The Wijk Aan Zee Storytellers by Eric van Reem
It's called the Wimbledon of Chess, and is one of the longest standing event in the world of chess right now. The town of Wijk Aan Zee completed its 83rd edition - a tournament that began in 1938 and the only year that it was cancelled was in 1945 due to World War II. Such great memories are attached with the Tata Steel Masters, formerly known as the Hoogoveens and Corus Masters. Eric van Reem, chess journalist, photographer and organizer, who has been closely involved with the tournament, decided to start a series of interview podcasts called "The Wijk Aan Zee Storytellers." His reason? To ensure the memories stay alive for posterity! Don't miss some amazing content.
The Wijk aan Zee Storytellers
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands and traditionally marks the start of the chess year. 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 83rd edition was played.
Since this year’s edition is a special one, a tournament without hundreds of amateurs playing in the same hall as the masters and even without spectators, Eric van Reem invited the tournament director of the TATA Steel Chess, Jeroen van den Berg to his new chess podcast "Let’s talk about chess" to talk about this year’s edition. Jeroen, who started his career in the tournament as a board boy and member of the press team in 1984, remembered some remarkable stories about his time in Wijk aan Zee. He became the tournament director of the event in the year 2000 and in the long 83-year-old history, Jeroen is only the third tournament director! After this episode, the host and creator of the podcast thought that it would be nice to hear more stories about Wijk aan Zee, a tournament he visited in 1984 for the first time. In the series „Wijk aan Zee Storytellers“ Eric talks to players who have a long history in Wijk aan Zee, like Dutch GM John van der Wiel who played 28 (!) times in Wijk and the renowned Australian GM and journalist Ian Rogers, who debuted in 1977 and has only missed a few editions since.
Traditionally, many Indian masters and grandmasters play in Wijk aan Zee. Did you know that Manuel Aaron, the first IM from India played the then called Hoogovens Tournament in 1962? Many players from India followed, the most prominent being GM Vishy Anand who debuted in 1989 and won the event. Anand played no less than 20 times in the Dutch village and won the tournament five times. Vishy is the most prominent guest in the “Wijk aan Zee Storytellers“ podcast in which he tells some hilarious stories about his tournaments, his debut in 1989 and the strange habit of Dutch people leaving their curtains open at night. He also recalls some of most memorable games (you can check some of them at the end of this article!). Definitely worth listening!
During his visits to Wijk aan Zee, Eric met many Indian players. In the year 2001, he did an interview for a Dutch chess magazine with 14-year old Pentala Harikrishna. And guess what? In 2021 Hari is the oldest player in the A group! Time flies, and that is why Eric decided to start his podcast and the „Storytellers“ series.
Before you know it, all these beautiful stories behind the moves on the board are forgotten, especially because no more tournament books are written these days, which also means that a lot of chess history will be lost forever. In his podcast and in the "Storytellers" series in particular, Eric tries to keep the memories alive, for posterity.
In his podcast, Eric not only talked to Vishy Anand. In his first episode of the podcast, that started in September 2020, he talked to GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly, later he did a 2020 recap with IM V. Saravanan, a good friend from Chennai. An interview with GM Pentala Harikrishna is coming soon.
About Eric van Reem:
Eric van Reem (1967, The Netherlands) started writing for various chess magazines in the year 2000. He became the chief editor of a Dutch computer chess magazine (Computerschaak) and he was also involved in the renowned Chess Classic Mainz tournaments from 2001-2010. Eric was a member of Team Anand in three consecutive World Chess Championship matches, in Sofia (2010), Moscow (2012) and Chennai (2013). You can read his diary about his time in Chennai on the blog mateinchennai.com. Over the years, Eric has made hundreds of pictures during the chess events he visited. A selection of these pictures were used in the books "The Anand Files", by Michiel Abeln and "Mind Master" by Vishy Anand. Eric lives with his (Icelandic) wife and two sons near Frankfurt, Germany where he works for Lufthansa German Airlines. When there is some time left, Eric visits rock concerts as a concert photographer. A selection of his music photography was exhibited in Frankfurt last year.
Podcast links of Wijk Aan Zee Storytellers
Until now Eric van Reem has published 21 episodes on his podcast website. The last six have been a new series called the Wijk Aan Zee Storytellers. You can click on the link below and access each one of them! Each episode has a lot of interesting anecdotes and stories and should not be missed.
Podcast with Indians
Apart from the Wijk Aan Zee Storytellers, there are also three episodes dedicated to Indian players. The first podcast ever by Eric was with Surya Ganguly and then two episodes with Saravanan. Find the links of them below:
Some memorable pictures:
Eric van Reem is an excellent photographer and has shared some memorable pictures from his collection specially for this article!
Some Vishy Anand gems from Wijk Aan Zee
Anand vs Topalov, 1998
Anand vs Bareev, 2004
Karjakin vs Anand, 2006
Anand vs Gelfand, 2006
Aronian vs Anand, 2013 (How can we forget this one!)
Important links:
Let's Talk about Chess Podcast