination with the Cuban and much more. He believes that studying the different World Champions remains an essential route for any student of the game and tells stories about the role Bobby Fischer and ‘Capa’ played in his own development.

Alex is an eager talker with a broad knowledge of chess and its history. Besides his new book we also speak about sleeping problems for chess players, and Alex’s 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.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Intro
02:32 – What inspired Alex to write about Capablanca?
05:42 – Does Alex notice Capablanca’s influence in his own games?
08:08 – Why Alex thinks it’s valuable to study the old masters
09:51 – What lessons can modern players learn from Capablanca’s play?
18:22 – Does Capablanca deserve to be counted among the greatest of all time?
20:22 – AD BREAK
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 – Emanuel 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