Perpetual Chess Podcast

In the wake of IM Jeremy Silman’s recent passing, Chess Books Recaptured returns to review one of his classic books, The Amateur’s Mind. The Amateur’s Mind sold over 90,000 copies, and IM Jeremy Silman said that he thought it was his best instructional book. What made this book, and Silman’s writing so unique? We dive into that topic, share many memorable (and amusing) quotes from the book, and br...

This week we are joined by the economist, award-winning author, and top Australian player, GM David Smerdon. David is a professor at the University of Queensland. With a statistical background, David is a particular expert in the intersection of statistics and chess and is frequently able to combine his chess expertise with his academic research. Since chess cheating has been in the news again, we...

Ben Hodgkiss is a 32-year-old chess enthusiast who has worked in a few different fields, but feels like he has not yet found his professional calling. Ben knows that he loves chess though, and for at least the next year, he has decided to live the life of a chess professional and to chronicle this pursuit on his YouTube channel. Many chess players have fantasized about taking such a leap, so I was...

This week I am joined by a rising star in chess media, Davaun Williams. To his 200,000+ Tiktok followers and nearly 80,000 Instagram followers, Davaun is better known as “Chess Knowledge with H1.” In our conversation, we discuss H1’s chess origins, the origins of the nickname “H1,” and how he gained fame for using a demo board and throwing the captured chess pieces during his entertaining videos....

This week  a favorite guest returns to the pod, GM Robert Hungaski. Robert wears many hats in the chess world, as an accomplished player, Fide Senior trainer and International arbiter. His newest project involves organizing and presenting FIDE-sanctioned chess teaching seminars from some of the top trainers in the world, including Grandmasters Gregory Kaidanov, Alexey Shirov, Antoaneta Stefanova a...

The Perpetual Chess Adult Improver Series returns with another guest with a great story. Denis Markov is a 39 year-old working dad with a passion for chess. Denis has deep chess roots which date back to a childhood in Russia where he took classes at the fabled “Palace of Pioneers.” According to Denis, he did not show exceptional talent in those days and eventually set chess aside for some years. N...

Next week’s podcast is arriving early, and it's a double episode! For the first segment, I am joined again by Chessable author and trainer CM Vjekoslav (Vjeko) Nemec. Vjeko and I discuss the riveting, recently concluded FIDE Grand Swiss. India’s ascension continued as GM Vidit Gujirathi and IM R. Vaishali’s had impressive victories in the Open and Women’s Sections respectively. With more spots in...

My guests this week are Cecilia Albertini and Chandler Toffa the director and co-producer (respectively) of the charming new documentary The City of Human Chess. This short documentary tells the story of Marostica, Italy, where a famous chess game is recreated by human volunteers on a bi-annual basis. The event has a long tradition and draws upwards of 4000 paying customers. It is a touching story...

My book, Perpetual Chess Improvement, is now available from New in Chess (and should be shipping from Amazon any day now), so it was time to dedicate a podcast to discussing it in detail. Joining me for the discussion is longtime friend of the pod, cognitive scientist, author and USCF Master, Dr. Christopher Chabris. Christopher had a sneak peak at the book and shares his impressions of it and int...

GM Davorin Kuljasevic is a renowned author, trainer and player, best known for the excellent book, How to Study Chess on Your Own. Because GM Kuljasevic has worked with players of varying ages and skill levels, and has written a book on the topic of chess study, he is the perfect person to field questions for a Chess Improvement Q & A. In our far-reaching conversation, we cover topics ranging from...

This week on Perpetual Chess we feature two chess enthusiasts who are driving initiatives to improve the chess world. 1) Emilia Castelao is a history grad student, chess photographer and chess historian, who is collaborating with Mr. Dodgy to launch the Women in Chess Foundation. Their mission is to advocate for and empower women in the chess community. Emilia has a broad vision for the foundation...

This week’s guest, Steffen Slumstrump Nielsen is one of the most accomplished chess endgame study composers in the world. Steffen’s new book, Endgame Labyrinths (co-authored with GM Jacob Aagaard) compiles what they consider to be the most instructive endgame studies of all time. It is a beautiful book filled with challenging and instructive studies. In our conversation, we discuss how Steffen cam...

