Perpetual Chess Podcast

This week I enjoyed talking with Sweden's highest rated chess player, the impressive young Grandmaster Nils Grandelius. Despite his being only 24 years old, Nils has had a wealth of experience in the chess world, including having played and held his own against such titans as Carlsen, Caruana, Kramnik, and Anand. Nils discussed those experiences with us and talked about what he thinks he needs to...

To mark the one year anniversary of Perpetual Chess, Ben Finegold returned as our first repeat guest. When Ben first talked with us in January 2017, he talked about plans for The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Atlanta, and in the past year GM Finegold and his wife, Karen Boyd, have seen the club go from dream to reality.  Ben shared the surprises and successes that they have encountered durin...

 IM Andrey Ostrovskiy joined me this week for an insightful conversation. We started off discussing the biggest news in the chess world, as Andrei gave his perspective on what Alphazero’s landmark success means, and doesn't mean. We then dug into Andrey's background. Andrey talked about why he made the move from his native Ukraine to Germany a few years ago and transitioned from his family busines...

It was my pleasure to interview my longtime friend, two-time US Women's Champion Jennifer Shahade this week. Jenn is a well-known chess player and announcer, but she stays busy with many other roles as well. Her popular books,  Play Like a Girl and Chess Bitch aim to attract more women to chess. She is also the Mind Sports ambassador for PokerStars, editor of the US Chess Federation website, and a...

WGM Tatev Abrahamyan was my guest this week on Perpetual Chess. Tatev recounted the challenges of moving from Armenia to Southern California with her family at the age of 13. Tatev's family moved for economic and professional reasons, but the young chess talent quickly made a mark on the American chess scene while slowly acclimating to American culture and language. After overcoming the culture sh...

In addition to being an USCF expert, chess teacher, and blitz specialist, Jonathan Corbblah is a game show wizard! He has appeared on 12 game shows and is a Jeopardy champion. In our interview, Jon tells us how chess helped inform his knowledge of trivia and how chess players can improve their trivia games. Jonathan also has many funny stories to tell about his brushes with fame in New York City. ...

GM Cristian Chirila is a chess player, journalist, coach and commentator. He talked with me about why he believes that's its necessary for a modern chess professional to wear many hats, and about what he likes about each of the roles that gen plays. Cristian also discusses his youth in Romania and tells what it was like to move to Texas to attend college. Cristian also pulls back the curtain on wh...

IM John Watson has over 30 chess books under his belt, and several of them are widely considered classics. In addition, John is a renowned chess teacher and player. In our interview, we discussed numerous interesting topics, including John's recent trip to play in the Isle of Man Tournament, tales from his glory days on the chess circuit (including Mikhail Tal's drinking habits), and John reveals...

IM Sagar Shah is best known in the chess world as a reporter for and co-founder of Chessbase India. Sagar travels the world and covers many of the top tournaments. In this role, he watches the world elites up close, and in our talk, he shares some observations from this unique perspective. Additionally, Sagar has his ear to the ground in the Indian chess world, so he tells us which Indian talents...

As GM Jesse Kraai tells us, he has completed 3 "major projects" in his life: earning a Ph. D. in Philosophy, writing a chess novel, Lisa, and of course, earning the Grandmaster title. These projects have taken him to many different places and given him perspective on lots of topics. These topics include: chess improvement (obviously), what its like to live in a "chess house," and which tv shows to...

Loek Van Wely is the 8 time Dutch National Champion, and he has played against and analyzed with many of this era's greatest chess players. Which one of them impressed him the most? He answers that question when he joins the podcast this week.  We also talk Dutch chess history, tales from his chess travels, and Loek discusses what it was like to work with GM Kramnik, as he reflects on his life, ca...

James Altucher is a best-selling author, successful entrepreneur, popular podcast host, and most recently, aspiring comedian. Of most importance to Perpetual Chess is his title USCF Chess Master. We asked him to join us because we wanted him to tell his own chess story and talk about the significance of chess in his own life. Of particular interest to James is the debate about whether talent or ha...

