#72. Willy Hendriks Explains Why He Is Sceptical About Chess History!

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Dutch IM Willy Hendriks, one of today’s most entertaining and interesting chess authors.

Willy Hendriks’s debut Move First, Think Later was an instant success. In a highly original and witty manner, the book looks at the sense and nonsense of methods to improve in chess. The book won the 2012 ECF Book of the Year Award and was runner-up in the 2012 ChessCafe.com Book of the Year competition.

In the meantime, Hendriks has written three more books, page turners that challenge the traditional view of chess history.

All three have met with wide acclaim. First there was On the Origin of Good Moves (2020), which was followed by The Ink War, Romanticism versus Modernity in Chess (2022), starring William Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort, and most recently, The Philosopher and the Housewife (2025), a riveting tale about Tarrasch, Nimzowitsch and the evolution of chess expertise.

Willy Hendriks is interviewed by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, who makes no secret of the fact that he is a big fan of his books: ‘But then, of course I am biased. I love chess, I love chess history and I like people with original thoughts and a sense of humour.’

The interview focuses both on Hendriks’s books, and on the article he wrote for the latest issue of New In Chess Magazine, entitled ‘Rewriting Chess History’.

The article is a heartfelt plea to look at chess history with fresh eyes and free ourselves of several misconceived ideas that became generally accepted because they were formulated by such greats as Emanuel Lasker.

So, more than enough to talk about! Enjoy the podcast!

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0:00 – Intro

2:35 – Willy’s scepticism about chess history

6:30 – The story behind Willy’s work “Move First, Think Later”

12:55 – Misconceptions about chess improvement, according to Willy

15:20 – Steinitz, Lasker and the (often misconceived) origins of positional chess

20:40 – Lasker’s chess philosophy and style

25:43 – Why caricatures about chess players persist

27:25 – Richard Réti and the Tarrasch-Nimzowitsch feud

32:00 – AD BREAK

32:32 – Adolf Anderssen and the legacy of great 19th century players

38:10 – Willy’s criticism of historical ratings

44:00 – Zukertort and London 1883

47:40 – Romanticism vs modernism as a corollary to the struggle between chess amateurs and professionals in the late 19th century

53:20 – Willy’s use of wit and humour in his books

55:00 – AD BREAK

55:55 – Willy’s theory that the best way to study the historical development of chess is to look at openings

1:03:35 – What is Willy working on now?