Nazi Paikidze is a Georgian-American chess player who was born on January 27, 1994, in Tbilisi, Georgia. Paikidze's career as a chess player began at 4 and started working with her first coach at 6, quickly establishing herself as one of the most promising young players in Georgia. Chess was a part of the curriculum and she has said it was her favorite class. At the age of 9 she won her first international tournament - the European Youth Chess Championship. She won the Under 14 Girls Championshi...
Jul 29, 2023•12 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Anatoly Karpov is a Russian grandmaster and former world champion who dominated the game in the 1970s and 1980s. He was born on May 23, 1951, in Zlatoust, Russia, and began playing chess at 4, earning his Candidate Master title at 11. At 12, he was admitted into Mikhail Botvinnik’s chess school. Botvinnik remarked - “The boy does not have a clue about chess, and there’s no future at all for him in this profession.” Karpov first gained international attention in the late 1960s. He won the World J...
Jul 15, 2023•12 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Garry Kasparov is widely regarded as one of the greatest chess players of all time. Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 1963, Kasparov began playing chess at a young age and quickly rose as a prodigy. In 1978, he participated in the Sokolsky Memorial and took home first place to become a master (at the age of 16). Later that year, he qualified for and won the 64 person Swiss system USSR Chess Championship - the youngest to do so. At the age of 19, he was the 2nd highest rated player in the world and th...
Jul 01, 2023•13 min•Season 2Ep. 1
The Blindfold King, Grandmaster Timur Gareyev is the current Guiness World Record holder for the most simultaneous blindfolded chess games played at the same time. Originally from Uzbekistan, he won the U14 Asian Championship at the age of 12. He became a Grandmaster at the age of 15. His major claim to fame is becoming the Blindfold King. In December of 2016 in Las Vegas, Timur played 48 games with a blindfold on at the same time. The previous record was 46 games set by Marc Lang in 2011. The e...
Jun 17, 2023•15 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Recognized as the first official World Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, owned the title from 1886-1894. Born in 1836 as the last of 13 sons, he began playing chess at 12 and started studying it in his 20's At the end of the 1850's he became very dominant being nicknamed 'The Austrian Morphy' (after the American, Paul Morphy). After a successful match against Italian Master Serafino Dubois in 1862, Steinitz took up chess professionally. In 1866, Steinitz faced Adolf Anderssen who was then regarded as ...
Jun 03, 2023•11 min•Season 1Ep. 25
A pioneer in Computer Chess and Chess Coach, Mikhail Botvinnik had an incredibly strong impact on Russian and global chess. He was the first world class player to develop in the USSR and he was the driving organizational force for chess after WWII creating the 'Russian School of Chess' teaching students like Karpov, Kasparov, and Kramnik. Not only was he a great coach, but an unbelievable player, holding the world championship title for 13 years during a period of 1948-1963. Growing up was... co...
May 20, 2023•13 min•Season 1Ep. 24
It is my birthday today! As a present to myself I wanted to look at my favorite chess player - Mikhail Tal. Known for his creativity and attacking play - The Magician of Riga was the 8th World Champion from 1960-1961. He is also known for his improvisation and unpredictability, sometimes that would backfire, but other times it led to brilliancies still talked about today. He grew up in Soviet-Latvia and began playing chess at the age of 6 At the age of 13, he started working with Latvian Master ...
May 06, 2023•12 min•Season 1Ep. 23
The Mozart of Chess, the highest rated human player in history (2882), the 5-time World Champion, and the second longest reign of holding the FIDE number 1 title which has been uninterupted since July 2011. Magnus Carlsen is in a league of his own in the chess world. At the time of recording this, he is currently 50 rating points ahead of World Number 2. To put that into comparison, there is a 50 point difference from 2nd place and 8th in the world standings. Growing up - Taught chess by his fat...