Can Kabadayi is a cognitive scientist, a self-taught Candidate Master, and a popular and prolific Chessable author. Given his academic background, Can is especially interested in the challenges of adult chess improvement, and devotes his chess work to helping adult learners.  In our conversation, we discuss the origins of Can’s interests in chess and cognitive science, his Chessable courses, his O...

This week on Perpetual Chess, we look at chess study from a different angle- what does the science of learning teach us about how best to study chess? Joining us to discuss it is an expert in the field, Dr. Anique de Bruin of Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Dr. de Bruin researches the topics of deliberate practice and desirable difficulty and researched and wrote about chess skill acquis...

The book review series Chess Books Recaptured is back to discuss a couple of great puzzle books with a strategic orientation. 1) First up, we discuss a lesser-known but excellent collection of puzzles and insightful analysis, Strategic Chess Exercises by GM Emanuel Bricard. Following that, we discuss one of the most (rightfully) acclaimed books of recent years, Think Like a Super GM by Phillip Hur...

Perpetual Chess returns for the second edition of what will be an occasional series, Perpetual Tournament Reports. (First edition here). For this episode, two guests join me to share their respective experiences at ALTO (“At Least Twenty One”), which was a tournament that took place in early September, and was hosted by the Charlotte Chess Center. ALTO is a semi-annual tournament that has quickly...

This week’s return guest on Perpetual Chess is the renowned trainer and player GM Gregory Kaidanov. Gregory joined me in between travels, as he had returned home from competing in the FIDE World Cup, and he was soon heading to Macedonia for the World Senior Team Championship. Gregory shared his perspective on the FIDE World Cup both as a player, and as a fan. As we discuss, Gregory was not surpris...

The Adult Improver series returns to look at both the macro and the micro of adult chess improvement. My guest is NM Todd Bryant. Todd is a software engineer (for Chess.com) and an accomplished player, who has used his analytical skills to gather lots of data about the most accomplished adult improvers in recent US Chess History. Todd shares information about the standout improvement cases at diff...

This week our guest is WFM Maaike Keetman. Maaike is a 2016 Dutch Chess Olimpian and youth champion, who is also a Chessable author and member of its content creation team. Maaike joined me shortly after competing in a big open tournament in Europe, The Czech Open. Maaike reflected on her own performance and also highlighted what anyone considering playing in this tournament in future years could...

GM Melik Khachiyan is a top player and former chess Olympian. He is also a trainer who has taught many future GMs and has coached the US Women’s national team for many years. Despite his many successes, Melik had never won a US Championship of his own…until this year. In 2023, Melik beat out many higher-rated U.S. legends to comfortably win the U.S. Senior Championship! In our conversation, Melik...

We catch you up on the riveting 2023 FIDE World Cup. I am joined by Chessable author and blogger, CM Vjekoslav Nemec to discuss the tournament so far, then FIDE Press officer IM Michael Rahal joins me from the playing hall in Baku to describe the venue and what it has been like to do post-game interviews with the players, including one with Magnus Carlsen that went viral.  Thanks to our presenting...

Jeff Sonas is a software engineer and database consultant who is also one of the world’s leading experts on chess ratings. As you may have read, FIDE recently proposed some changes to its rating system (partially due to Jeff’s advice). . In our conversation, Jeff explains the background of his work on ratings, and why he feels that changes to the system are necessary. Following a detailed and fasc...

This week we are joined by a legend of Norwegian Chess, GM Simen Agdestein. Simen was the first Norwegian Grandmaster, a childhood trainer of Magnus Carlsen, and is a nine-time champion of Norway, who holds the record of being both the country’s youngest and oldest national champion, after winning the title again this year at age 56. As if these feats weren’t impressive enough, at the time Simen w...

After a lengthy hiatus, the book review series Chess Books Recaptured, returns to discuss another classic chess book. This time we discuss Chess for Zebras. Originally published in 2003, Zebras is a followup to Rowson’s classic first book The Seven Deadly Chess Sins. While the book has some tonal similarities to its predecessor, it is a bit more narrow in focus. My guest co-host is Law Professor D...

Perpetual Chess is back with a banger of a double episode. First up is chess superstar, GM Levon Aronian! Levon joined me from Spain after returning from the first season of the Global Chess League in Dubai. Levon reflected on the success of his championship-winning team, and we discussed why he thinks initiatives like this league are vital to the future health of chess. We then broadened the scop...