USCF Master Michael Aigner is a player and coach who is well-known in the Bay Area of California. He has coached many future titled players, and also holds a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. Thanks to Michael for an informative and inspiring conversation. Read on for details of all that we discussed.0:00- Intro and quick discussion of how the Bay Area teams are doing in the Pro Chess League. What distinguishes Michael’s coaching style? Amongst his favorite game...
Jan 22, 2019•1 hr 13 min
This week’s guest on Perpetual Chess is Chilean Grandmaster, acclaimed chess author and newly minted Applied Mathematics Ph. D., Mauricio Flores. Mauricio and I covered a wide variety of chess related topics. Check them out below: 0:00- Introduction and we discuss Mauricio’s outstanding book Chess Structures. Mauricio explains how the idea for the book occurred to him and how he went about writing it. This includes a discussion of how Mauricio managed to become a GM despite a relative lack of re...
Jan 15, 2019•1 hr 1 min
This week’s guest is well known chess competitor, presenter and Red Bull Athlete, IM Tania Sachdev. Check the timestamps below for discussion topics. 👇👇 0:00- Introduction and discussion of what to watch for and who is playing at the upcoming Gibraltar Chess Festival where Tania, along with GM Simon Williams and IM Jovanka Houska, will be a part of the announcing team. We also talk about the 2017 controversy at Gibraltar involving former Women’s World Champion Hou Yifan. 14:45- We segue into t...
Jan 08, 2019•49 min
This week on Perpetual Chess, Pro Chess League and US Chess School founder IM Greg Shahade makes his annual return to the podcast. Instead of giving a detailed description of all that we discussed, my New Years Resolution for the podcast is to endeavor to provide timestamps of the major topics that each guest addresses. Below, you can find this week's timestamps, including any relevant links. As always, you can keep up with Greg on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. For relevant hyperlinks, please...
Jan 04, 2019•1 hr 24 min
This week the popular, chess improvement-focused, "adult improver" edition of Perpetual Chess returns, but with a twist. This week's improver, USCF Master Vinesh Ravuri of California, is just 17 years old. Nonetheless, I felt that motivated chess players of all ages could learn from the meteoric rating gain that Vinesh has shown in the past few years (over 1000 USCF points since 2014). Check out his US rating graph here. Here is a bit more detail about what Vinesh and I discussed: Vinesh told th...
Dec 24, 2018•55 min
This week’s guest, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, has won countless chess titles but is probably best known as The 12th Women’s World Champion and a perennial threat to retake that crown. GM Kosteniuk stays extremely busy, as in addition to being playing frequent top-level chess, she streams chess on twitch for chess.com, has been announcing high-level events and also somehow finds the time to work on her chess, spend time with her family, and even run marathons. In our conversation, Alexandra and touc...
Dec 18, 2018•1 hr 3 min
A giant of US Chess, GM Joel Benjamin, joins me this week. In addition to being a 3 time US champion, and hosting a weekly chess show on the Internet Chess Club, Joel has just published his fourth book, Better Thinking, Better Chess. Naturally, Joel and I began our conversation by discussing some topics covered in the book such as: What are the causes of and potential solutions to typical mistakes that Joel sees in his students, such as a failure to generate candidate moves, and a hesitance abou...
Dec 11, 2018•1 hr 35 min
GM Jóhann Hjartarson is a legend of Icelandic Chess and has a firm place in the chess history books. He is best known for defeating GM Viktor Korchnoi in a match during the 1988 Candidates Cycle (before succumbing to Anatoly Karpov), but he is also the 6 time champion of Iceland, and the 2 time Nordic Champion. Jóhann took some time out from his duties at the World Championship in London, and we discussed the following: His impressions of the World Championship, and what his responsibilities wer...
Dec 04, 2018•1 hr 10 min
I am off this week, but I have some awesome bonus content for you. Have a listen to the January 7, 2004 interview that Fred Wilson conducted with the now-deceased, legendary chess trainer, author, and player IM Mark Dvoretsky. This is one of the many great historical chess interviews that I am posting on the Perpetual Chess Patreon page for those who donate $3.50 per month or more. Fred WIlson's archive will also feature old interviews with GMs Andy Soltis, Arthur Bisguier, Maurice Ashley, Lubom...
Nov 27, 2018•1 hr 43 min
On a rest day (after Game 8) for the World Championship in London, friends of the podcast (and previous guests) IMs Eric Rosen and Kostya Kavutskiy were nice enough to take some time and give Perpetual listeners a taste of what its like to be attending, reporting, and photographing the dramatic, ongoing World Chess Championship between GMs Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana. This episode is meant to have more of a "breaking news" feeling than your typical Perpetual Chess interview, so it's a sho...
