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The Chess Circuit episodes
- Podcast 20: IM John Donaldson about "Bobby Fischer and His World"
Ben Graff and I talk to International Master John Donaldson from the USA. John is not just a chess master, but also a historian and has just published "Bobby Fischer and His World: The Man, the Player, the Riddle, and the Colorful Characters Who Surrounded Him"
We covered a wide range of topics including - What was it that made him decide to write Bobby Fischer and his world? What were some of the most unusual things John learned in researching this book? How did Bobby make such an incredible leap in strength between the summer of 1955 and 1958?
John is one of those guests who is just so easy to interview - he has so many wonderful anecdotes and meticulously researched and surprising facts at his fingertips we just needed to press RECORD and occasionally ask a few questions. Thanks to John for being such an amazing guest! I hope to have him on again soon.
THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS!
- Grandmaster Simon Williams (GingerGM) does super video courses on gingergm.com, and books such as Arkell’s Endings. I have won many games with his ideas!
- Buy quality e-books from Forward Chess - for instance The Woodpecker Method or 100 Endgames You Should Know.
- Want to impress your friends? Cook them an amazing meal - get brilliant recipes and all the ingredients you need delivered by Gusto - get 50% off your first box and 30% off your first month!
- Thanks for supporting my newsletter. Premium subscribers get discounts on tournaments, more articles and regular updates on the chess world. We also have a podcast which comes out every week with interviews and analysis.
1 hr 20 min - Grandmaster Simon Williams (GingerGM) does super video courses on gingergm.com, and books such as Arkell’s Endings. I have won many games with his ideas!
- Episode 19: Chris Ross, one of Yorkshire’s top players and my Darnall & Handsworth team mate
Ben Graff and I are interviewing Chris Ross today, one of Yorkshire's finest chess players, my team mate in Geoff Brown's Darnall & Handsworth squad in the Sheffield League in the UK - and he also happens to be blind.
- Can you give us an idea of how STEVE DAVIS got you into chess in the first place?
- Playing chess around the world, what’s been your most unusual experience?
- You have to manage the clock, your guide dog Bovis (you can hear his squeaky toys in the background), take account of the match situation - how do you juggle all those things?
- What’s been your most satisfying victory so far?
- You do a lot of chess coaching with quite strong players, what are your top tips for improving your game?
- What makes a good team Captain?
THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS!
- Grandmaster Simon Williams (GingerGM) does super video courses on gingergm.com, and books such as Arkell’s Endings. I have won many games with his ideas!
- Buy quality e-books from Forward Chess - for instance The Woodpecker Method or 100 Endgames You Should Know.
- Want to impress your friends? Cook them an amazing meal - get brilliant recipes and all the ingredients you need delivered by Gusto - get 50% off your first box and 30% off your first month!
- Thanks for supporting my newsletter. Premium subscribers get discounts on tournaments, more articles and regular updates on the chess world. We also have a podcast which comes out every week with interviews and analysis.
53 min - Can you give us an idea of how STEVE DAVIS got you into chess in the first place?
- Episode 18: Evan Rabin of Premier Chess, New York, New York
Ben Graff and Adam Raoof talk to the energetic CEO of Premier Chess.
You guys (Ben and Evan) have met before - when was that and what was the occasion?
In London we are gradually coming out of lockdown (kids are back in school, and over the board chess is scheduled tentatively for July and August - how about New York?
https://premierchess.com/ - you seem to be taking on more and more schools in the NY and NY state! Any plans to take on schools overseas?
You do a lot of fundraising for various charities, how is that going?
Make a difference - Premier Chess has a project in Tanzania - check out this lovely article - https://www.sparkchess.com/teaching-chess-in-africa.html
The Premier Chess Podcast has been running for a while now - https://premierchess.com/premier-chess-podcast - I’m just a beginner at the podcasting game, any tips?
THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS!
- Grandmaster Simon Williams (GingerGM) does super video courses on gingergm.com, and books such as Arkell’s Endings. I have won many games with his ideas!
- Buy quality e-books from Forward Chess - for instance The Woodpecker Method or 100 Endgames You Should Know.
- Want to impress your friends? Cook them an amazing meal - get brilliant recipes and all the ingredients you need delivered by Gusto - get 50% off your first box and 30% off your first month!
- Thanks for supporting my newsletter. Premium subscribers get discounts on tournaments, more articles and regular updates on the chess world. We also have a podcast which comes out every week with interviews and analysis.
54 min - Grandmaster Simon Williams (GingerGM) does super video courses on gingergm.com, and books such as Arkell’s Endings. I have won many games with his ideas!
- Episode 17: Adam Raoof and Ben Graff talk Chess in Cornwall with Ian George
Ben Graff and I talk to Ian George about chess in Cornwall!
- Have you had your vaccination?
