Perpetual Chess Podcast

This week’s guest on Perpetual Chess is author, psychology professor and avid chess player, Dr. Joel Sneed. In the professional realm, Joel is a practicing clinical psychologist, and his research focuses on the topics of late life depression and cognitive impairment. A casual chess game with a patient led to Joel's discovery of competitive chess, and since then he has always found time for the game. In addition to co-authoring some excellent chess books, Joel has achieved very unusual gains for an adult learner. Joel began tournament chess at age 33 with a 1200 rating, and at age 48 is rated over 2000! Joel thinks that part of the reason for his success has been his emphasis on the psychological side of chess, as discussed in his latest collaboration with GM Boris Gulko, Analyzing the Chess Mind. The book provides both traditional game analysis from GM Gulko, as well as more general advice about chess psychology from both the GM and the Professor. It was fascinating to hear Joel’s story, and there is much to

This episode was recorded at Suite Recording Studios in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey and is also available with video on the Perpetual Chess YouTube channel.  Chess Books Recaptured returns, this time to discuss 10 books for the price of one! My guest co-host is FM Carsten Hansen, who returns to the pod to join me in selecting and discussing different chess books for different chess experience levels. Carsten is a prolific author, the book reviewer for American Chess Magazine, and a Chess Life magazine columnist. In addition to a lot of book talk, we discuss Carsten’s chess-improvement efforts and OTB plans, and a few of his recent collaborations with IM Cyrus Lakdawala. There is always so much to learn from Carsten, and I am confident we have selected worthwhile book recommendations for chess enthusiasts of many backgrounds.   02:00- How do we define an “underrated” chess book?  04:30- Aside from reading chess books, who are some of our favorite chess content creators? Mentioned: IM Levy Rozman, GM Daniel Naro

This week’s guest on Perpetual Chess is GM Srinath Narayanan. Srinath is a 3 time Asian Junior Champion, a popular Chessable Author and a high-level trainer. GM Srinath has worked with many of India’s brightest young talents including, GM Arjun Erigaisi and GM Nihail Sarin. I caught Arjun at an interesting time, as both Arjun and Nihail had just won events in the star-studded Tata Steel India tournaments. What does it feel like when your longtime students are suddenly outperforming world elites like Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So? How does Srinath adjust the training plans of his students as they go from 2500 to 2700? We also talked about openings, as Srinath has co-authored (with GM Sahaj Grover) standout Chessable courses on The London System and the Catalan. We also discussed chess improvement, engine use, and we got Srinath’s take on the Carlsen/Niemann saga. You can find timestamps for topics discussed below.  0:00- What has surprised Srinath about the rise of his students, GMs Arjun Erigaisi and GM Niha

This week we are joined by trainer, author and 6 time New Jersey state chess champion, IM Dean Ippolito. Dean has been an accomplished active player for decades, and a major theme of our conversation is the increasingly unforgiving nature of modern competitive chess. As Dean explains, players at all ages and levels are better prepared and more skilled than ever before. Competing with them is a challenge, but Dean relishes the opportunity to put his best foot forward and shares helpful advice for players of all levels who are looking to do the same. Dean was a lifelong New Jersey resident who recently relocated to Charlotte, in part to compete in events at the Charlotte Chess Center. Most recently, Dean played in the star-studded US Masters tournament. We also discuss Dean’s new book, Tricks, Tactics, and Tips in the Chess Opening: Practical Lessons for Ambitious Improvers. The book draws on Dean’s decades of teaching experience and is a good choice for scholastic players and amateurs rated below 1500 or so. L

Vishnu is a 31 year old tech consultant, chess author and dad who has been waking up at 4 AM to study chess for hours before his family and work life begins. Vishnu shares his study routine and chess resource recommendations from studying chess intensively in recent years. Vishnu also candidly discusses his long term goal of becoming a GM, a goal that many would say is impossible for someone with so many other responsibilities to achieve. Lastly,  Vishnu’s shares some of his best advice from his new book,  The Chess Bible – Most Instructive Tips, Axioms, One-Liners & Mantras. Although I am not sure if Vishnu will be able to achieve his ultimate goal, I enjoyed talking chess with him and can’t wait to see how his chess journey continues to unfold. Please read on for timestamps and relevant links.  0:00- Why does Vishnu work so hard on his chess? What are his goals?  Mentioned: Vishnu’s rating page is here 4:30- Why does he think no one has ever gone from the 2100 level to GM in their 30s? What makes Vishnu t

