Perpetual Chess Podcast

Despite having retired from his day job at the NY Post, noted chess author and historian GM Andy Soltis remains quite busy writing chess books. This week he returns to Perpetual Chess to tell some great stories and discuss the books that he has been working on since our last conversation, in September of 2018. In particular, we discussed GM Soltis’ new book, How to Swindle in Chess, and his recently updated classic, Bobby Fischer Rediscovered. Andy was able to also provide some great historical perspective on topics ranging from chess in New York City in past decades, to the 2020 FIDE Candidates, to the coronavirus. Please read on for further details and timestamps.    0:00- We begin by catching up a bit on the impact that the coronavirus had on GM Soltis’ travel plans, and Andy shares some great historical perspective on some New York City chess characters.    Mentioned: Marshall Chess Club, GM Robert Byrne and IM Donald Byrne, GM Arthur Bisguier, IM James Sherwin, GM William Lombardy, Caroline Marshall,

In the 16 months since she got into chess, 23 year old Chess Streamer GoldDustTori has seen both her online following and her Chess.com rating grow quickly. As her chess.com rating graph shows, she has gone from not knowing what en passant is, to a blitz rating which recently topped 1600. In our conversation, Tori retells how she got into chess and chess streaming, and shares how her consistent focus on a few key aspects of chess improvement have helped her boost her rating.  Please read on for more details and timestamps.  0:00- FIDE Candidates Coverage Resources: Chess.com Youtube, Chess24YouTube, US Chess YouTube, Powerplaychess  3:00- Tori introduces herself and explains how she got into chess and chess streaming.  Mentioned: TwitchCon, GM Eric Hansen of the Chessbrahs, WIM Alexandra Botez, IM Danny Rensch, John Urschel, World of Warcraft, GM Aman Hambleton, IM Eric Rosen  11:30- As Tori explains, when she started streaming chess, she barely knew the rules of the game. How has she gone from 0 to 1600

Two weeks after Part 1 of our interview GM Daniel King returns. We catch up on the all of the drama surrounding the first 6 rounds of the FIDE Candidates Tournament, both over the board, and away from the board, as the spread of the Covid-19 virus continues to be an unwelcome, but serious disruption to some wonderful chess games. Following the Candidates discussion, GM King updates us on the many other projects that have been keeping him busy, including a discussion of his forthcoming book, Sultan Khan: The Indian Servant Who Became Chess Champion of the British Empire. Please read for many more details and timestamps relating to this fun and wide-ranging conversation. If you are not seeing embedded hyperlinks in your podcast feed, you can find them here: https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/new-blog/2020/3/24/episode-170-gm-daniel-king-returns 0:00-  We begin by discussing the FIDE Candidates. Why did Daniel cancel his plans to announce at the tournament, why didn’t FIDE call it off? Should/will they call i

Welcome to another edition of Perpetual Chess, Chess Books Recaptured!  My guest co-host this month is Bryan Castro. Bryan is a dad, businessman, chess teacher and adult improver from Buffalo, NY. Bryan and I are both fans of GM Alex Yermolinksy, and we share a strong affinity for his instructive and readable 1999 chess-improvement memoir, The Road to Chess Improvement. We like this book so much that we were not going to let a global pandemic stop us from getting together and sharing our favorite quotes, games and chess-improvement takeaways from this somewhat underappreciated gem. Please read on for more details, timestamps and relevant links.  4:00- After a few programming notes, Bryan Castro joins the show and shares a bit about his personal background. 7:00- What does Bryan like about The Road to Chess Improvement?  Mentioned: Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, GM Jon Ludvig Hammer, IM John Watson’s Review of Road to Chess Improvement, Hear GM Yermolinksy’s interview on Perpetual Chess here: https:/

FM Terry Chapman is a  63-year old retired businessman, having floated his company on the main market of the London Stock Exchange in 1999, with a day one capitalization of over £100 million. The Terence Chapman Group Plc was a major sponsor of chess activities in Britain, but Terry is probably best known in the English chess community for his charity match against Garry Kasparov in 2001 (at two pawns odds), which he only narrowly lost, 1 1/2 - 2 1/2! As he discussed in the great book, Chess for Life by GM Mathew Sadler and WIM Natasha Regan, Terry retired in 2007 and started devoting a lot of energy to competitive chess. In the next handful of years, he took his rating from 2156 to a peak of 2331! Last summer, Terry came equal first in the British over 50's Championship, a title he was proud to add to his British junior championship title won 49 years previously. In our conversation, Terry catches us up on what has occurred since the 2016 publication of Chess for Life. He shares the chess improvement lesso

