The Chess Pit

This week Jon is a polyglot, Chris celebrates an important British player from the 19th century, and Phil wonders whether Tony the Tiger is Catholic.

Phil's moving house so this week Jon and Chris are joined by Robin Sarfas, an adult who's made some big strides with his game of late.

This week Phil gets dusty, Christory isn't historical, and Jon dares to ask more than one silly question.

The boys are back and raring to go in 2021. Chris espouses robes, Phil gets Augustinian, and Jon once again hates the quiz.

To close out 2020 we're joined by New Yorker columnist and everyone's best friend on Twitter, Rachel Syme! Rachel has a unique chess ancestry and has also just started taking chess lessons. Her story is not to be missed.

Are you ready for puns? We have puns, damned puns, and statistics this week for our Christmas special! But you like puns. Right?

This week we're joined by Stephanie Alys, an entrepreneur perhaps best known for her pioneering sextech work with MysteryVibe. Stephanie expounds on her junior chess career and how she's seen chess progress from the outside.

Retired musician, current poet and DJ, and all-round lovely human Chris T-T joins us for a romp through the chess enthusiast's mind, and creative processing in general.

The musician, football writer and Mikhail Tal superfan Philippe Auclair joins the boys for the first instalment of our December interview season! Philippe shares his own chess experiences, and offers a critical view of aesthetics within the modern game and across chess history.

There’s a glut of The Simpsons references this week, but don’t let that put you off. We salute Magnus Carlsen’s sportsmanship, celebrate inspirational junior coaches, and invent our own novelty chess set!