As suspense builds in the FIDE Women’s World Championship Cycle, I am joined by one of France’s top female players to discuss what has transpired so far, and what is coming. My guest is WIM Andreaa Navrotescu. Andreaa is a Romanian-born, French-based chess player, Twitch streamer and commentator. Andreaa joined me shortly after returning from Monaco, where GM Lei Tingjie defeated Anna Muzychuk in a tense match, to advance to the next stage of the cycle. Andreea was there working as FIDE Press Officer. She described the atmosphere in Monoco and helped us preview the matches which will be starting next week in Uzbekistan. We also discuss Andreea’s own chess career, including her favorite memories, her content recommendations, her upcoming tournaments, and her current goals as a chess player. I very much enjoyed chatting with Andreea and look forward to tracking her career as well as the continuation of the FIDE Women's Candidates tournament.  0:00-   To nominate a chess educator for the Andy Lerner award, ple

This week I am joined by longtime friend of the podcast Neal Bruce. Neal learned chess from scratch at the age of 40, and is immersed in a multi-year chess study plan that currently focuses on studying the game collections of some of some of chess’ greatest players. As bibliophiles, Neal and I are particularly interested in books featuring legendary games, but one can also study classics through online databases or YouTube serieses. In this podcast, Neal updates us on his study routine, and we rank some of the best “game collection” books we have come across. We also weigh the importance of studying games. Is it an indispensable part of any chess player's routine? Is there a “right way” to study them? What will be next for Neal? It is always inspiring to hear of Neal’s commitment to lifelong learning! Please read on for timestamps of topics discussed and books referenced.  Neal Bruce’s prior appearances:  Book Recap #6- Discussing the Woodpecker Method and Rapid Chess Improvement with Neal Bruce .  Book Rec

The Adult Improver Series of Perpetual Chess returns with an insightful guest with a passion for openings and tournament chess. Kyle Boddy is the founder of an influential and successful baseball performance training company, Driveline Baseball., which started as a one-man operation, and now boasts 50+ employees and many professional athletes as clients. Having been introduced to chess as a kid, Kyle actually regained his interest in the game in recent years while working in a Major League Baseball clubhouse. In our conversation, Kyle discusses why he loves chess, and compares it to his other competitive interests of poker, Magic the Gathering, and of course, baseball. We also tackle questions such as: How does a sports data expert approach chess data? Why does he love openings? Why does he love tournaments? What does he do to promote chess in his community? This was a fun conversation with an innovative thinker. You can find timestamps below, and links to topics referenced on the podcast webpage. 0:00- Link

This week we are joined by one of the best chess online chess teachers in the world, IM Andras Toth. Andras is an Australia-based Chessable author, YouTube presenter and Twitch streamer. Andras’ background as a teacher enables him to explain chess strategy very clearly, in a no-nonsense style. It had been a while since Andras and I had talked, so it was doubly fun to catch up with him. In our interview, Andras answers tons of listeners' questions related to chess improvement, discusses some favorite recent chess books, and talks about the ups and downs of the life of a chess content creator. It is always fun and informative to talk chess improvement with IM Andras Toth!  Recorded October 10, 2022  0:00- How does Andras manage to avoid discussing chess drama such as the Carlsen/Niemann controversy?  5:00- What qualities and habits has Andras observed in people who have improved significantly at chess?  7:00- Why do players sometimes struggle to convey their increased skills to better OTB performance?  14:

With the bombshell news that GM Hans Niemann is suing Magnus Carlsen, Chess.com, and Hikaru Nakamura, we brought in a legal expert to help us make sense of the case. I am joined by Professor David Franklin. David is a Constitutional Law Professor and an appellate lawyer, who is also a chess enthusiast who had already been following the Carlsen/Niemann story closely. In our conversation, David answered important questions about the legitimacy of the lawsuit, and which potential scenarios are likely to unfold from here. You can find timestamps of topics discussed below.  0:00- I review a few key points about the Niemann lawsuit.  Mentioned: Here is the Niemann complaint 6:30- Thanks to our chess sponsors, Chessable and AImchess. If you decide to subscribe to Aimchess, use this link or the code Perpetual30 to save 30%.  08:00- Professor David Franklin joins the podcast.  9:00- Did he expect a lawsuit? 11:00- Can Magnus be held accountable for damages in the U.S. as a Norwegian citizen.  13:00- Is this writ