With the highly anticipated FIDE Candidates tournament starting in a matter of days, I am honored to be joined by Grandmaster Daniel King to preview the tournament. GM King is well known for his accomplishments as a chess player, journalist and announcer. The videos on his YouTube channel, Powerplay Chess, are always a must-watch for me.  GM King will be part of FIDE’s announcing team for this event, and we talked to him just days before he planned to leave for Yekaterinaburg, Russia for the tournament. We recorded this interview on Tuesday, March 10.  Please read on for details and timestamps.  0:00- Intro.  We set the scene for the FIDE Candidates Tournament and discuss the dramatic late entry of GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who is replacing GM Teimour Radjabov who withdrew from the tournament due to concerns about the Corona/Covid-19 virus.  Mentioned: FIDE World Senior Team Championship: https://www.europechess.org/fide-world-senior-team-chess-championship-2020-starts-today/  10:00- This episode is broug

IM Jop Delemarre is a former Dutch Youth Champion who has been a full-time chess trainer since 2004. Over the years, he has worked with many strong young players who went on to earn IM and GM titles.  Jop is an expert in the Chess Steps curriculum, and was a student of one of its founders, Rob Brunia. Due to his expertise in the Steps Method, Jop recently offered a Chess Steps Certification Workshop, that I and a few other U.S. based chess teachers completed and greatly enjoyed. Jop joined me to discuss this workshop, share plans for potential future workshops, and to reflect on his career in general. Jop shared plenty of great advice for chess improvers and teachers alike. Please read on for more details and show notes.  0:00- Jop shares some details about his life background, and the background of the Chess Steps Method.  Mentioned: GM Robin Van Kampen, Chess Steps Method, Rob Brunia, IM Cor van Wijgerdan, NM Matan Prilleltensky, Paul Swaney, NM Shawn Hoshall, NM Han Schut, US Chess Digital Editor John Ha

This week we feature a double attack from two of the premier chess trainers in the world! GM Jacob Aagaard is the co-founder of Quality Chess Publishing,  is an award winning author, and has worked with many elite grandmasters including GM Boris Gelfand and GM Sam Shankland. GM R.B. Ramesh, is an award-winning trainer and author, who has coached the India National Team many times, and has worked with many young talents including GM Pragganandha. GMs Aagaard and Ramesh are both return guests  to Perpetual Chess, as they visit to discuss their new project, 365ChessAcademy.com. This new site offers dedicated chess students worldwide the ability to access daily lectures from a cadre of high level trainers, including themselves. In addition to explaining the vision behind this new project, they fielded many chess-improvement questions from Perpetual Chess listeners and provided many insights about common issues faced over the board. As always, you can find more details and timestamps below.  (If embedded hyperlin

We are back with another edition of Chess Books Recaptured, a monthly bonus pod where we break down the highlights, best quotes and chess tips to be derived  from a classic chess book. This month, I am lucky that a friend of the podcast, USCF Master, author, and renowned Cognitive Scientist Christopher Chabris, has agreed to join me to discuss the classic Soviet era book, Think Like a Grandmaster, by GM Alexander Kotov. Lots and lots more details and timestamps below. Enjoy!

This week my esteemed guest is none other than five-time World Champion and living chess legend, GM Viswanathan Anand!! Vishy has been busy as usual with high-level chess, as Tata Steel 2020 recently completed, and the Greinke Chess Classic is coming up for him in April. GM Anand also has recently released  (with co-author Susan Ninan) the inspiring and illuminating book, Mind Master: Winning Lessons from a Champion’s Life. This brilliant book provides a springboard for us to discuss various topics about which Vishy has unique insights. They include the effects of aging on his chess game,chess in the era of super engines, reflections on World Championship matches, life as a dad, and the side effects of fame. Please continue reading for more details and timestamps. (If embedded hyperlinks are not visible in your podcast feed, you can find them here: https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/new-blog/2020/2/18/episode-165-gm-viswanathan-anand) 1:00- Vishy reflects on the highs and lows of his recently completed tourn

