Perpetual Chess Podcast

GM Nikita Vitiugov is a former Russian champion who reached a peak ranking of #15 in the world. He has represented both his native Russia and England at the Chess Olympiad and worked on the World Championship team of his boyhood rival, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi. In his excellent new book, Chess Metamorphosis, he candidly reflects on his varied chess experiences. In our conversation, we discuss: What h...

GM Nikita Vitiugov is a former Russian champion who reached a peak ranking of #15 in the world. He has represented both his native Russia and England at the Chess Olympiad and worked on the World Championship team of his boyhood rival, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi. In his excellent new book, Chess Metamorphosis, he candidly reflects on his varied chess experiences. In our conversation, we discuss: What h...

As a three-time Chess Olympian representing Chile, GM Mauricio Flores Rios, renowned author of Chess Structures, has fond memories of this timeless, biennial tournament. But these days, he is more interested in the instructive quality of the games than in the races for medals. In our conversation, Mauricio discusses some of the most instructive Olympiad games that he reviewed on his YouTube channe...

The Adult Improver series returns to spotlight another guest who has benefited from chess and improved significantly at the game. Chess was recommended to Leah Brown as a healthier outlet for a mind that, in Leah’s words, tends to “torture itself.” Leah began playing tournaments less than two years ago and already has a peak rating of over 1600 USCF. In our conversation, Leah shares the training a...

Jan Henric Buettner is a German entrepreneur, co-founder of Freestyle Chess alongside Magnus Carlsen, and a candidate for FIDE President. In his business career he has worked in technology, venture capital and hospitality.  In our interview, we discuss: The logistical problems some participants encountered at the Olympiad and Jan’s own experience in Samarkand Why Jan believes chess still has...

IM Thomas Willemze is a popular author, Chessable creator, and trainer who has worked with the Dutch National Youth Team, among countless other students. A data analyst by day, Thomas brings an analytical approach to thinking about the core components of chess improvement. In our conversation, we draw on Thomas's experiences as both a player and coach to tease out practical lessons for improving p...

IM David Vigorito is a three-time state champion, renowned opening theoretician and trainer, and the author of many highly regarded books and Chessable courses. His latest course, 1. e4: The Gold Standard, offers an ambitious, principled repertoire against all of Black’s major responses. In our conversation, we discuss: How David’s process for researching openings has changed as engines have grown...

GM Valentin Dragnev is a two-time Austrian national champion and former chess Olympian who has had memorable OTB encounters with GM Magnus Carlsen, Vasyl Ivanchuk, and many other top players. After achieving so much over the board, he has increasingly focused his attention on chess training and a community-focused website he co-founded, Chessivity.com. We discuss: The story behind Valentin’s fast...

The Adult Improver Series returns to welcome back an accomplished guest. Kyle Boddy is the founder of Driveline Baseball, an influential company that provides training and performance guidance for professional and aspiring baseball players. Despite the demands of running a company and raising a family, Kyle values chess as a hobby and makes plenty of time for it. When I first interviewed Kyle in 2...

With the recent news of his passing, this week we look at the remarkable and wide-ranging chess legacy of FM Bill Goichberg. Among many other distinctions, Bill was the founder of the Continental Chess Association and the creator of the U.S. National Scholastic Championships, and he left an indelible mark on the U.S. chess scene. My guest is chess journalist FM Jon Jacobs, who is working on an ind...

GM Jacob Aagaard is an award-winning author, a renowned trainer who has worked with GMs Sam Shankland, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and many others, and the co-founder of Quality Chess. Despite all of his accomplishments and the many demands on his time, Jacob retains his passion for chess books and chess improvement. He returns to the podcast to discuss: How to actually improve at calculation, including...

GM Vasif Durarbayli is a former World Youth Champion and two-time champion of his native Azerbaijan. Now based in St. Louis after graduating from Webster University, Vasif has turned much of his attention to ChessEver, an app designed to make following live chess easier. In our conversation we discuss: •• Why he believes every serious chess player needs a coach, and how not hiring one nearly derai...

⁠Michael Duke (better known as Mr. Dodgy, or @chessproblem on X) is a Chessable author, the co-founder of Chessfam, and co-host of the Chicken Chess Club podcast. He has built a large online following through his passion for chess and his sharp sense of humor. But aside from the jokes, Michael has become more serious about improving his own game. With a FIDE rating just shy of 2100, Michael was fr...

