Blindfold Chess Podcast

We are looking at a very color member of chess history - someone who had a 50 year chess playing career, someone who traveled from Europe to Australia to Cuba playing matches, simuls, and blindfold events, someone who put future World Champions through windows, been fined for assaulting people, arrested for being a French spy, and nicked named “The Black Death” - Joseph Blackburne. ------- 1.e4 e5...

This week, we are looking at the highest rated Azerbaijani chess player, the 6th highest rated chess player in history, a 3 time-Candidate, 2 time world Junior champion, and a World Rapid Champion - Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.  ------ 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 d5 4. exd5 Nxd5 5. Bg2 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bd6 7. Ne2 O-O 8. O-O Nc6 9. Rb1 Re8 10. d4 h6 11. Be3 Qf6 12. Qd3 a6 13. d5 Bf5 14. Be4 Bxe4 15. Qxe4 Na5 1...

This week, we are looking at a popular influencer, commentator, Olympiad Gold Medal winner, national champion, International Master, and someone who has been in the Top 100 rated women in the world for the past 20 years - Tania Sachdev. ----- 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. c4 Nf6 6. Nc3 Bb4 7. f3 Qc7 8. a3 Bxc3+ 9. bxc3 d6 10. Be3 Nbd7 11. Rb1 O-O 12. Nb3 d5 13. exd5 exd5 14. c5 Re8 1...

This week, we are looking at the “Father of Italian Chess”, someone who catalogued and organized so many chess games, rules, ideas, openings, endings, and constructs as well as traveled the world as the first professional chess player - Gioachino Greco.  -- 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Bc4 Qh4+ 4.Kf1 d6 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.d4 Qh6 7.g3 Qh3+ 8.Kf2 fxg3+ 9.hxg3 Bxf3 10.Bxf7+ Kd8 11.Qxf3 Qd7 12.Rxh7 Rxh7 13.Bxg8 Rh2+...

Hi everyone, welcome back! It is puzzle time this week!  These are some of my favorite  episodes.  I am going to give you 3 different puzzles this episode ranging from easy to hard. I will be giving you the piece location of every piece on the board and it will be your job to figure out the correct sequence of moves to complete the puzzle.  Without further ado, let’s dive into Puzzle number 1. It...

This week, we are looking at a 3 time World Youth Gold Medalist, a 4 time US Women’s Chess Championship participant, and the youngest American to earn the International Master title all before the age of 16 - Alice Lee.   - Podcast Game 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 a6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.Bxe7 Qxe7 6.Nbd2 Nf6 7.g3 O-O 8.Bg2 Nbd7 9.Rc1 c5 10.O-O Re8 11.Re1 cxd4 12.Nxd4 Nc5 13.Qc2 Ncd7 14.a3 e5 15.Nf5 Qe6 16.cxd5 N...

This week, we are looking at the self-taught chess prodigy, a 4-time British Champion, a World Champion Challenger, someone who sparked the 1990s schism between FIDE and the Professional Chess Association, and someone who has been deeply involved in chess development - traveling to over 150 countries - Nigel Short.  -- 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Nc6 4. Ngf3 Nf6 5. e5 Nd7 6. Nb3 a5 7. a4 Be7 8. Bb5 N...

This week, we are looking at the youngest National Champion in Finnish History, the first Canadian woman to earn the Women’s Grandmaster Title, the first canadian woman to earn a FIDE Master title, and popular streamer and model - Nemo Zhou. -- 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bg5 Bd7 7. Be2 Rc8 8. O-O a6 9. Kh1 e6 10. Qd2 h6 11. Be3 Ne5 12. f4 Neg4 13. Bg1 h5 14. Bf3 Qc7 15...

This week, we are looking at the first National German Champion, a 2-time Soviet Champion, a 2-time World Championship challenger, and someone who was ensnared in 2 World Wars - Efim Bogoljubov.  -- 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.Nf3 d6 4.d4 Bf5 5.Bd3 Bg6 6.c4 Nb6 7.Bxg6 hxg6 8.e6 f6 9.Qd3 Qc8 10.Qxg6+ Kd8 11.Qf7 Nxc4 12.Nbd2 Nxd2 13.Bxd2 g5 14.d5 c5 15.Bc3 g4 16.Nh4 Rxh4 17.Qxf8+ Kc7 18.Qxe7+ Kb6 19.Qxd6+ K...

This week, we are looking at the the strongest woman of her time, the winner of the first International Women’s Chess Championship, the first woman accepted to the Bristol chess club, and the first woman to be the player of a simul - Mary Rudge.  -- 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Be3 Qf6 6.c3 Nge7 7.Bb5 O-O 8.Nxc6 dxc6 9.Bxc5 cxb5 10.Na3 Re8 11.f3 Ng6 12.O-O Qg5 13.Bf2 Be6 14.Nc2 Rad8 15...

This week, we are going to an area of the world we haven’t covered much on this podcast - New Zealand - specifically a 20 year president of his local club, a 20 year Chess column Editor, a 10 time national competitor, and a 2-time national champion spanning 10 years - including the 1st New Zealand National Champion - Henry Hookham. -- 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 e6 3. e3 Nf6 4. Bd3 Bd6 5. O-O O-O 6. b3 c5 7....

