Julia and JJ solicit controversial opinions from their listeners on twitter, and proceed to debate the merits of these ideas. Does playing the Fried Liver make you a bad person? Would chess be a better game if there were no draws? Is Chessable overrated? Julia and JJ discuss their listener's worst opinions. Brought to you by Chessable.
Julia and JJ talk about what short and long term goals can look like. They expose the types of mistakes most of us make when setting goals or making plans towards achieving them. They also announce their new partnership with Chessable, but neglect to talk about whether using chessable can help with goal-setting. They pressure each other into sharing their own personal chess goals on the air. Links: Levy Rozman's tweet on ceilings vs floors 100 endgames you must know course Geller - Bolbochan 196...
Sam joins JJ and Julia to discuss her journey back into chess obsession and improvement after coming out as trans and finding a newfound desire to put her all into life. Julia provides feedback on Sam's tendency to collapse in endgames against higher-rated opponents and in high-pressure games. JJ discusses the importance of perspective and reflection when determining whether a tournament was a success, and how this can impact choosing which section to compete in. tw: discussion of suicide Follow...
JJ and Julia are joined by opening researcher and blitz badass NM Gopal Menon to dispel the myth that your opening preferences can tell us anything about your style of play or your personality more generally. Once this is out of the way, they turn to the more important question of which openings correspond to what sorts of sexual kinks and proclivities. Don't worry, we obviously address the most important question for anybody building an opening repertoire: which openings fuck? This one is parti...
JJ and Julia are not feeling it this week. They address questions they've gotten from listeners about the phenomenon of "tilt," and after discussing various strategies for getting over or working through a tilted episode by finding ways to reignite your passion for chess, switch to the more general question of what to do when that passion just doesn't seem to be there at the moment. They discuss the pressure of feeling like being a chess obsessive means the fire 'should' always be there, and why...
Why do so many chess players obsess over their ratings? What does this obsession look like, why is it often an impediment to progress, and what can we do to get over ourselves? Fresh off an almost-good tournament, JJ recounts their experience of getting fixated on the possibility of a large rating gain, and how hard it was to re-focus on their chess once this happened. Julia expands on the pernicious effects of ratings-fixation. JJ suggests less results-orients ways to refocus measuring chess im...
Julia and JJ question whether there is a connection between an aggressive style of play over the board and aggressively alienating personalities off the board. And, even worse, could aggression still improve your chess even if there is? JJ laments that many of their students describe clarifying, forcing, but ultimately simplifying moves as "aggressive." Julia explains how different conceptualizations and types of aggression can map onto chess in different ways. They then dunk on GM Reuben Fine's...
Jon Mackenzie of The Chess Pit podcast (and Tifo football analytics?) joins JJ and Julia to discuss what he describes as his own ambivalence towards the game of chess. Why is it that chess differs from other sports fandoms in terms of its focus on improvement? What is it about chess that can inspire such unique emotional pitfalls? Could JJ and Julia beat the Chess Pit guys in a fight?
What would therapy for a tournament chess player look like? During a "therapy" session, Julia helps JJ unpack a number of questions that plagued them throughout a frustrating tournament where JJ kept running into familiar problems. Why do we sometimes get fixated on a single, unnecessary variation that costs us precious time on the clock? Is there anything we can do at the board to reset our nervous system when panic sets in? Sit in and listen to our trusty duo as they attempt to get to the root...
We're all obsessed with blitz, but could it actually be addictive? Our resident clinical psychologist explains why playing online chess might actually be addicting and assesses whether JJ's blitz behavior meets criteria for an addiction. Follow along and see if you do, too, just in time to learn more about possible interventions for your blitz-addicted loved ones. JJ and Julia question what mechanisms chess websites use to promote addictive behavior and explore how we could use blitz in a way th...
JJ convinces Julia to start a podcast about chess and psychology. Julia explains what people mean when they say they're interested in "the psychology of chess," and what they're missing. They explore more fruitful ways to reframe discussions about emotions and psychology in chess. Then, we learn how JJ and Julia first met, how they each got into chess, and why Julia does not have imposter syndrome. Finally, our hosts introduce future themes such as addiction, impulse control, and the "adult disp...
chessfeels episode 1 drops March 15th. Beware the Ides of Julia's half-birthday! Leave us a five-star review and be entered into a drawing for a chance to win three free months of LiChess Premium.
