chessfeels: conversations about chess, psychology & mental health

Julia and JJ run a victory lap on a successful first season of podcasting by thanking their listeners (not you), giving candidates predictions (not Ding), and opening a to-be-continued discussion on neurodivergent learning styles. The pair talk about their experiences in chess and life as two individuals living with ADHD and talk a bit about what neurodivergency is and why it matters from a psychological perspective for all chess players (yes you this time).

While we take a break to get ready for season 2 of chessfeels (#2chess2feels), you can
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JJ and Julia are joined by Julia's "name twin" @omgjulia, a podcaster, poet, narrator, writer, and, most importantly, non-chess player who has been mistakenly tagged in twitter posts intended for "Dr. Cool Chess Julia." Hilarity ensues as JJ and DCCJ attempt to talk to somebody who doesn't play chess for what sounds like the first time in either of their lives. Get these secret sneak peak into the bizarre and confounding perception of non-chess players on chess. The trio also dives into how perceptions of nerd culture, as well as nerd culture's attitude towards gender and queerness, have evolved over time. Then, JJ and DCCJ make omgjulia define chess concepts for their amusement. 

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Follow more Julias Rios here: https://twitter.com/omgjulia
Listen to This Is Why We're Like This: https://www.juliarios.com/this-is-why-were-like-this/
And the OMG Julia pod: https://www.juliarios.com/omg-julia-podcast/
Check out our chessable launch page: https://go.chessable.com/chessfeels/
And prep for JJ's white repertoire by purchasing @chessexplained's Keep It Simple 1 d4 https://www.chessable.com/keep-it-simple-1-d4/course/23396/ 

You may know him as the guy with the picture of the horse. You may know him as the organizer of the prestigious Mr Dodgy invitational. You may not know he works for Chessable. But you know him! But do you really know him? You will now. Julia and JJ interview the Alireza of twitter trolls: Mr Dodgy. They discuss different types of trolling, and how to be a clown on the internet without getting sucked into the fray or going off the deep-end. He is here to talk about how he uses and misuses the internet for his, and our, amusement. 

Follow Dodgy on twitter: https://twitter.com/ChessProblem
Subscribe to his stack: https://mrdodgy.substack.com/
JJ's queue is up to 6,439 moves on chessable. see what they're procrastinating on here: https://go.chessable.com/chessfeels/

In just one episode, Julia and JJ reveals the world's funniest time jokes and solve the problem of time trouble in chess. They pontificate on the phenomenon of time pressure: how stressful it is, how to avoid it, and whether it is possible to avoid being stressed out by it. JJ suggests that 'playing too fast' is an underrated cause of time trouble. Julia talks about how to do work away from the board that can help handle panic and pressure in low-time situations. 

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 1962, discussed after 13...Qb7 and 20. Rxd5 as examples of planning

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 Sam on twitter
Upvote Sam's photo so she overtakes Levy and Hikaru on reddit again
Sam Shankland's Classical Sicilian LTR on Chessable, which Sam describes as "pretty life-changing" 

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 particularly NSFW. 

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 episodes of disillusion can be defense mechanisms against fears of bad play. This one's kind of a bummer. We'll be happier next week, we promise. 

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 improvement and progress, and Julia provides advice for how to navigate ill-timed intrusive thoughts about rating-panic.