This week, we are looking at the youngest grandmaster in Philippine history, a man who emigrated to the United States after being left by his family at the age of 16, someone who climbed to the world number 2 rating and is a World Fischer Random Champion - Wesley So.  -- 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Nf3 Ngf6 6. Nxf6+ Nxf6 7. c3 c5 8. Be3 cxd4 9. Bxd4 Be7 10. Bd3 O-O 11. Qc2 h6 12....

This week, we are looking at a chess author, commentator, 2-time US Women’s Champion, and a strong advocate for women in the chess scene - Jennifer Shahade.  We are traveling back to 1997 to the US Women’s Championship -  Jennifer Shahade versus Anna Hahn.  Now… if we’re ready, lets begin.  — 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bg5 e6 7. Qd2 Be7 8.  O-O-O Nxd4 9. Qxd4 O-O 10. f...

Hello everyone and welcome back to Season 4 of the Blindfold Chess Podcast!  This week, we are looking at one of the strongest players of the 1940 and 50s, a member of the inaugural class of Grandmasters, and someone who some have said was “Best player to never become world champion” - David Bronstein. For today’s game, we are going back to the USSR Championship of 1959 - David Bronstein versus Ni...

Welcome to the last episode of the year! We are going to do something a little different today, we are going to look at a couple of chess variants - primarily focusing on Chess960, Freestyle Chess, or Fischer Random - depending on which era of chess you played in. Chess in its current form has been around for hundreds of years, but Shuffle chess has been around for about a quarter of a millennia. ...

This week, we are looking at another Indian prodigy. Someone who has not made it to the Candidates tournament yet, but he is knocking on the door with Olympiad victories, consistent wins against current and former world champions, and someone who was on a World Rapid Championship team that took home gold - Arjun Erigasi.  -- 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 Ne4 3. Bf4 d5 4. f3 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. e4 e6 7. Qd2 b5 8....

This week, we are looking at the president of the Chinese Chess Federation, someone who played Chinese Chess before pivoting to Western Chess at the age of 10, a Women’s World Champion, the first Asian Woman to earn the Grandmaster title, and someone who has influenced millions of people to start playing the game - Xie Jun.  -- 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. d4 Nd6 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. d...

This week, we are looking at the longest reigning world champion in the history of the game. The 2nd World Champion, aiding in the handoff process from former to new champion, and a prolific author in not only chess, but also mathematics and philosophy - Emanuel Lasker.  ---- 1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. exd5 Qxd5 4. Nc3 Qe6 5. Nf3 Bd6 6. Bb5+ c6 7. Ba4 Ne7 8. O-O Nd7 9. Bb3 Nd5 10. d4 f6 11. dxe5 fxe5 12...

One of the strongest playing women players in the history of the game, a gold medal Olympiad winner, a World Rapid Champion, a World Blitz Champion, a World Champion runner-up, and being willing to sacrifice her titles to make a point to make a change in the World - Anna Muzychuk has made and continue to make a lasting impact on the chess world that many aspire to today. So that is all that we hav...

This week, we are looking at another Indian superstar, an individual and team Olympiad medalist (and winner), a Candidates participant, a Fischer Random World Championship Quarterfinalist, a Biel Chess Festival winner, and a Grand Swiss winner - - Vidit Gujrathi.  --- 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd3 d5 6. Nf3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 c5 8.O-O cxd4 9. exd4 b6 10. Bg5 Bb7 11. Qe2 Bxc3 12. bxc3 Nc...

This week, we are looking at one of the youngest Grandmasters Masters in history, a European Rapid and Blitz champion, a World Blitz Champion, and a 3 time French Champion - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.  -- Sicilian Defense: Najdorf (B91) 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. g3 e5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. Bg5 Be6 9. f4 exf4 10. Bxf4 Nc6 11. Qd2 O-O 12. O-O-O Ne5 13. Nd4 Bd7 14. Kb1 Rc8 15. h3 b5...

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode! It is puzzle time! These are some of my favorite episodes to record.  I will be giving you the location of each piece that is on the board, and I will give you a little time to consider the solution and solve the puzzle before I present the solution. I highly recommend attempting the puzzles on your own before listening to the solution.  This week, we...

This week we are looking at a rising star. A 3-time US Women’s Chess Champion, the youngest female player to defeat a Grandmaster, the youngest American woman in history to earn the International Master title - all before the age of 22 - Carissa Yip. — 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.exd5 Qxd5 5.Ngf3 cxd4 6.Bc4 Qd7 7.O-O Nc6 8.Nb3 a6 9.Re1 Nf6 10.Nbxd4 Nxd4 11.Nxd4 Qc7 12.Qe2 Bd7 13.Bg5 O-O-O 14.Rad1 B...

This week, we are looking at the history of a 3 time World Blitz Champion, a 5 time World Champion Candidate, and who some have nicknamed as the ‘funniest’ or the ‘thug life’ Grandmaster - Alexander Grischuk.  He never quite reached the pinnacle of the classical chess world. He qualified for multiple Candidates tournaments and World Championship tournaments, landing just short of the title on a co...

Adorned with 10 different gold medals from team events, being the 10th woman to earn the Grandmaster title, being the Russian Women’s Champion, Europe’s Rapid and Blitz Champion, a 2 time Chess960 World Champion, and a Women’s World Champion - Alexandra Kosteniuk has made a splash in the world of women’s chess.  —- 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 e6 4. O-O c5 5. c4 Nc6 6. d4 cxd4 7. cxd5 exd5 8.Nxd4 Be...