Nov 20, 2018•36 min
Almost 17 months after his first visit to Perpetual Chess, GM Pontus Carlsson returns to discuss his latest projects and the recent developments in the chess world (including the World Championship). Among the topics we talked about are: Pontus' recent trip to New Orleans for a philanthropic initiative. He has helped launch Business meets Chess and Kids, an organization that pairs business leaders with underprivileged kids in tandem chess, with the goal of using chess as a form for networking an...
Nov 20, 2018•1 hr 38 min
My guest this week is Carsten Hensel. He is a chess organizer and author who has also spent time as the manager for two elite players- GMs Vladimir Kramnik and GM Peter Leko. Much to the benefit of chess fans, he has written a book about his experiences managing GM Kramnik, called Vladimir Kramnik - The Inside Story of a Chess Genius. The English version of this book will be published by Quality Chess later in November. The published excerpts and this interview suggest that this book will be a m...
Nov 13, 2018•1 hr 15 min
This week I talked to 31 year old programmer, chess player, and entrepreneur David Kramaley, who is the co-founder and CEO of Chessable, a fast growing chess-educational start up. During our conversation,David and I discuss How he caught the "chess bug" in his early 20's. and how that enthusiasm ultimately led to the launch of Chessable. With its co-founder, IM John Bartholomew David launched Chessable in February of 2016. What lessons did David learn from his prior startup, Sharkius? What is he...
Nov 06, 2018•57 min
Venerable American GM Michael Rohde has been one of the top 100 players in the world, and he still competes actively on the American chess circuit. Mike writes frequently for US Chess Online, and American Chess Magazine and is also a practicing lawyer, and chess teacher. Here is what Mike and I discussed:- What psychological dynamics come into play when he plays another strong chess grinder, such as IM Jay Bonin, whom he has played hundreds of times in tournament games? - Are there any talented ...
Oct 30, 2018•1 hr 15 min
Alex King is a 29 year old Memphis,Tennessee based USCF Master. He is also a full time chess teacher, an adult improver, and a talented musician. We covered many topics on this week's podcast such as: Alex's recent return to the U.S. after traveling to Prague in order to board the fabled "Chess Train," through Central Europe. Alex told us a bit about the history of this unique chess vacation, shared the highlights of his trip and gave us the recap of his 11 round tournament on the train. Alex ga...
Oct 23, 2018•1 hr 33 min
The Perpetual Chess Adult Improver Series charges onward this week with another inspiring tale of chess improvement. This week's guest, Candidate Master and economist Cristobal Cervino, wrote some popular blog posts detailing how he made a 170 ELO point jump (from 1935 to 2102) in a fifteen-month span a few years back. For background, you can read the posts that Cristobal wrote about his approach here, here and here. Cristobal and I discussed: Why is calculation the most important thing to work ...
Oct 16, 2018•1 hr 13 min
This week Perpetual Chess features an interview with USCF Master and renowned Cognitive Scientist Christopher Chabris. In the world of psychology, Christopher is best known for his collaboration with Daniel Simons regarding "inattentional blindness". This was most famously demonstrated in the viral Youtube video called "Invisible Gorilla." Professors Chabris and Simons later published a book expanding on their research and Christopher has published many more interesting studies related to human ...
Oct 09, 2018•1 hr 19 min
Elliott Neff, my guest this week on Perpetual Chess comes to us direct from the Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia. Elliott is a USCF Master who founded the thriving Chess4Life chess education organization. He is also a chess trainer who will be releasing his first book, A Pawn's Journey: Transforming Lives one Move at a Time, on October 9. Elliott and I discussed: Elliott's perspective on the Olympiad. This is his first time attending, so he told us what has surprised him about the event. He rep...
Oct 02, 2018•1 hr 2 min
Norwegian reporter, chess player, and photographer Tarjei Svensen is a frequent correspondent at elite chess tournaments and a popular and indispensable source of information on “chess Twitter.” Tarjei joins me this week to discuss the following: - How he gets scoops and manages finances as a chess reporter who is often working independently. - His plans for covering the 2018 World Chess Championships and some info on whether his friend and collaborator, GM Jonathan Tisdall, will be writing abou...
Sep 25, 2018•49 min
Editor’s Note- The audio quality on this interview is somewhat lackluster, so if you would like to read a transcript of our interview, you can do so here. This week on Perpetual Chess my guest is the 3 time champion of both the US and Ukraine, GM Lev Alburt. Lev is also a very popular chess author and teacher. He has co-authored books, such as World Chess Championships: Karjakin-Carlsen (with Jon Crumiller and GM Vladimir Kramnik,) The Comprehensive Chess Course (with Roman Pelts,) plus many oth...
