• Summary

  • Perpetual Chess features weekly conversations with the chess world's best players, trainers and accomplished amateurs about their careers, current projects, best practices and the latest in chess news. Learn more at PerpetualChessPod.com
    2022 Ben Johnson
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Episodes
  • EP 299- Chess Blogger and Trainer FM Dennis Monokroussos on Lessons from Tal and Petrosian, how 'Toiletgate' compared to the Current Chess Scandal, and the Importance of Playing with Different Styles

    EP 299- Chess Blogger and Trainer FM Dennis Monokroussos on Lessons from Tal and Petrosian, how 'Toiletgate' compared to the Current Chess Scandal, and the Importance of Playing with Different Styles
    Oct 4 2022
    This week’s guest on Perpetual Chess is FM Dennis Monokroussos. Dennis is a chess trainer who is a frequent presenter for Chesslecture.com and has been the state champion of both Nevada (where he grew up)  and Indiana. Dennis has been blogging about chess on his excellent blog, The Chess Mind, since 2005. In our conversation, we discuss how the chess world, and the blogging platforms have changed since 2005. Dennis also shares plenty of useful chess improvement advice and tells some funny stories about his most memorable games and his chess travels. It was fun and informative to finally chat with someone whose writing I have enjoyed for many years. More details and timestamps are below.    2:00- Dennis started chess blogging in 2005. What was the chess world like then?  10:00- How does the current Carlsen/Niemann scandal compare to Kramnik/Topalov “toiletgate”? 13:00- Why does Dennis often annotate top games in addition to recapping them on his blog?  17:00- Why did Dennis move his blog to a platform called Substack?  20:00- Dennis discusses his open letter to Dr. Kenneth Regan, and Dr. Regan’s response. 24:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com. You can check out all of their latest offerings here:  https://www.chessable.com/courses/all/new/ 26:00- Dennis discusses his climb up the chess rating ladder and shares improvement advice  Mentioned: Chess Book Collectors Facebook Group  42:00- What do GM Mikhail Tal and GM Tigran Petrosian have in common? What was it like to play Tal in a simul?  48:00- Does Dennis agree that one should do lots of tactics?  49:00- What can we expect in the 2022 US Championship, which is essentially an invitational super-tournament these days?  56:00- Patreon mailbag question- What is the story behind the amazing sacrificial game Dennis played in 1999 (link below) ? https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1531040 1:03:00- Dennis discusses another memorable sacrificial game, his win over top US GM, Leonid Yudasin. https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1531057 1:06:00- Dennis attended 2 World Championships, the 1995 and the 2007 World Championship tournament in Mexico City, What was it like?  1:15:00-  Thanks to Dennis for sharing his chess experiences! You can subscribe to his blog and reach him about lessons or Ashland University scholarship inquiries via his blog: https://thechessmind.substack.com/ The Perpetual Chess linkfest signup is here:  https://benjohnson.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 18 mins
  • Book Recap #29- Discussing The Longest Game by GM Jan Timman a Great Book which Tells the Story of the Kasparov-Karpov matches

    Book Recap #29- Discussing The Longest Game by GM Jan Timman a Great Book which Tells the Story of the Kasparov-Karpov matches
    Oct 3 2022
    Perpetual Chess is back with another book review, discussing GM Jan Timman’s excellent book, The Longest Game. It is part game collection and part historic guide to GM Garry Kasparov and GM Anatoly Karpov’s series of 6 World Championship Matches between 1984 and 1990. While the 2023 World Championship looks unlikely to feature the #1 player in the world, fans in the late 1980s got to repeatedly see the clear #1 and clear #2 battle in long matches! These battles resulted in some timeless, tense chess games, and plenty of far-fatched but true stories related to the behind the scenes machinations of the matches. Joining me to discuss it all, is Marko Bulatovic, who selected this book because he is both a chess and history aficionado. Please read on for timestamps of topics discussed.  0:00- Background on my co-host, Marko Bulatovic and why he chose the book The Longest Game  14:00- Does the +2 overall record of Kasparov in the 6 World Championship matches misrepresent how close the matches were?  17:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Aimchess.com. Aimchess’ algorithm reviews your games and gives you actionable advice on how to improve your game. Check it out for free, and if you choose to subscribe you can use the code Perpetual30 to save 30%. Or use this link for the same discount: https://aimchess.com/try?ref=benjohnson12 19:00- We briefly discuss GM Jan Timman’s bio, and the formats the book is available in.  Mentioned: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1jQxTXneIGjf24eXkLKFwb?si=03f82d8088644b67 New in Chess Ebook- https://www.newinchess.com/the-longest-game Amazon/Kindle- The Longest Game: The Five KasparovKarpov Matches for the World Chess Championship: Timman, Jan: 9789056918118: Amazon.com: Books 23:00- We go through the most epic match of all, the 48 game 1984 match. Was the match really suspended to protect Karpov? 35:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com. You can check out all of their latest offerings here:  https://www.chessable.com/courses/all/new/ 36:00- We share and discuss a few of our favorite quotes.  1:02:00- Final thoughts on the book!  If you would like to help support Perpetual Chess, you can do so here: Ben Johnson is creating Perpetual Chess Podcast | Patreon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • Bonus Pod- GM Jonathan Rowson and GM David Smerdon discuss the Carlsen/Niemann Saga