Apr 22, 2023•13 min•Season 1Ep. 22
With the World Chess Championship currently underway, today we are looking at the second Challenger - Ding Liren. The highest rated Chinese player in history, the #2 player in the world for over a year and having the longest undefeated streak in top-level classical chess history from August 2017-November 2018, ... until Magnus beat that streak in 2019, Ding Liren's chess career is just as decorated as Nepo's. Growing up in the Zhejiang (je-jang) province of China, his mother took him to a chess ...
Apr 08, 2023•11 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Looking for a second chance at the World Championship after faltering in 2021, the current World Number 3, Ian Nepomniachtchi, will be taking on a different opponent, hopefully with a better outcome for him. How did he get to the near pinnacle of the chess world? He started at the age of 4 in Russia. At the age of 5, he moved with his coach FM Valentin Evdokimenko until Ian was 13. When Evdokimenko realized Ian needed a better coach, he handed him to IM Valery Zilberstein. Side note: After Zilbe...
Mar 25, 2023•13 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Outside of his snarky and sarcastic Twitter page, GM Anish Giri is a phenomenal chess player. Born in Russia in 1994, he began playing at the age of 6. In 2002, his family moved to Japan, then in 2008 they moved to the Netherlands. A chess prodigy - he became a Grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 7 months, and 2 days in 2009, but he did not stop there. From 2006 to 2010 his rating jumped from 2114 to 2672 - an incredible increase for that period of time. He has been the Dutch champion 4 times, p...
Mar 11, 2023•12 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Ten episodes ago, we looked at puzzles. This week, we will be trying a couple more. These puzzles are not necessarily ordered in terms of difficulty, but each provide key endgame elements that occur in games. With enough practice, you will be able to visualize the solution without needing to think to solve them, you can simply look at the board and say 'This is winning', 'This is a draw', or 'This is losing'. Our first puzzle examines pawn promotion against kings. The goal - is to visualize the ...
Feb 25, 2023•11 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Bonus I realized I had too much content for Morphy to cram into one episode. Today, we are going to look at another odds game against his long time sparing partner - Charles Maurian. Morphy and Maurian played well over 75 recorded games that we know of. The previous game, we looked at Morphy starting down just a rook. But - a rook is just not enough for Morphy. In this game, he is giving Rook AND Knight odds to his friend. So from the starting position, the a1 rook and the b1 knight are not on t...
Feb 18, 2023•7 min
IM Levy Rozman (GothamChess) is a chess content creator on Youtube and Twitch. His name, 'GothamChess' comes from where he grew up in New York City. He has earned over 1 million subscribers on Youtube and his videos have received almost 500 million total views since he started in 2018. Starting chess when he was 6, he played his first tournament at the age of 7 with an initial rating of 948. In 2011, he obtained his National Master title. In 2016, FIDE Master, and in 2018, International Master. ...
Feb 11, 2023•11 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Considered to be an Unofficial World Champion of his time, Paul Morphy was one of America's greatest flash-in-the-pan chess players. Nicknamed "The Pride and Sorrow of Chess", Morphy learned chess by watching his father. By age 9, he was one of the best players in New Orleans. At the age of 12, he beat the Hungarian Master Johann Lowenthal (one of the top players of the 1850's) in a 3 game match. Morphy graduated with his law degree at the age of 20 he was too young to legally practice, so he to...
Jan 28, 2023•10 min•Season 1Ep. 16
The current icon of Ben Finegold is one of snark and sarcasm -- ... which he has always had. He learned about the game when he was 5, getting his first rating at 6. By the time he was 12, he was offering/ hustling in New York at 8:1 odds in bullet games. Ben graduated high school at the age of 16 and in 1993 he earned the US Chess Trust Samford Fellowship - a prize given to chess trainers to help them purchase coaches, books, equipment, and other study material to help support development of US ...
