NB: The conversation this week is between Brian and me. At one point in the intro I mistakenly call him Ryan. Also, I use the word pinned casually and perhaps confusingly in a way that is unrelated to its technical meaning in chess.

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Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:

– Hans Niemann, One Year After the Cheating Scandal by Jen Wieczner

– Elijah’s review of Midlife

– Zara’s review of Midlife

– Literary Matters

– New Verse Review

– The 2024 Candidates Tournament (to cut down on the length of the show notes, I’m not linking to individual games or to players who participated, including Gukesh D)

– The 2022 Sinquefield Cup (ditto)

– Big Red Son by David Foster Wallace

– Hans Niemann

– Magnus Carlsen

– Shernaz Kennedy

– Bobby Fischer

– Anatoly Karpov

– Gary Kasparov

– Mikhail Tal

– Jose Capablanca

– Vishy Anand

– AlphaZero

– Stockfish

– The Queen’s Gambit (2020)

Frequently mentioned names:

– Joshua Mehigan

– Shane McCrae

– A. E. Stallings

– Ryan Wilson

– Morri Creech

– Austin Allen

– Jonathan Farmer

– Zara Raab

– Amit Majmudar

– Ethan McGuire

– Coleman Glenn

– Alexis Sears

– JP Gritton

– Alex Pepple

– Ernie Hilbert

– Joanna Pearson

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Blumov

Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed

Alice: Poetry Says

Brian: @BPlatzer

Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com

Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

Music by ETRNL

Art by Daniel Alexander Smith