I had a lot to catch up on with IM John Bartholomew 2.5 years after his first visit to Perpetual Chess. Then,  as now, John is best known for his very popular Chess YouTube channel, and for being the co-founder of Chessable.com.   John has seen the company and his following continue to grow rapidly in the past few years, and as you may have heard, Chessable merged with GM Magnus Carlsen’s Play Magnus company in September of 2019. John also has recently released a large-scale  project, a Chessable video course , explaining the endgame classic, 100 Endgames You Must Know, and he even got to film a video testing the World Champion on the material from this vital chess book.  In our conversation, John gave some behind-the-scenes details on all of these exciting events. He also threw in lots of good chess improvement advice in reply to some good questions from listeners. Please read on for more details and timestamps.  If you aren’t seeing embedded hyperlinks in your podcast feed, you can find them on the podcas

  By day, USCF Tournament Director Michael Regan is an Observatory Scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute.  By night and weekend, he runs some of the most player-friendly chess tournaments in the United States, primarily in the Maryland/Washington DC area. Michael joins me this week, to share all of his insights and secrets, gained from many years of figuring out to how to improve the player experience at weekend chess tournaments. We talked about everything from hotel booking, to fair play to punctuality to hygiene. This is an important conversation for any active tournament player, so please take a listen. Timestamps and more details can be found below.  0:00- Perpetual Chess is now on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/perpetualchess/ You can also interact with me and the Perpetual Chess community  via Twitter and the Perpetual Chess Facebook Group .  3:00- Michael goes a bit into his chess background, and shares what frustrated him about the other tournaments in which he and his son ofte

GM Ivan Cheparinov is a very active player whose name can regularly be found amongst the top 50 players in the world,. He attained a peak rating of 2718, and has won or tied for first place in many tournaments, including the 2007 European Individual Championships, the 2014 Gibraltar Chess Festival, and the 2009 and 2010 Ruy Lopez Masters.   He has just released his first book, with Thinker's Publishing, called Cheparinov's 1. d4. As we discuss, this is to be the first of a multi-volume project, and offers some fighting lines to play against the Grunfeld and King’s Indian defenses.  Last but not least, Ivan was former FIDE World Champion, GM Veselin Topalov's second for 7 years, and had some great stories to tell from those times. He also dispensed a few important recommendations about the importance of visualization training and fitness for chess players. Please read on for more info and timestamps.  If you aren't seeing embedded hyperlinks on your podcast feed,you can find them here: https://www.perpetua

This week’s guest, Geert van der Velde, is a semi-retired rock star who has recently managed to  turn his passion for all things chess into the role of Chief Content Officer for Chessable.com.   Geert is quite knowledgeable about chess books, chess history, and chess teaching, and we hit all of these topics in our conversation. Geert was also able to share lots of information about some exciting projects in the works at Chessable, as well as trends of which we should be aware in the chess education space generally. More details and timestamps can be found below.  If you are not seeing embedded hyperlinks in your podcast feed you can find them here: https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/new-blog/2020/1/21/episode-161-geert-van-der-velde-chief-content-officer-of-chessablecom 0:00- Geert delves into his chess background and talks about how his passion for chess was born and how it was revived in the past decade.  Mentioned:  BIll Wall’s Chess Website, My Great Predecessors, My Best Games of Chess by Alexander Al

Welcome to another edition of Chess Books Recaptured, a monthly Bonus Pod. This month, we tried something different and are recapping an enjoyable and informative chess history book, Bobby Fischer goes to War  by David Edmonds and John Eidenow. This book gives a deep and broad history of the “Match of the Century” between challenger Bobby Fischer, and World Chess champion, GM Boris Spassky, in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1972. To help me discuss the book, I enlisted the help of long time friend of the podcast, Chris Wainscott. Chris is a part time chess journalist, and a full time chess junkie and adult improver.  For lots more details of what we discussed, please keep reading. If you aren’t seeing hyperlinks in your podcast feed, you can find them here: https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/new-blog/2020/1/17/bonus-pod-recapping-the-book-bobby-fischer-goes-to-war-with-chris-wainscott-chess-books-recaptured-series 2:00- We being by introducing guest co-host Chris Wainscott, and discussing why we picked Bobby Fischer