By all accounts, the Naroditsky Memorial was a touching tribute to the legendary streamer, educator and grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky. This week I welcome three guests to share their stories from the memorable event in Charlotte. Popular Chessable author and coach FM Dalton Perrine reflects on the lessons and memorable experiences of the tournament. Dalton also shares chess improvement insights fr...

Bruce Pandolfini is an American chess legend who has written many popular books, consulted on The Queen's Gambit and numerous other films and television projects featuring chess, and worked with countless future masters, including GM Fabiano Caruana and IM Josh Waitzkin. Bruce rejoined me to reflect on what he has learned from an incredibly varied career in chess, from helping cover the 1972 Fisch...

17-year-old IM-elect Rose Atwell is one of the brightest young stars in American chess. She recently earned her International Master title, tied for first at the National High School Championship, and qualified for the U.S. Women's Olympiad team for the first time. Rose has also built a loyal following on social media by candidly chronicling her tournament experiences. She shares instructive posit...

Renowned author and trainer GM R.B. Ramesh is one of the rare coaches who has worked extensively with the world's elite players while still providing practical advice for ambitious amateurs. Long respected as one of chess's leading trainers and authors, Ramesh has helped guide the development of stars such as GMs Praggnanandhaa, Vaishali, and Aravindh Chithambaram. As his students continue to reac...

Can a background as a professional jazz musician help you improve at chess? Matt Rathkey says “yes.”. Matt is this week's guest on The Adult Improver Series. Like many players, he fell back in love with chess during the COVID pandemic and soon found himself playing regularly, watching top-level broadcasts, and solving puzzles. Along the way, he drew upon lessons from years of studying music, parti...

As a scholastic player, James Black Jr. was an All-American who won numerous national titles and trophies, both as an individual competitor and as part of the famed IS 318 chess program in Brooklyn, New York, as featured in the documentary Brooklyn Castle. Alongside FM Joshua Colas and IM Justus Williams, James became one of the youngest African-American National Masters in U.S. history. After ste...

GM Simon Williams returns to Perpetual Chess for the first time in several years. Simon is one of chess's most recognizable personalities, known as the Ginger GM through his work as a streamer, commentator, author and Chessable creator. He is also an accomplished tournament player, having shared first in the 2010 London Chess Classic and finished second in the 2004 British Championship. Simon join...

Jordan Himelfarb is an award-winning editor for the Toronto Star and an avid games player who became fascinated by elite chess during the pandemic. That fascination eventually led to his excellent new book,  Interregnum : Inside the Grueling and Glamourous Battle to Become the Next King of Chess, a detailed and highly readable chronicle of the 2024 FIDE Candidates cycle. Jordan traveled to events...

Paulo SantAnna is living the dream of many adult chess improvers. The retired software engineer has spent the past several years devoting serious time and energy to improving his game, and the results have been impressive. When Paulo rekindled his interest in tournament chess, his FIDE rating had fallen to a recent low of 1850. Through years of hard study, travel, disciplined training, and resilie...

GM Ivan Sokolov is a former top-15 player who won major tournaments across multiple decades and became national champion of both Yugoslavia and the Netherlands. In classical chess, he scored memorable wins against Kasparov, Kramnik and Anand. In recent years, Ivan has become equally respected as a trainer and author. Most notably, he worked with the gold medal-winning Uzbek team at the 2022 Chess...

IM Greg Shahade has long been well known in the chess world as a three-time national scholastic champion and the founder of the Pro Chess League and the US Chess School. Recently, however, he reached a much broader audience with an impressive run on the syndicated trivia show Jeopardy!. Greg amassed over $75,000 in winnings, dethroning 31-time champion Jamie Ding along the way. He joined me after...

When I read on GM Eugene Perelshteyn’s blog that his amateur friend had signed up to compete against players like Hikaru Nakamura and Hans Niemann in the Naroditsky Memorial, I knew I had to hear this story. That friend is NM Mike Mahoney. Mike is a pharmacist by day and a devoted online blitz player by night. For Mike, chess is usually a way to unwind, not something he takes too seriously. But he...