This week we are rejoined by Dr. Kenneth Regan. Dr. Regan is, as many of you will are already aware, is one of the world’s leading experts at engine cheat detection. He is an IM at chess, and is the rare individual with domain expertise in chess, statistics and computer science. Dr. Regan has degrees in mathematics from Princeton and Oxford and is a Professor in Computational Complexity Theory at the University of Buffalo. As a chess player, Ken was the 1977 US Junior co-champion and once held the record of youngest USCF Master since Bobby Fischer. Dr. Regan joined the podcast to share some of his findings about the Carlsen/Niemann controversy and to discuss chess cheating more generally. More details can be found below. 0:00- This podcast may be best watched via YouTube. You can sub/Watch at the video of this podcast the Perpetual Chess YouTube Channel here: https://youtu.be/UsEIBzm5msU To subscribe to the Perpetual Chess Linkfest you can submit your email address    at the bottom of the most recent post h

This week we are joined by a legend of the game, one of the best players in the world in the 1970s and 1980s, Swedish champion, and legendary positional player, GM Ulf Andersson. Ulf doesn’t play as much as he did at his peak, but he still exudes passion for chess, and has accumulated a litany of stories about his games with fellow legends. Ulf regales us with stories about his clashes with Garry Kasparov, Bobby Fischer, Viktor Korchnoi, Bent Larsen, and so many others. At the age of 71, his memory for these encounters is quite impressive! Ulf also discusses his favorite modern players and games, and describes his daily life today. Ulf splits time between Germany and Sweden. It was quite an honor to hear a lifetime’s worth of chess stories. Timestamps of people and topics discussed can be found below. 0:03- Ulf joined me from his part-time home near Cologne, Germany, how did he end up there?  0:05- How does Ulf keep up with the chess world? How did he approach chess improvement in his earlier years?  0:09

Perpetual Chess is back with another bonus pod, as the Carlsen/Niemann story continues to see new developments. This week’s major news is that Chess.com has issued a report with a full accounting of their actions around the Hans Niemann story. Joining me to discuss it is FM Nate Solon. Nate is a data scientist, 2018 Massachussets State Chess Champion, an Author, and a blogger who has recently been writing about the controversy, There was tons to discuss from this report, so I was happy to have Nate help me do so. Notes and brief timestamps can be found below.   CORRECTION- There were a couple of times I misspoke in this pod in distinguishing between online and OTB cheating.I want to clarify that I was not disputing whether Hans cheated online, and any time I mentioned questions about whether Hans cheated it was only in relation to whether he cheated OTB. My apologies- Ben 0:00- What are the major conclusions from the Chess.com report?  Mentioned: Chess.com report link here:  https://www.chess.com/blog/CHESSc

This week’s guest on Perpetual Chess is FM Dennis Monokroussos. Dennis is a chess trainer who is a frequent presenter for Chesslecture.com and has been the state champion of both Nevada (where he grew up)  and Indiana. Dennis has been blogging about chess on his excellent blog, The Chess Mind, since 2005. In our conversation, we discuss how the chess world, and the blogging platforms have changed since 2005. Dennis also shares plenty of useful chess improvement advice and tells some funny stories about his most memorable games and his chess travels. It was fun and informative to finally chat with someone whose writing I have enjoyed for many years. More details and timestamps are below.    2:00- Dennis started chess blogging in 2005. What was the chess world like then?  10:00- How does the current Carlsen/Niemann scandal compare to Kramnik/Topalov “toiletgate”? 13:00- Why does Dennis often annotate top games in addition to recapping them on his blog?  17:00- Why did Dennis move his blog to a platform cal

Perpetual Chess is back with another book review, discussing GM Jan Timman’s excellent book, The Longest Game. It is part game collection and part historic guide to GM Garry Kasparov and GM Anatoly Karpov’s series of 6 World Championship Matches between 1984 and 1990. While the 2023 World Championship looks unlikely to feature the #1 player in the world, fans in the late 1980s got to repeatedly see the clear #1 and clear #2 battle in long matches! These battles resulted in some timeless, tense chess games, and plenty of far-fatched but true stories related to the behind the scenes machinations of the matches. Joining me to discuss it all, is Marko Bulatovic, who selected this book because he is both a chess and history aficionado. Please read on for timestamps of topics discussed.  0:00- Background on my co-host, Marko Bulatovic and why he chose the book The Longest Game  14:00- Does the +2 overall record of Kasparov in the 6 World Championship matches misrepresent how close the matches were?  17:00- Perpe