- Cornish Chess is very active on Social Media, with an excellent website, a Twitter Feed - https://twitter.com/cornwallchess
- What do you think the future of chess in Cornwall might be post-Covid? Queen’s Gambit effect?
- How did you enjoy the recent match between Cornwall and Fiji? (Taione beat Jeremy Menadue - Fiji Champion and winner of the best game
- “One of our leading players, David Saqui, died a couple of years ago leaving a substantial sum of money in his will for the development of chess in Cornwall. The Cornwall Chess Trust was set up with 5 trustees, including me as secretary and Robin Kneebone, and recently received the funds from the estate.. It would help greatly if we could have a segment on David and the trust to draw attention to its existence and objects.” - Ian George talks about the plans for the future of Cornish Chess
- I am getting round to posting something about the match on my newsletter - https://chesscircuit.substack.com/p/cornwall-vs-fiji - the scores of all the games on the Cornwall Chess website with a report by David Jenkins. It's at http://www.cornwallchess.org.uk/html/archive-online/fiji-2021.shtml
THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS!
- Grandmaster Simon Williams (GingerGM) does super video courses on gingergm.com, and books such as Arkell’s Endings. I have won many games with his ideas!
- Buy quality e-books from Forward Chess - for instance The Woodpecker Method or 100 Endgames You Should Know.
- Want to impress your friends? Cook them an amazing meal - get brilliant recipes and all the ingredients you need delivered by Gusto - get 50% off your first box and 30% off your first month!
- Thanks for supporting my newsletter. Premium subscribers get discounts on tournaments, more articles and regular updates on the chess world. We also have a podcast which comes out every week with interviews and analysis.
1 hr 20 min - Have you had your vaccination?
- Episode 16: Ben Graff and I talk to Voldi Gailans, Junior Development Officer from the Braille Chess Association
Episode 16: Ben Graff and I talk to Voldi Gailans, Junior Development Officer from the Braille Chess Association.
- How effective is chess playing software designed for visually impaired players?
- Kaiser speaking chess clock - we had lots of fun trying to work out how to use that!
- Is there a good range of accessible chess literature for chess enthusiasts?
- What’s the one thing you would like to see happen that would improve the experience of visually impaired chess enthusiasts?
THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS!
- Grandmaster Simon Williams (GingerGM) does super video courses on gingergm.com, and books such as Arkell’s Endings. I have won many games with his ideas!
- Buy quality e-books from Forward Chess - for instance The Woodpecker Method or 100 Endgames You Should Know.
- Want to impress your friends? Cook them an amazing meal - get brilliant recipes and all the ingredients you need delivered by Gusto - get 50% off your first box and 30% off your first month!
- Thanks for supporting my newsletter. Premium subscribers get discounts on tournaments, more articles and regular updates on the chess world. We also have a podcast which comes out every week with interviews and analysis.
1 hr 2 min - How effective is chess playing software designed for visually impaired players?
- Episode 14: Adam Raoof and Ben Graff explain DecodeChess.com with Gideon Segev
Adam Raoof and Ben Graff explain DecodeChess.com with Gideon Segev, their marketing guru.
If you want to explore further, use the discount code chesscircuit for 10% off all plans before 1st May 2021 when you create your account at www.decodechess.com - get yourself a free account and listen to the podcast!
What is DecodeChess and who is it aimed at?
- How many users are there?
- Are there any top players who use the app, maybe to teach?
- Can it offer players who are rated 2000+ something to help them improve?
- Who are your main competitors in the chess world?
- Decodea - Explainable AI - what’s in development that you can talk about?
Interested in chess? You can sign up for our free newsletter The Chess Circuit here - https://chesscircuit.substack.com/ - and for the bargain price of £5.00 you can buy a quality colour pdf of all 13 issues of the original A5 print version here - https://payhip.com/b/Jvek including over 500 pages of articles and games analysed by authors like Simon Williams!
36 min - Episode 13: Ben Graff and Adam Raoof talk to chess Grandmaster Jonathan Levitt about his new book - Contemplating Comedy
Hello, and welcome to The Chess Circuit - a podcast all about the wonderful game of chess.
Today we are talking to Jonathan Levitt, who recently published Contemplating Comedy - a book all about one-liners, what we find funny and what we don't!
He also happens to be a chess Grandmaster, and an original thinker in several fields.
If you like the podcast why not try our free newsletter? You can sign up at https://chesscircuit.substack.com/ and if you upgrade to the paid plans you get more articles and lots of special offers on tournaments and books!
You can buy his excellent book here - https://theconradpress.com/product/contemplating-comedy/
1 hr 1 min - Episode 12: David Jenkins (author of Spurious Games) and Ben Graff (The Greenbecker Gambit)
Today my guests are David Jenkins, author of Spurious Games, and Ben Graff, who recently reviewed the novel for The Chess Circuit newsletter. We spoke for a few hours about a whole range of topics, including how novels shapeshift when they move to other mediums such as film or TV, or the web.
