Premier Chess: Conquer the Game; Master Your Life

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In Epsiode 73, I converse with Dr. Fun Fong, one of six candidates vying for 3 spots in the 2020 US Chess Executive Committee Election. Dr. Fun Fong is the Immediate Past President of the Georgia Chess Assocation and is an emergency medicine phsyician in Atlanta. We speak about his work dealing with COVID patients, how chess and emergency medicine relate, women in chess, the importance of the US Chess Federation maintaining a strong membership and more.

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In Episode 73, I converse with Candidate Master Andrew Koenigsberg, AKA on Madquick on Twitch.Andrew currently lives in Houston but is from New York and has spent time living in Hong Kong and the Philippines. He is a USCF Candidate Master with over 15 years of teaching experience and has taught at chess camps across the United States. In 2012, Andrew became co-champion for the Hong Kong National Chess Championship. He also got equal first in the National Open U2100 in 2018. We talk about virtual tournaments, tournament preparation, study methods, the differences of teaching in the US and Asia, streaming, ways to get students and more.

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In Episode 72, I converse with Sean Manross, President of the Southern California Chess Federation and Member of FIDE Commission for the Disabled. He is one of six candidates vying for 3 spots in the US Chess Executive Committee. We talk about his experience with Southern California Chess Federation, Rank and File Magazine, accessibility for the disabled, the USCF Government Taskforce and more.

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In Episode 71, I converse with Sondeep Purewal, a Sandler Sales trainer, based in Miami. Sondeep trains sales professionals in tech, finance and other industries. He uses Sandler methodology, something I learned on day 1 of my time at Oracle. We talk about basic sales tips, an analytical approach to sales and how it relates to chess, and the importance of confidence.

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In Episode 70, I interview Lakshmana "Vish" Viswanath, US Chess Executive Board Candidate. He originally hails from Kerala, India but has been living in the Laredo, Texas area for many years. He has been involved with Texas chess for many years and is the former state chess federation president. He is currently one of six candidates running for 3 spots in the US Chess Executive Committee. We talk about the rise of Texas chess, USCF fundraising, online chess, the election process and other areas of his platform.

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In Episode 69, I converse with Jack Silver, a chess player and actor. Jack Silver was the winner of the 2015 US Chess Junior Grand Prix. He is a rising Sophomore at Wartlaw-Hartridge School, where he’s volunteered to be an assistant teacher to our New Jersey Instructor National Master Jim West. He’s known for his appearances in A Crime to Remember (2018), Girl Clown (2019) and The Irishman (2019) and the reality show Karma (2020). We talk about the parallels between chess and acting, the importance of improvising, his experience in the new HBO Max reality show “Karma” and more.

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In Episode 68, I converse with Jeff Detweiler, an executive recruiter and career consultant. Jeff has his BA in Theater from the University of Pittsburgh and has since been connecting companies to top talent for 10+ years. We talk about how extracurriculars like chess can help in the job search, the behind the scenes of recruting and much more.

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In our 66th episode, I welcome two guests for the first time- my dear friends Rabbi Levi Welton and Reverend Gregory Livingston. I first met the Reverend when Rabbi Levi and he co-hosted an MLK Day Rally outside of City Hall after several terrible anti-semetic attacks.Rabbi Welton is an educator-turned-journalist passionate about sharing the values of Torah with a global audience. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, he holds degrees in medicine, education, and film. He is the Rabbi at Lincoln Park Jewish Center in Yonkers NY, serves an Air Force Chaplain and practices as a physicians assistant.Rev. Gregory Seal Livingston is a seminary trained pastor and leader, who has had the wonderful honor of serving several congregations and organizations across the city of Chicago and recently moved to New York. He has served as Illinois Chairman of the National Action Network and National Field Secretary and Chief of Field Operations for the RainbowPUSH Coalition. We talk about unity, peaceful protests, combating racism, responding to anti-semetism, education, justice and the art of strategy.

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In Episode 65, I conerse with Jen Gouldstone, the Founder of Garden Streets ,a plant design and technology company with the mission to bring people closer to nature by making it as easy as possible to select, access, display and maintain plants. Jen has a BA and Masters in Engineering from MIT and an MBA from Harvard. We talk about her transition from engineering to plant design, the correlations between the two fields and chess, the importance of planning and more.