Perpetual Chess is back with another bonus pod discussing the ongoing Magnus Carlsen/Hans Niemann controversy. The major news of the week was that GM Magnus Carlsen issued a statement on Monday confirming that he suspects GM Hans Niemann of cheating. To discuss the story, I am honored to be joined by 2 Grandmaster guests who offer significant domain expertise beyond the chess world. First up is GM Jonathan Rowson, a renowned author and philosopher and the 3 time British Chess Champion. My conversation with Jonathan is centered around the human element of this story, and how we can hope to avoid biases in our interpretation of the information at hand. Following GM Rowson, I am joined by Dr. David Smerdon. GM Smerdon is a 7 time Chess Olympian for his native Australia, and an award winning chess author. David has worked with both Dr. Kenneth Regan and also the Chess.com cheat detection team. David’s primary field is development economics, but he has a statistical background and devotes significant time to chess

The Perpetual Chess Adult Improver Series returns for another detailed conversation with a very dedicated amateur. 35 year old Hans Henning is a Dublin based chess enthusiast, who has a demanding job in tech sales, but is also spending multiple hours per day studying chess. Hans first gained interest in chess through Ludwig Ahgren and Pogchamps and since then has made steady progress up to a LiChess blitz rating of around 1900. In our conversation, Hans shares some personal details about why he finds chess so motivating, and why he has a particular love for studying openings. Hans also shares some great recommendations for books, courses, and study methods. As always, more info to topics referenced and timestamps can be found below.  Be sure to subscribe to my free weekly chess news roundup, the Perpetual Chess Linkfest, you can do so here: https://benjohnson.substack.com/ 0:00- What motivates Hans to spend tons of time studying chess?  Mentioned: Checkmate Pattern Manual, Common Chess Patterns  7:30- How

We are back with another bonus pod discussing the ongoing controversy involving GM Magnus Carlsen and GM Hans Niemann. This week there have been significant new events and information brought to light, and I am joined by 2 separate guests to review the developments and help sort it out. After reviewing the key events and quotes, I am joined by GM Alex Fishbein (9:00) and then IM Greg Shahade (1:11:00). The interview with Alex was recorded Wednesday night, September 21, and Greg’s interview was recorded Tuesday September 20. Thanks to them both for sharing their insights!  0:00- Links from Intro:  Be sure to subscribe to my free weekly chess news roundup, the Perpetual Chess Linkfest, you can do so here: https://benjohnson.substack.com/ Fabiano/Cristian Chirila C Squared Podcast:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCFB_rNGTaw&feature=youtu.be Sinquefield Cup Arbiter statement: https://twitter.com/ChrisBirdIA/status/1572615484654358529?s=20&t=so_SVkkCpU_B6vw1AJfTyw 8:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in par

This week we are joined by the 2021 US Women’s Champion and one of the top junior female players in the world, IM Carissa Yip. I talked with Carissa in  early September, at an interesting juncture in her life- she had just concluded her first Chess Olympiad, and was setting out for California, soon to begin her freshman year at Stanford University. This gave Carissa an opportunity to reflect on her past and future in chess and beyond. We discussed the following questions: What went right (and wrong) for Carissa and the US Women’s Olympiad Team? Why does she love the King’s Indian Defense? How did she get to her current chess level, and what would she need to do to advance even more? How does she plan to balance academics and chess? Plus Carissa told some fun stories involving interactions with GM Levon Aronian, GM Magnus Carlsen, GM Garry Kasparov, and others. Timestamps of topics discussed can be found below. Perpetual Chess Link Fest Sign Up- https://benjohnson.substack.com/ 0:01-  Carissa discusses her

We are back with another bonus pod to discuss the Sinquefield Cup controversy with Tuesday’s guest, GM Jacob Aagaard. Jacob has worked with Hans personally, and like the rest of the chess world has been following this story very closely. There has been no statement from GM Magnus Carlsen, but there have still been many developments worth discussing in the past week. Timestamps of topics discussed are below, thanks to Jacob for rejoining us!  Be sure to subscribe to my free weekly chess news roundup, the Perpetual Chess Linkfest, you can do so here: https://benjohnson.substack.com/ 0:00- What are the key events of the last week? What does Jacob think of the cheating theories? Mentioned:  St. Louis Chess Club Arbiter’s Statement: https://grandchesstour.org/blog/2022-sinquefield-cup-chief-arbiter%E2%80%99s-statement James Altucher Podcast with IM Kenneth Regan  GM Jacob Aagaard Blog post about his experience working with GM Hans Niemann  https://forum.killerchesstraining.com/t/paranoia-and-insanity-by-jaco