QUESTIONS
- Is it me, or is the world a much smaller place? I seem to have come across your name as you played several of my friends in the Cornish Chess League and then as the author of this novel, then I was interviewing Goru Arvind President of the Fiji Chess Federation and it turned out that you had played him when he was a kid, and he told me that you had previously been the President and played for the Fijian Olympiad team!!
- Did you get a chance to travel to some of the more remote of the 300 islands?
MENTIONED DURING THE CHAT
https://www.fijichess.com/
Prof. David Jenkins and Spurious Games (novel) - http://spuriousgames.org/
One of my favourite galleries in the British Museum is the Oceania gallery - https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/galleries/oceania
Let me know if I've missed anything and I will update this page!
1 hr 50 min - Is it me, or is the world a much smaller place? I seem to have come across your name as you played several of my friends in the Cornish Chess League and then as the author of this novel, then I was interviewing Goru Arvind President of the Fiji Chess Federation and it turned out that you had played him when he was a kid, and he told me that you had previously been the President and played for the Fijian Olympiad team!!
- Episode 11: Petr Limonov, concert pianist, conductor, composer, and former male model
Today my guest is Petr Limonov, who is a concert pianist, conductor, composer, and former male model - oh, and also a pretty decent chess player!
In 2017 he also very kindly agreed to perform for charity at one of my biggest chess tournaments, at King’s Place in London. Chess players got to see first hand what a marvellous performer he is! For your enjoyment there are two pieces of music in the podcast performed by Petr. The first is the tricky Scriabin Etude (1894), and the second a Mazurka.
If you’re a premium subscriber to my Newsletter, imaginatively titled The Chess Circuit - https://chesscircuit.substack.com/, you can suggest guests and topics for future episodes and enjoy many more yet-to-be-conceived perks.
You can find the link to my newsletter in the show notes, along with links to anything we’ve talked about during this episode.
Thanks for listening!
- Who taught you chess? Did you receive any formal training?
- Chess and music - is there a link?
- When did you move to the UK? How did you find the UK chess scene?!
- Prokofiev v Ostroikh https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1266497
- What is Levitov chess? Are they collaborating with Chess24?
- Are there any chess books out there which are classics, but never translated into English?
- Do you think chess has a role to play in education?
MENTIONED DURING THE CHAT
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1266497
https://en.chessbase.com/post/the-1937-prokofiev-oistrakh-match
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1252046
Levitov Chess - https://www.youtube.com/c/LevitovChess
Nikolai Lugansky - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Lugansky
Photographer - Chris Gloag - https://www.chrisgloag.com/
Let me know if I've missed anything and I will update this page!
1 hr 14 min - Bonus Episode: Analysing Your Chess Games
HELLO!
Today’s podcast is an experiment. For a while I’ve been thinking about doing a podcast where we sit down and analyse a game of chess, preferably with the players.
This game was played in the 6th and final round of the Hendon Chess Club Championships 2020 https://www.hendonchessclub.com/ and would decide the winner of the overall championships.
Today my guest is Andrew Medworth, the winner of that game (vs David Amior), and the 2020 Club Champion.
You can follow along on Lichess.org by clicking the link in the show notes, or you can copy the PGN (portable game notation) into your chess browser of choice - ChessBase is a very popular chess database.
Let me have your feedback on this episode by leaving comments on The Chess Circuit newsletter - https://chesscircuit.substack.com/ and I will attempt to improve the presentation further.
If you fancy playing chess online, using Tornelo and Zoom, visit https://tornelo.com/chess/orgs/chess-england or https://www.chessengland.com.
https://lichess.org/study/NAPTZcnW
[Event "Hendon Chess Club Championships 2020 - Open"]
[Site "on Zoom"]
[Date "2020.09.24"]
[Round "6.1"]
[White "Medworth, Andrew"]
[Black "Amior, David"]
[Result "1-0"]
1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qd8 4. d4 c6 5. Bc4 Bf5 6. g4 Bg6 7. Ng1e2 e6 8. h4
h6 9. Nf4 Bh7 10. Be3 Nd7 11. Qe2 Bb4 12. g5 Bxc3+ 13. bxc3 hxg5 14. hxg5 Bd3
15. Rxh8 Bxe2 16. Rxg8+ Nf8 17. Kxe2 Qxg5 18. Rh1 0-0-0 19. Rh1h8 Qe7 20. Rxg7
c5 21. Nd3 cxd4 22. Bg5 Qa3 23. Bxd8 Kxd8 24. Rxf7 Qxc3 25. Rh8xf8# 1-0
42 min
About The Chess Circuit
From the publisher's feed
All about chess, by Adam Raoof, World Chess Federation FIDE Arbiter and Organiser and editor of The Chess Circuit newsletter - https://chesscircuit.substack.com/. You can subscribe to the newsletter…
or just sit back and enjoy the chat!
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