The Say Chess Podcast

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit saychess.substack.com Here is my second lesson with IM Fernando Valenzuela Gomez. We dive into my opening weak point. Black against 1. d4. It was nice to get a better sense of the different ideas against 1. d4. But it is still clear that I need to study the course material in depth, which has been a bit hard because I also have had to r...

The voting has now ended and the book chosen was a clear winner! The Amateur’s Mind will be the book we will read together, which I’m excited about. How to Reassess Your Chess made a big impression on me, so I’m looking forward to seeing what this book has to offer. If you join you will have the next week to go get the book . If you want it quickly there is also a Chessable version available. We t...

Hi! I’m happy to announce that you can now get your hands on my latest book and challenge yourself with solving some insanely hard mate in two problems: If you live outside the US you can buy it here: * UK * DE * FR * ES * IT * NL * PL * SE * JP * CA * AU If you want to read more about the project you can find the parts here: If you want access to the PDF it is available for paid subscribers of Sa...

Hi! This week I talked with GM Noël Studer . Besides being a grandmaster Noël has specialized himself in helping adult chess players with breaking bad training habits and getting into shape. He writes an excellent newsletter with weekly chess advice. If you decide to sign up you get a free eBook from Noël with training advice: https://nextlevelchess.blog/ It seemed natural for me to invite him to...

Spotify | Apple podcast I have for many years been listing to the Perpetual Chess Podcast hosted by Ben Johnson . The podcast has been a weekly highlight and Ben has interviewed some of the world’s best players, coaches, and adult chess improvers. I have somehow also been lucky to sneak into two episodes. When Ben revealed that he is working on a book with the purpose to distill the hundreds of ho...

This week I interviewed Ono, who is an adult improver, chess blogger, and chess coach. He has an amazing chess blog on Lichess , where he just published a post on blunders . If someone tells you to quit an addiction that is really hard to do, because it is not an action. It’s the opposite, it’s a non-action. The same goes for the blunder or safety check, which basically says: "make sure you don't...

This podcast includes an interview with Braden Laughlin, 23, from Canada. Braden is working really hard on his chess and aims at NM. As you can see on his rating graph he is taking steps in the right direction each month. The interview focus on his most recent tournament and how it went, and the lessons learned. Last year I also lost two 20+10 games against Braden, which we briefly talk about duri...

In this episode, I talk about the new Chess Training Accountability Group and announce a few updates. A new addition to the group will be accountability partners. The group is already +150 members and we do not know each other yet. I can recommend that you press the purple icon on the left and join the chat and introduce yourself. However, to help people connect and stay accountable I will create...

If you haven't already subscribed to my newsletter you can join for free at www.saychess.substack.com I had the pleasure to have a talk with Neal Bruce about his return to OTB chess after a 4 year pause from tournament chess. Neal has posted a long thread about the tournament on Twitter which was a good reference point for our talk. Neal is a real chess grinder and is one of the persons I hav...

Welcome to the 89 new subscribers who joined since the last newsletter. The newsletter now goes out to 1,249 people! If you haven't subscribed yet you can join for free. New subscribers get a 50-page pdf with the 14 annotated games from Capablanca’s classic book ‘Chess Fundamentals. The Tactics Ladder — A Chess Tactics Book For Expert Players (2000 FIDE Level) It is time to give you an update on m...

Welcome to the 96 new subscribers who joined since the last newsletter. Join the 1,129 others receiving chess perspectives ranging from chess history to chess improvement. In the podcast episode I talk about: * The 30 days blindfold chess challenge * The 2016 World Chess Championship, A Russian Spy, and The Mueller Report * My own chess improvement, the newsletter/publishing business, and why I wi...

Hi! I have made a brand new chess podcast. You might ask how will this be different from the other chess podcasts? The Say Chess Podcast will be updating you on my chess projects, delivering blindfold chess puzzles, miniature games, and moments from chess history. It will challenge you to visualize the chessboard and practice blindfold chess. To ensure a good narration of the puzzles I have used a...