GM Judit Polgar needs no introduction to the Perpetual Chess audience, but here's one anyway. Chess legend Judit Polgar joins me this week to tell us what she has been up to since retiring from tournament chess three years ago. As Judit shares, she has been keeping busy with family, chess education initiatives, and with organizing the upcoming Global Chess Festival on October 14, 2017, in Budapest...

GM Robert Hess is this week's guest on Perpetual Chess. Young GM Hess already has loads of experience as a chess competitor, announcer, and coach. (He coached some of the most talented youth for the U.S. as well as the women's Olympiad team.) We talk about all of these things, as well as the FIDE World Cup, sports, and whether or not he was a "rival" of Fabiano Caruana when they were both top scho...

"Coach Jay" Stallings has taught over 35,000 students to play chess over the past 23 years. Jay takes us back to the beginning (1994) when you counted full-time chess coaches nationwide on your fingers. Jay shares with us many of the teaching tricks and recommendations for improvement that he has gleaned from years of experience as he has refined what ultimately became Coach Jay's Chess Academy. H...

GM Danny Gormally joined me to recap his experience at the recent British Chess Championships. In addition to discussing his near-miss there, Danny also reveals which GMs could be found at the pub after the rounds and analyzes the impact such unseen factors can have on one's results. He also talks candidly about the challenges of playing chess for a living with a FIDE rating around 2500. Lastly, G...

Alisa Melekhina is a practicing lawyer who has managed somehow to write a book while working long hours at a major law firm. We talk about her book, Reality Check, which details the parallels between the worlds of chess, business, and law. We also discussed Alisa's scholastic chess career, women's chess titles, and how her Eastern European heritage affects her psychology during tournament chess ga...

This week IM Eric Rosen joined me to give a report from the 2017 Sinquefield Cup, where he has been doing some reporting. I also asked him to recap his epic Summer Chess Europe trip. We also talked about Eric's favorite podcasts, some ways to improve your chess game, and the secrets of the robust scholastic chess scene in the state of Illinois (which I kept calling Chicago for some reason. :-) ) ....

On the heels of his terrific profile of GM Levon Aronian in the New Yorker, freelance writer Sean Williams joined me from Berlin to talk more about his subject. I was interested in hearing how this profile came to be published in one of my favorite magazines, and in hearing more behind the scenes details from this excellent writer. He also gave us some writing tips and reading recommendations. Fol...

I caught WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni just before she hopped onto her next plane for a chess tournament in Sicily. We discussed the production of Fiona's excellent travel/chess vlogs, and she shared insights into the chess culture in her native Luxembourg. Fiona also dissected her own chess game and recounted the ups and downs its had recently. Fiona is well-traveled and has lived in several European ci...

The founder of the St. Louis Chess Club, Rex Sinquefield is my guest this week. We have a timely conversation about the upcoming Sinquefield Cup, and about how Garry Kasparov's return to competitive chess came to be. We also talked about his vision for the future of chess, his favorite chess openings, finance, and baseball. To donate to the St. Louis Chess Club, click here. See omnystudio.com/list...

Perennial top 10 Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura was kind enough to join Perpetual Chess for an expansive interview. We talked about Garry Kasparov's upcoming return to competitive chess and about Hikaru's experience training with Kasparov. I asked him to handicap Kasparov's chances in St. Louis, and his answer may surprise you. We also touch on a myriad of other topics of interest to chess fans, incl...

As someone who spent formative years in both the former Soviet Union, and the US, Eugene Perelshteyn has studied with and competed against many iconic chess players and trainers. Eugene discusses the different approaches he encountered from various trainers and also discusses how he approaches helping his chess own students. We also relive Eugene's playing career highlights, which include winning...

GM David Smerdon is one of those people who seems to find more hours in the day than the rest of us. In addition to being the #2 player in Australia, he recently completed his Ph. D. in economics and landed a job as an assistant professor in his native Brisbane. David also manages to stay quite active in and vocal about chess, particularly on his excellent blog. In our conversation, we discuss Dav...

GM Pontus Carlsson speaks several languages, has lived many places, and is, of course, excellent at chess. In our interview, Carlsson discusses his ascent as a young chess talent in Sweden, race relations inside and outside of the world of chess, plus he reveals a grandmaster's secret for how to play while in time trouble. We also talk abut how GM Carlsson manages to balance a successful career ou...