#82. Jan Timman Talks About Composing Endgame Studies!

In this week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast, Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam talks to Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman. Jan returns to the podcast to talk about his latest book, Timman’s Studies, an impressive volume of 455 pages in which he presents his collected endgame studies and explains how they originated.

Of course, Jan Timman is primarily known as the most successful Dutch chess player of the past fifty years; a world-class player who won countless elite tournaments and rose to second place in the world rankings in 1982.

However, in recent years, after Covid, Jan’s appearances as a player had become less frequent, and a few weeks ago he announced in an interview with Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, that he has ended his active career as a player.

As Honorary Editor, Jan continues to write for New In Chess Magazine, but he will no longer seek the tension and excitement of the chess arena.

And one thing Jan will definitely not forego is the pleasure of endgame studies! As he puts it in our talk, during the last 10 years endgame studies have actually been the most important part of his chess life.

In 2011, Jan wrote his first book on endgame studies: The Art of the Endgame, My Journeys in the Magical World of Endgame Studies. And last year he paid tribute to all the great composers who have inspired him, and wrote 100 Endgame Studies You Must Know.

And now Jan has written Timman’s Studies, My Collected Endgame Studies and their Origins. As said, it’s a thick book of more than 450 pages and it contains 186 of his endgame studies composed in a period of more than half a century, between 1971 and 2025. What’s more, the final chapter, with 31 studies in total, consists entirely of new work.

If you’re interested in studies and what they mean to Jan Timman, this is certainly a podcast for you.

Don’t miss this talk with one of the modern legends of our game.

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0:00 – Intro

4:10 – Jan’s lifelong passion for endgame studies

5:57 – Jan tells stories about his father, Max Euwe and Paul Keres

12:40 – Jan’s great admiration for fellow endgame composers like Troitsky, Kubbel and Kasparyan

17:40 – How Jan started composing endgame studies himself

23:09 – AD BREAK

23:41 – How much do we know about famous chess composers?

30:39 – Chess composers who were also strong players

35:12 – Composing chess studies without a board

37:27 – Why grandmasters are often appreciative of chess studies

42:49 – AD BREAK

44:50 – What can composers do to increase general interest in chess studies?

46:15 – Why studies are the most important part of Jan’s chess life these days

49:00 – Will endgame studies inevitably become more complicated?

51:40 – Will solving studies make you a better player?

53:41 – Outro