Perpetual Chess Podcast

IM Willy Hendriks is a Netherlands based chess trainer, and an author of three books: Move First Think Later ( 2012 ECF Book of the Year), On the Origin of Good Moves, and his new book, Ink War: Romanticism vs. Modernity in Chess. Ink War is an entertaining and informative look at the first World Championship Match between Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort. As we discuss the two players had...

This week on Perpetual Chess we catch up with GM Cristian Chirila. A former Romanian youth champion, GM Chirila is now based in Missouri and has many roles in the chess world including commentator for the Grand Chess Tour, coach of the St. Louis University Chess Team, and co-host, with GM Fabiano Caruana, of the C-Squared podcast. On C Squared, GM’s Chirila and Caruana are often joined by prominen...

This month, The Adult Improver Series welcomes Ben Hunt of the Chess Boot Camp YouTube Channel. Through his channel and a Chess.com forum, Ben has built a community around helping players rated 500-1200 improve. Ben started pursuing chess seriously in 2019 and shares tons of helpful reflections including his favorite content creators, the challenges of transitioning to OTB, and what he has learned...

Dr. Howard Burton is a documentary filmmaker and author. Howard holds a PhD in theoretical physics and an MA in Philosophy. He is also the founder of the award-winning multimedia initiative Ideas Roadshow. Their latest documentary, Through the Mirror of Chess: A Cultural Exploration, is a 4 part documentary that shows the cultural impact and history of chess from its origins to modern times. It is...

This week I am joined by IM Yaacov Norowitz. Yaacov is a trainer, a Chessable author, and a speed chess specialist who has won the World Open Blitz tournament 5 times.   He has a Chess.com peak blitz rating of nearly 3000. Yaacov has a unique background, and he had some entertaining stories to tell about topics that include :  His over 12000 blitz and bullet games against Hikaru Nakamura. Yaacov h...

The Perpetual Chess Book Review Series Chess Books Recaptured  returns to discuss the award winning book, San Luis 2005 by GM Alik Gershon and Igor Nor. San Luis 2005 chronicles a crucial tournament in modern chess history, a double round robin whose winner determined the FIDE World Champion. The tournament featured nearly all of the top players of the time including GM Viswanathan Anand, Judit Po...

This week we are joined by a young star of the chess world, Dutch GM and Chessable Author GM Jorden van Foreest. Just 23 years of age, Jorden already has a wide range of chess experience. As a player, Jorden has a peak rating of 2715 and was the Dutch National Champion in 2016 and the Tata Steel Champion in 2021. He also has already had the opportunity to work extensively with his Dutch compatriot...

GM Mihail Marin has spent his life surrounded by chess in varying professional capacities and has the wealth of wisdom and stories you might expect from such experiences. He is a polyglot, a prolific and award winning author, a top trainer, and a 3 time Romanian national Chess champion. GM Marin is also the friend and frequent collaborator of GM Judit Polgar, and eventually helped Judit write her...

This week’s guest on Perpetual Chess an author, an American Chess Magazine columnist, and the recently-crowned World Champion of correspondence chess, Dr. Jon Edwards. Correspondence chess historically was played by mail, without assistance. These days it is played by email, with engine assistance allowed. The current format makes for incredibly accurate games that often end in draws. So what enab...

We are back with another Tata Steel focused bonus pod. As we recorded the venerable tournament has 3 rounds left and has been filled with beautiful games and fascinating storylines. We are re-joined by renowned author/ Chessable author, FM Michiel Abeln to assess what we have seen so far. Timestamps of topics and players discussed are below.  0:00- What has struck Michiel about the first 10 rounds...

The Adult Improver Series of Perpetual Chess returns today. It is a series devoted to sharing the stories of dedicated chess amateurs. This week’s guest is Kamryn Hellman. Kamryn is a 23 year-old who got swept up by chess in 2021 after seeing Queen’s Gambit. At that time she learned the game from scratch, and in the subsequent time she has become immersed in the culture and brought her Chess.com r...

We’ve got some bonus content for you guys, as renowned author/ Chessable author FM Michiel Abeln joined me on the first rest day to discuss the ongoing Tata Steel Chess tournament. Tata Steel is an annual tournament in the Netherlands which routinely attracts many of the world’s top players as well as rising stars. It is run concurrently with tournaments open to all, and is celebrating its 85th an...

This week’s guest on Perpetual Chess is the hardest-working man in chess. He is Twitch Streamer, Chess.com commentator, and ambitious improver, FM James Canty. I have been a fan of James for a long time, so I was glad to finally get to ask him some questions about what motivates him to work so hard on his game. Naturally we also discussed what James specifically is studying, his pursuit of the IM...

This week on Perpetual Chess, we are rejoined by 2019 Swiss National Champion, blogger and trainer, GM Noel Studer. Noel is always extremely insightful on matters related to chess improvement, and has recently released a video course sharing his own recommended approach. The course, Next Level Training: Conquer the Chess Information Chaos, tackles many of the questions commonly contemplated on the...

We are joined this week by a legend of British chess, GM Jonathan Speelman! Jonathan is a three- time British champion, a two-time World Championship Candidate  an author, Chessbase.com columnist, and a trainer. He has been ranked as high as #4 in the world in 1989 and has worked as a second for GMs Viktor Korchnoi, Vishy Anand and Nigel Short. As you might imagine, such a wealth of chess experien...

As 2022 draws to a close, I am (re)joined by Chess Life Magazine editor and Award Winning Journalist John Hartmann to reflect on a year of seismic change in the chess world. First and foremost, cheating in chess has been thrust to the forefront in the wake of the Carlsen/Niemann scandal. We review the latest legal developments in this particular story and also provide some details on a new chess c...

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 gam...

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. C...

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 tour...

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 cha...

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...

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...

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 o...

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, K...

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 inte...