Jan 14, 2023•11 min•Season 1Ep. 15
15. Irina Krush v Damon Macleod (2009) Excuse me for the easy joke - but Irina Krush - does crush. The 8 time US Women's Champion and (currently) the only woman to earn a Grandmaster Title while playing for the United States, Irina is in a league of her own. Born in Odessa, USSR (Ukraine today), she learned to play chess and migrated to Brooklyn when she was 5. She became the youngest female to win the US Women's Championship at the age of 14 in 1998. The following year, she was one of the playe...
Dec 31, 2022•10 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Chess has been around for centuries, varaitions date back to the 6th century from India with a game called chaturanga. From there, it moved to Persia, then through the Muslim world, into Spain, then taking over Europe. Throughout its history there have been several iterations - Elephants morphed into Bishops, Chariots into Rooks, Foot soldiers into Pawns. the Advisor which could move diagonally 1 square was replaced with the Queen. If the Queen was captured the game used to end in the same way t...
Dec 17, 2022•10 min•Season 1Ep. 13
The 4 time Women's World Chess Champion and the 2nd highest rated female player of all time, Hou Yifan started playing at the age of 5 with the help of her chess mentor IM Tong Yuanming. At 13 became the Chinese Women's Champion. She earned the Grandmaster title at 14yrs 6mo 2 days (one of 39 women in the world to ever do so). At 16 she became the Women's World Champion. She has been regarded as being 'leaps and bounds' ahead of her competition - winning her 4 Women's World Championships with a ...
Dec 03, 2022•13 min•Season 1Ep. 12
"The Silent Assassin", Vasily Smyslov was a Soviet chess legend. Born in 1921, he first learned about chess when he was 6 and remained very active in the elite levels of chess well into his 60's winning the first World Senior Championship in 1991. During such a long chess career, Smyslov was always at the highest levels of chess. He was excused from WWII service due to his severe short sightedness, but was still able to play in the USSR. After the war, he was a candidate for the World Championsh...
Nov 19, 2022•11 min•Season 1Ep. 11
This week we are looking at IM Eric Rosen, the popular Youtuber and Twitch streamer famous for his "Oh no my Queen" traps. Growing up, he started playing when he was 7 and won the 3rd grade state championship at the age of 9. When he was in high school he won the 2011 US K-12 Championship with a perfect 7-0. That clear of a victory was so unprecedented that the Skokie Village Board (his hometown) called May 16th, 2011 "Eric Rosen Day". In 2015, he collected his final International Master norm an...
Nov 05, 2022•9 min•Season 1Ep. 10
This week, we are looking at a couple of puzzles! Easy White King on b7 Black King on e3 White Rook on a4 White Rook on h8 Medium White king on a2 Black king on c1 White pawns on f5, g5, h5 Black pawns on f7, g7, h7 Hard Reti's Position White king on h8 White pawn on c6 Black king on a6 Black pawn on h5 GM Wesley So solving Blindfolded studies - https://youtu.be/oe_UtZudAY0 http://cassidynoble.com/...
Oct 22, 2022•7 min•Season 1Ep. 9
This week, we are looking at GM Susan Polgar, the oldest of the Polgar sisters. Outside of her controversial upbringing, she achieved a plethora of achievements - Perfect score in the U11. Winning the U16 at the age of 12. Highest rated female in the world at age 15. World Champion in 1996. And now working on the SPICE training camp at Webster University. In today's game, we are looking at her game against Cirkov in 1981 - Polgar v Cirakov 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nf3 g6 4.g3 Bg7 5.Bg2 O-O 6.O-O d6 7....
Oct 08, 2022•11 min•Season 1Ep. 8
This week, we are looking at a game from GM Hikaru Nakamura. The internet's most popular chess streamer. I could not list all of his accolades due to a character limit, but some of his highlights - 5x - US Champion 2x - Candidate for the World Championship World's Wealthiest Chess Player 1.5 million Twitch followers 1.3 million Youtube subscribers Countless winner of Titled Tuesday (Chess.com) Youngest American to beat an IM (age 10) Youngest American to be a GM (age 15) This week, we are lookin...
