This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Danish grandmaster Peter Heine Nielsen.

Peter is a five-time Danish chess champion, but is primarily known for his highly successful coaching career. From 2007 till 2023, he was continuously coaching the reigning World Champion, working first for Vishy Anand and later for Magnus Carlsen. In this capacity, he was a winning coach in a world championship match a record eight times.

As always, this year’s world title match, which takes place in Singapore between November 25th and December 13th, is eagerly awaited. At the same time, the reigning champion’s lacklustre recent results keep confusing the experts. Ding Liren has dropped to 22nd place in the world rankings and only seems a shadow of the great Ding that not that long ago was the second player in the world behind Magnus Carlsen. In stark contrast, Gukesh has been going from strength to strength. After winning the Candidates tournament in Toronto earlier this year, he led India to gold at the Olympiad in Budapest with a stellar performance on first board.

Interviewed by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Peter Heine Nielsen assesses the situation at the start of the match, analyzing Gukesh’s strengths and possible weaknesses and looking for glimpses of hope for Ding Liren.

0:00 – Intro

2:05 – What is Peter expecting from this year’s world championship match?

3:33 – Ding’s physical and mental state

8:40 – Ding’s deterioration over the past year, winning 3 out of 49 classical games

13:47 – Comparing Gukesh’s rise to the rises of Kasparov and Carlsen

16:50 – Ding’s strong competitive mindset, despite his mental health issues

21:02 – AD BREAK

21:35 – How should Ding’s team aid him in his preparation for Singapore?

25:59 – Ding’s friendship with Richard Rapport

31:53 – What will be the role of computer preparation in this match?

37:00 – Could Gukesh’s confidence be his downfall?

40:30 – Could Ding be exaggerating his symptoms to make Gukesh underestimate him?

43:00 – AD BREAK

44:00 – Kasparov’s assertion that this is “not a world championship match at all”

50:22 – Peter’s love of freestyle chess, also known as Chess960 and Fischerandom

56:48 – Developments in chess in China and India

1:06:20 – So, what is Peter’s prediction for the match?

1:09:17 - Outro