Sep 18, 2018•1 hr 29 min
This week on Perpetual Chess I am joined by the acclaimed and prolific chess author, columnist and historian, GM Andy Soltis. GM Soltis and I discussed the following: His most recent book, 365 Chess Master Lessons: Take One a Day to Be a Better Chess Player, and his upcoming work, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky and Korchnoi: A Chess Multibiography with 206 Games. We discussed how GM Soltis got the ideas for these books, and how he comes up with writing subjects generally. Andy also shared lots of detai...
Sep 11, 2018•1 hr 22 min
V. Saravanan is an International Master, a chess journalist and a voracious reader of chess books. Saravanan resides in Chennai, India, but joined me from St. Louis where he had just concluded covering the Sinquefield Cup for Chessbase. We discussed: IM Saravanan’s impression of the St. Louis Chess Club, and of the tournaments he had just covered. Stories and impressions of Super GM Viswanathan Anand who he has known for decades. What makes Anand a special talent and person? Saravanan also share...
Sep 04, 2018•1 hr 13 min
This week on Perpetual Chess, one of my earliest guests returns for an update on his life and travels. Twenty-five year old IM Kostya Kavutskiy is an active chess player, teacher, writer and content creator. We catch up with him after his busy summer of traversing 3 continents while playing and coaching chess. Kostya discusses the highlights of his trip, and the primary chess lessons he derived from his summer of high level competitive chess. (This includes a discussion of a position where he ag...
Aug 28, 2018•1 hr 6 min
Today's show was recorded in Switzerland: Biel to be exact, home of the 51st International Chess Festival — which included a GM tournament won by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov ahead of Magnus Carlsen — and also the birthplace of today's guest, Grandmaster Yannick Pelletier. In chess, he's the Tournament Director in Biel as well as an accomplished player and commentator, but also polyglot and soon-to-be art/design/lifestyle media entrepreneur. Check out his YouTube channel and new magazine project Yunomi...
Aug 21, 2018•1 hr 1 min
This week on Perpetual Chess, the popular adult improver series makes its triumphant return, with another great guest. I am joined by Stacia Pugh. Stacia has only been playing tournament chess for a few years but has seen her rating rapidly rise to 1777, including a 300 point rise in the past year. What's her story? How did she do it? Stacia joins us to discuss exactly that. Please read on for more details and timestamps. For the full episode description, timestamps, and links, please go here. h...
Aug 14, 2018•1 hr 4 min
This week's guest on Perpetual Chess is USCF Master Fred Wilson. Fred is a chess author, teacher and for forty-five years, he has run a business, selling used and rare chess books! He also still competes actively, and he recently became one of the oldest US chess players to attain the USCF Master title for the first time, at the age of 71. How did he do it? Fred joins us to tell us just that, as we discussed the following topics: His #1 piece of advice for older chess players, along with plenty ...
Aug 07, 2018•1 hr 30 min
FM Mike Klein is an old friend of mine. He also is a guy who has been involved in many facets of the chess industry. Mike was a scholastic champion, he's a great chess teacher, he was recognized as chess journalist of the year in 2012, and now he writes, edits, and creates content for chess.com and chesskid.com (for the latter he goes by the moniker "Fun Master Mike"). Here is what Mike and I discussed: Mike's newest project, an entertaining and informative chess-free podcast, called Extreme Tra...
Jul 31, 2018•1 hr 12 min
The popular and prolific chess author, FM Carsten Hansen is my guest this week. By his current count, Carsten has written 26 chess books.. The depth of his chess knowlege is quite impressive, but his knowledge of chess openings is a particular specialty. Carsten and I discussed the following topics: Carsten's latest book, The Full English Opening. How did he pick the topic, and what is the story of how he came to love the English opening? How did his initial venture into the world of writing and...
Jul 24, 2018•1 hr 27 min
Thanks to 5 time Spanish National Champion, GM Paco Vallejo, for being my guest on Perpetual Chess this week. GM Vallejo had just returned from the Leon Masters Chess Tournament, featuring GM Wesley So, and young talents, GM elect- Ramesh Praggnanandhaa and IM Jaime Santos. Paco recapped the event for listeners, with a particular emphasis on the peculiar "dual blunder" that helped him get by IM Santos in the opening round. Other topics covered in our conversation: Paco discussed the experience o...
Jul 17, 2018•1 hr 8 min
Summer substitute Macauley Peterson takes another turn on the mic, this time close to home with a sort of guided oral history by ChessBase co-founder Frederic Friedel. Frederic tells stories of meeting Garry Kasparov, Nigel Short, Viswanathan Anand and many others for the first time, and later hosting them at his home in a suburb of Hamburg. There may be something in the water there because it seems like practically every World Champion and challenger since Kasparov has spent time with the Fried...
Jul 10, 2018•1 hr 18 min