Sep 24, 2022•11 min•Season 1Ep. 7
This week we are looking at Max Lange - the founder of the West German Chess Federation and the 2nd president of the German Chess Federation. Estimated to be one of the top players of the 1860's, Lange was the a 4 time winner of the West German Championship and has an opening named after him (The Max Lange Attack - 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.O–O Bc5 6.e5). Max Lange vs Heinemann 1854 1.e4 e5 2.f4 Bc5 3.Nf3 d6 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.b4 Bxb4 6.c3 Bc5 7.fxe5 Nxe4 8.Qa4+ Nd7 9.Bxf7+ Kxf7 10.Qxe4 R...
Sep 10, 2022•9 min•Season 1Ep. 6
This week, we are looking at another short game from Pillsbury - this time a blindfold game of his. This game is quite the example of quickly a blindfold game can unravel if you lose the position. Not much is known about Zangger as this is the only game in the database for him. I like this game because it also demonstrates that you can be a legendary player and still screw up games...badly. That is how we get better. We are able to pick ourselves up and keep moving forward. 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3...
Sep 03, 2022•6 min
Alireza Firouzja is a chess prodigy. At age 19, he is the youngest competitor in the 2022 Candidates tournament to play against the World Champion. He was the youngest player to break the 2800 rating barrier, is currently ranked number 3 in the world, was as high as number 2 in the world, and Magnus Carlsen has stated that he only wants to play the World Championship if Alireza is in it. Iranian-born, but now playing under the French flag, Firouzja is starting to make monumental waves in the hig...
Aug 27, 2022•9 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Today, we are looking at Rubinstein's Immortal - a beautiful game involving sacrifices that left his opponent spellbound. A top of the world player who was scheduled to take on Lasker for the World Championship in 1914, but was put on hold due to WWI. Later in his life, he developed a fear of humans and schizophrenia. 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 e6 3. e3 c5 4. c4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. dxc5 Bxc5 7. a3 a6 8. b4 Bd6 9. Bb2 O-O 10. Qd2 Qe7 11. Bd3 dxc4 12. Bxc4 b5 13. Bd3 Rd8 14. Qe2 Bb7 15. O-O Ne5 16. Nxe5 Bxe5 1...
Aug 13, 2022•9 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Today, we are looking at a game involving Harry Pillsbury. Pillsbury was a very strong American player, a strong blindfold player and the winner of the Hastings Tournament of 1895. Unfortunately, illness then death at the age of 33 prevented him from competing for the World Championship. 1.f4 e6 2.Nf3 b6 3.e3 Be7 4.Be2 Nf6 5.b3 O-O 6.O-O Bb7 7.Bb2 d5 8.c4 c5 9.Nc3 Nc6 10.a3 Qd7 11.Qc2 Rac8 12.Rad1 Rfd8 13.Ne5 Nxe5 14.fxe5 Ne8 15.Rxf7 Kxf7 16.Qxh7 Nf6 17.Rf1 Rg8 18.Bh5+ Kf8 19.exf6 Bxf6 20.Rxf6+1...
Jul 30, 2022•8 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Today, we are looking at a game between Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov from 1974 in their Candidates Final (game 21). This was won by Korchnoi in 19 moves. Korchnoi is argued to be one of the strongest players in the world that never won the World Championship title. 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.g3 b6 4.Bg2 Bb7 5.c4 Be7 6.Nc3 O-O 7.Qc2 c5 8.d5 exd5 9.Ng5 Nc6 10.Nxd5 g6 11.Qd2 Nxd5 12.Bxd5 Rb8 13.Nxh7 Re8 14.Qh6 Ne5 15.Ng5 Bxg5 16.Bxg5 Qxg5 17.Qxg5 Bxd5 18.O-O Bxc4 19.f4 1-0 https://www.chessgames.com...
Jul 16, 2022•12 min•Season 1Ep. 2
