Usually I don't use Chrome on my Android.
I've used it in for the first time in a while and sooo annoyed by the New Tab Page layout.
New Tab Page should be a simple, plain layout. Blank page would be the best.
So, here's how I disabled those search icons for News/Recipes/Sports and such.
NOTE:Please try this at your own risk.

Disable using chrome://flags

I find out that annoying icons are called "query tiles".
First, input

chrome://flags

at Chrome's adress bar.
Next, input

query tile

and search.

Show query titles
is what you looking for. Change it "Default" to "Disabled".
And tap "Relaunch" button at the bottom right of the screen.

Did they gone? ...no? NO! Why!?

Purge cached data in chrome://internals/query-tiles

OK, I think there still remains cached data.
To delete it, input

chrome://internals/query-tiles

at adress bar.
Find Purge database button. Tap it and cached query tiles data is now gone.

*If "query tiles" are re-enabled after updating app, try "Purge database" again...