This week it is my honor to be joined by Antonio Radić, the creator of the most popular Youtube Chess Channel in the world, Agadmator’s Chess Channel!  In about 3 years, Agadmator has taken his channel from 0 to an astounding 539,000 subscribers! In our conversation, Agadmator takes us from the channel’s modest beginnings to its current status. We spent a lot of time talking about his “secret sauce,” and discussing the past and future of Antonio’s content creation.  Antonio is also a strong chess player, with a peak ELO at over 2000, so we also discused his chess playing goals, chess improvement and chess books as well. Timestamps and links can be found below.  If you are not seeing embedded hyperlinks on your podcast feed you can find here: https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/new-blog/2020/1/14/episode-160-antonio-radi-aka-agadmator 0:00- To check out the World Championship chess mugs, go toChessmugs.com. If you decide to buy a set of mugs, use the code “perpetualchess” at checkout to save 15%. 2:00- We

With the Pro Chess League (of which he is the commissioner) set to resume on Monday, January 6,  it was a great time for my old friend, IM Greg Shahade to make another visit to Perpetual Chess. Greg broke down all of the changes that have taken place with the league’s format, and previewed some some of the interesting matches and players that we will see this season. We also had a lot of chess news to talk about, ranging from the World Championship Candidates selection process to some recent speed chess controversies involving prominent chess professionals. Greg also dispensed some great advice on chess improvement in our wide ranging conversation. Please read on for more details and timestamps!  If you are not seeing embedded hyperlinks in your podcast feed, you can find them here: https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/new-blog/2020/1/5/episode-159-im-greg-shahade-is-back-again 0:00- We start off by getting Greg’s perspective on some recent chess controversies, both “online” and offline. These include a contr

It’s an annual tradition!  Popular Chess24 personality,  noted opening theoretician and friend of Perpetual Chess, GM Jan Gustafsson returns to the show! Jan has just released his first Chessable course, Lifetime Repertoires: Jan Gustafsson’s 1. e4 e5 , so it was a great time to catch up with him. In addition to discussing the details of his course, and a bit about the theoretical trends of double king pawn openings, we also discussed Jan’s near term plans with Chess24, past and future World Championship matches, plus much more. Please read on for more details and timestamps.    0:00- We kick off by discussing a few recent Bundesliga games of Jan, and Jan’s impressive new Chessable course,  Lifetime repertoires: 1. e4 e5 Mentioned: German Chess Bundesliga (aka Schachbundesliga), Fatih Baltic-Jan Gustafsson 2019, Gustafsson-Naumann 2019, LeelaZero, Rybka, Stockfish, IM Christof Sielecki, GM Larry Kaufman, IM David Vigorito   15:00- We transition to discussing a popular Chess Reddit thread, in which Jan da

IM David Vigorito is a Massachusetts-based chess player, author and trainer. As a player, David been the state champion of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Nevada. He has also competed in the U.S. Championship and has been among the top 50 player in the US. David and his publisher, Quality Chess, have just released his 9th book,  Playing the Najdorf. David also has been  a tremendously accomplished adult improver. As his USCF rating graph shows, he took his rating from the 2200s in his early 20s to a peak of 2565 in his 40s in 2013! In our conversation,  we dug into how David was able to improve so much at a phase when many others stall. Naturally, we also spent some time discussing the state of the Najdorf variation of the Sicilian. Please read on for timestamps and more details!    0:00- We begin by discussing David’s chess background, with an emphasis on how he gained so many rating points in his 20s.  Mentioned: FM Dennis Monokroussos,  Pawn Structure Chess by Soltis, Art of Defense, IM Mark Dvoretsky

We are back with another Chess Books Recaptured Bonus Pod. This month, we recap the classic chess improvement manual, Reassess Your Chess (4th Edition), by Jeremy Silman. To help me discuss the book, I enlisted the help of Todd Kennedy. Todd is an adult improver, as well as being a dad, husband, actuary, chess player and chess fan. For lots more details of what we discussed, please keep reading. If you aren’t seeing hyperlinks in your podcast feed, you can find them here: https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/new-blog/2019/12/20/bonus-pod-discussing-reassess-your-chess-with-todd-kennedy-chess-books-recaptured-series 0:00- My guest go-host, Todd Kennedy, shares a bit about his life and his chess background, and discusses why Reassess Your Chess is a favorite book of his.  Mentioned:Robert Katende initiative , Chess Books Recapured Episode #1- Recapping The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal with NM Sam Copeland 12:00- I share a couple reflections and observations about the impact of Reassess Your Chess, from p