This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features the second part of a narration from "The Essential Sosonko", a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. The subject of this week's episode is Latvian chess master and trainer Alexander Koblenz.

Picking up where the last episode left off, the second half of the story focuses on Koblenz's contributions to chess beyond his mentorship of Mikhail Tal. He co-founded a chess magazine in Latvia, directed the chess club of Riga, and authored several books. What drove his passion for chess is what he himself described as creativity. It was this creativity that sustained his passion for chess well into his seventies, radiating a "joie de vivre" that his friends described as contagious.

The story also goes deeper into Koblenz's national and ethnic identity. Born to a Jewish family in Latvia (later part of the Soviet Union) and fluent in German as well as Russian and Yiddish, Koblenz was described as belonging everywhere and nowhere. The fall of the Soviet Union shook him, as did the death of his most famous pupil Tal not long after. Nevertheless, his relentless energy and passion for chess never left him. As Genna jokes: had Koblenz been stranded on a deserted island, within a few years there would be chess tournaments, schools and booklets of his combinations.

Enjoy this week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast!

A hardcopy version of "The Essential Sosonko" is available for purchase on the New In Chess website: https://www.newinchess.com/the-essential-sosonko

#75. Alexander Koblenz: The Maestro (2/2) | The Essential Sosonko