Diederik Johan Mathijs "Dirk" ten Geuzendam (born January 11, 1957) is a Dutch

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

writer, commentator and organizer. He is the editor-in-chief of New In Chess, an international chess magazine with readers in 116 countries. Ten Geuzendam graduated from Groningen University, where he studied English Language and Literature and General Literature.

New In Chess

He joined New In Chess in 1985 and ever since the late 1980s he's been covering top-level chess, reporting from all over the world. Over the years he has interviewed countless grandmasters and other chess personalities. A selection of those interviews appeared in his books ''Finding Bobby Fischer'' (1994, second edition 2015) and ''The Day Kasparov Quit'' (2006). His book ''Linares! Linares!, A Journey into the Heart of Chess'' (2001, first published as ''Het Geheime Wonder'' in Dutch in 2000), is a romantic account full of stories (but no games) of the legendary chess tournaments in Linares, Spain. Furthermore, he edited a number of tournament books including ''The Second SWIFT International Chess Tournament, Brussels 1987'', ''The 11th Interpolis Chess Tournament, Tilburg 1987'', ''The 12th Interpolis Chess Tournament, Tilburg 1988'', ''SKA Mephisto Turnier 1991'' (in German), ''Waarom schaakt u eigenlijk? '' (in Dutch, 1996 VSB tournament, Amsterdam), ''Fontys Schaaktoernooi Tilburg 1996'' (in Dutch), ''Donner Memorial Amsterdam 1997'' (in Dutch) and ''Fontys Schaaktoernooi Tilburg 1997'' (in Dutch).

Bobby Fischer

Ever since his meeting with American legend Bobby Fischer in Sveti Stefan in 1992, Ten Geuzendam kept a special interest in the 11th Chess World Champion. Following the death of Fischer in 2008, he travelled to Iceland to speak to the people who had been close to Fischer while he lived there. The result was a 22-page article in New In Chess 2008/2. Another extensive article on Fischer appeared in New In Chess 2015/3, in which Ten Geuzendam argued that ‘(only) by accepting (Fischer’s mental) illness as a fact can we forgive his virulent anti-Semitism, his raving paranoia and other delusions, and embrace the chess genius, one of the greatest and most inspiring champions our game has ever seen.’ His article criticized Edward Winter's position on Fischer by distorting the public record, and Ten Geuzendam did not publish a correction in New in Chess, despite undertaking to do so."Brad Darrach and the Dark Side of Bobby Fischer" by Edward Winter
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Dutch journalism

Besides his work for New In Chess he has written a lot about chess for the Dutch newspaper ''

NRC Handelsblad ''NRC'', previously called ''NRC Handelsblad'' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. It is generally accepted as a newspaper of record in the Netherlands. History ''NRC Handelsblad'' was first published on 1 ...

'' and for the Dutch weekly ''

Vrij Nederland ''Vrij Nederland'' (Free Netherlands) is a Dutch magazine, established during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II as an underground newspaper. It has since grown into a magazine. The originally weekly and now monthly magaz ...

'', where he had a chess column from 1994 till 2002. A selection of his columns was published as ''Schaaklezen'' (in Dutch) in 2000. From 2007 to 2013 he was one of the editors (together with Allard Hoogland and Rob van Vuure) of the Dutch chess literary magazine ''Matten''.

Team captain

On two occasions, in 1990 at the Chess Olympiad in Novi Sad and in 1992, at the Chess Olympiad in Manila, Ten Geuzendam was captain of the Dutch national team.

Tournament director

Representing the Monaco-based Association Max Euwe of chess benefactor Joop van Oosterom, Ten Geuzendam was tournament director of the final four editions of the prestigious Amber Rapid and Blindfold Chess Tournament (2008-10 in Nice, 2011 in Monaco) and the final three editions of the NH Rising Stars vs. Experience tournaments in Amsterdam.

Commentary host

Ten Geuzendam made his debut as commentary host for the English live transmission at the 2012 World Championship match between

Vishy Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have ...

and

Boris Gelfand Boris Gelfand ( he, בוריס אברמוביץ' גלפנד; be, Барыс Абрамавіч Гельфанд, Barys Abramavich Hel'fand; russian: Борис Абрамович Гельфанд, Boris Abramovich Gel'fand; born 24 June 1968) ...

in Moscow. During the match various leading grandmasters joined him as co-commentators: Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Leko, Nigel Short, Peter Svidler and

Jan Timman Jan Timman (born 14 December 1951) is a Dutch chess grandmaster who was one of the world's leading chess players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career, he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known as ...

. Following this debut he hosted the live commentary at top tournaments such as the 2013 Alekhine Memorial in Paris and St. Petersburg (with

Alexander Grischuk Alexander Igorevich Grischuk (born October 31, 1983) is a Russian chess grandmaster. Grischuk was the Russian champion in 2009. He is also a three-time world blitz chess champion (in 2006, 2012 and 2015). He has competed in five Candidates T ...

and

Judit Polgar Judit is a feminine given name related to Judith. Notable people with the name include: *Judit Bar-Ilan (1958–2019), Israeli computer scientist *Judit Elek (born 1937), Hungarian film director and screenwriter *Judit Földing-Nagy (born 1965), ...

), Norway Chess 2013 (with

Simen Agdestein Simen Agdestein (born 15 May 1967) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster, chess coach, author, and former professional footballer as a striker for the Norway national football team. Agdestein won eight Norwegian Chess Championships between 1982 an ...

), 2013 Tromsø World Cup (with

Nigel Short Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English chess grandmaster, columnist, coach, and commentator, who is the vice-president of FIDE since October 2018. Short earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 19, and was ranked third in the w ...

), Norway Chess 2014 (with

) and Norway Chess 2015 (with

Jan Gustafsson Jan Gustafsson (born 25 June 1979) is a German chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2003. He is a co-founder of Chess24.com, and regularly analyses and commentates games for the website. Biography Gustafsson was born ...

Writings

* ''Finding Bobby Fischer''. 1994 - Second Edition in 2015 * ''Amsterdam 1996''. 1996 * ''Waarom schaakt u eigenlijk?'' VSB Toernooi 1996 * ''Tilburg 1997''. 1997 * ''Donner memorial''. 1997 * ''Linares! Linares! – A Journey into the Heart of Chess''. 2001 * ''The Day Kasparov Quit''. 2006

References

External links

Website of ''New In Chess''

Website with live video streaming of the World Chess Championship 2012, with ten Geuzendam as a commentator

{{DEFAULTSORT:Geuzendam, Dirk Jan ten 1957 births Living people Dutch chess writers