Premier Chess: Conquer the Game; Master Your Life

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In Episode 173, I converse with Cory Reader, Chief Investment Officer at HK Wealth Management, Inc. Cory was born and raised in Brisbane, Australia. He played basketball professionally with the LA Clippers and the Portland Trailblazers. Basketball took him all around the world, playing on 5 different continents (excluding Africa & Antarctica).He retired from Basketball in December 2004 at the ripe old age of 32 and  came to work in the Investment Management Industry at Smith Barney (which became Morgan Stanley in 2009.On June 30, 2017 he tendered his resignation to Morgan Stanley and left the Broker/Dealer world for good, partnering with his friend and colleague, Al Knobloch and HK Wealth Management, Inc. 

We speak about transferrable skills in chess and basketball, preventing artificial barriers, Return on Investment in chess and financial investments,, market cycles pre and post COVID-19 and more. 

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In Episode 172, I converse with Woman FIDE Master Uyanga Byambaa, Economics PHD Student at University of California, Berkeley.  Learn more about her through her blog My Memorable Tournaments. 

We speak about our memories of the 2012 Northern California International tournament, her thoughts on female titles and tournaments, her upbringing in Mongolia, ideas to keep middle and high schoolers motivated in chess, improvement tips, the importance of analyzing one's own games, objectives for global economic development, parallels between coding and chess, applications of chess in economics and finance and more. 

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In Episode 171, I converse with Michael Chadwick, Licensed Real Estate Salesperson with Corcoran Group.  He does sales and rentals all over New York City and has been featured on The Real Deal, Real Estate Weekly,  The New York Times and more. 

We speak about the reasons there are so many actors in real estate, brokers' transitions between firms, the ability to think ahead in chess and real estate, his thoughts on The Queen's Gambit, the art of charity and more. 

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In Episode 170, I converse with Florian Helff, Chess Tournament Manager and Director of Business Development at Corporate Esports Association. In addition to preparing for the Second Corporate Chess Championship, which is taking place virtually from September 4- December 11, he works as a software engineer at Twitch. Furthermore, he is the Club President of the Amazon Chess Club and is the Washington Chess Federation board member for Corporate and Collegiate Chess.

We speak about the benefits of corporate chess programs, reasons to register for the upcoming Second Corporate Chess Championship, the art of giving to charity through chess, quality assurance in chess and programming Amazon's "Working Backwards" principle, the rising chess community on Twitch and more.  

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In Episode 169, I converse with Grandmaster Alexander Fishbein, who is a Director and Desk Strategist at TD Securities. He won the 1st Denker Tournament of High School Champions in 1985. He also has earned the 1st place prize at some of the United States' major open tournaments, including the World Open and the National Open. One of his other major claims to fame is beating Super Grandmaster Alexei Shirov. 

We speak about winning major national tournaments, applications of chess in finance,  top improvement tips,  training his son Mitch to become a master, his family's immigration to the United States from Russia due to anti-semitism, his new book The French Exchange Comes to Life and more.

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In Episode 168, I converse with National Expert Brian Wilmeth, Premier Chess Director of Virtual Programmers and Programmer. Brian splits his time between teaching chess, managing our virtual programs, and freelancing programming web and IOS applications. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Polytechnic University and a certificate in Human Relations from Dale Carnegie Training. 

We speak about his entry in the New York chess scene, the Brooklyn Tech chess community,  the programming of educational applications, the paralells between chess and programming, habit making, chess improvement tips, the art of resilience, virtual teaching and more. 

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In Episode 167, I have the pleasure of speaking with Karel van Delft, Author of Chess for Educators.  Karel van Delft is a psychologist and chess trainer in Apeldoorn.  He has is Masters in Psychology from University of Amsterdam. His son Merijn is an International Master.

We speak about chess as a metaphor for life, the potential for autistic and other special needs students to learn the game,  the Euwe museum in Amsterdam, the Dutch chess scene, the Development of Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 Champion Grandmaster Jorden van Foreest, game-based learning and more.

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In Episode 166, I converse with FIDE Master Justus Williams, Founder of Black Squares, which offers a range of opportunities for St. Louis city youth aged 6-18 to engage with chess. through an after-school program, group lessons and play, and weekend tournaments. Justus originally hails from the Bronx, NY and has been highlighted for his chess skills in major outlets such as the New York Times, Brooklyn Castle, and TMZ.  Justus was also featured in a Cadillac commercial, which showcased prodigies from various fields. 

We speak about the New York City chess scene, his experience teaching in South Africa with David Macenulty and Jonathan Corbblah, a day in the life at IS 318,  studying with grandmasters at Webster University and elsewhere, the importance of playing lots of games, the importance of endgame study, ideas for time management,  working with inmates in prison, decision making on and off the board and more. 

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In Episode 165, I converse with Grandmaster Patrick Wolff, a two-time US Champion and Founder of Grandmaster Capital Management, a hedge fund that received seed capital from Peter Thiel, the founder of Clarium and a strong chess player himself. 

We speak about his inspiration from Fischer Boom, his wins against Former World Champions Garry Kasparov and Mikhail Tal, stories from working with Viswanathan Anand,  the importance of endgame study, the effect of computers on opening study, the game-like nature of investments and more.

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In Episode 164, I converse with Andrew Stein, a former investment banker, who founded Oprhaned Starfish Foundation (OSF). OSF works with 12,000+ orphans, victims of abuse and trafficing and other impoverished children in 26 countries. They have established 57 computer centers.

We speak about Andrew's global investment banking and children's magic practices, the processs of founding a new non-profit,  chess applications in investment banking, passion for charity, ways to get involved, OSF's upcoming gala at Cipriani in New York on October 22 and more.