    Bonus Pod- GM Jonathan Rowson and GM David Smerdon discuss the Carlsen/Niemann Saga
    Sep 28 2022
    Perpetual Chess is back with another bonus pod discussing the ongoing Magnus Carlsen/Hans Niemann controversy. The major news of the week was that GM Magnus Carlsen issued a statement on Monday confirming that he suspects GM Hans Niemann of cheating. To discuss the story, I am honored to be joined by 2 Grandmaster guests who offer significant domain expertise beyond the chess world. First up is GM Jonathan Rowson, a renowned author and philosopher and the 3 time British Chess Champion. My conversation with Jonathan is centered around the human element of this story, and how we can hope to avoid biases in our interpretation of the information at hand. Following GM Rowson, I am joined by Dr. David Smerdon. GM Smerdon is a 7 time Chess Olympian for his native Australia, and an award winning chess author. David has worked with both Dr. Kenneth Regan and also the Chess.com cheat detection team. David’s primary field is development economics, but he has a statistical background and devotes significant time to chess-related research. As we discuss, in addition to chess cheating, David has published a paper related to gender issues in chess. I found it helpful to hear the grounded perspective of 2 of the chess world’s most insightful thinkers. As always, timestamps of topics discussed can be found below.  0:00- Intro and review of recent events: Sub to Perpetual Chess Linkfest 5:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com. You can check out all of their latest offerings here:  https://www.chessable.com/courses/all/new/ 6:00- GM Jonathan Rowson joins (recorded September 28) 6:00- 3 key questions to ask ourselves 19:00- Should we draw a distinction between cheating in online and OTB chess?  29:00- Are we likely to get a resolution to this case?   32:00- What are sensible anti-cheating measures?  35:00- Jonathan reflects on his recent return to OTB competitive chess  39:00- What behavioral biases should we be alert for as we evaluate the information presented?  48:00- What opinions has Jonathan heard from his GM peers?  Mentioned:  Carlsen-Niemann 2022 Mishra-Niemann 2022 53:00- Thanks to Jonathan for joining the show! Here are links to keep up with him.  Twitter  The Moves that Matter His website His Chessable Courses  You can hear our prior interview here. (Episode 150)  56:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Aimchess.com. Aimchess’ algorithm reviews your games and gives you actionable advice on how to improve your game. Check it out for free, and if you choose to subscribe you can use the code Perpetual30 to save 30%. Or use this link for the same discount: https://aimchess.com/try?ref=benjohnson12 57:00- GM David Smerdon joins (recorded September 27) 58:00- What does David’s research suggest about why people cheat at chess?  1:08:00- David has seen Chess.com’s list of banned players, obviously he can’t reveal names, but is there anything he can say about it?  1:13:00- David discusses some of GM Fabiano Caruana’s comments on the controversy from the C Squared podcast 1:20:00- David discusses the Let’s Check feature on Chessbase. We are referring to video’s such as this one by FM Yosha Iglesias, which makes a good-faith attempt to analyze Han’s games with data.  Mentioned: IM Ken Regan interview with James Altucher  1:30:00- Does David have a personal opinion about whether Hans cheated OTB?  1:33:00- Could one be termed "guilty" of cheating OTB based on data alone?  1:40:00- David discusses his fun and useful statistical tool, the Fighting Chess Index (FCI).  1:45:00- David discusses his research on gender and chess.  Mentioned: BBC News: Chess Commentator Sacked for Sexist Remark 1:57:00- Thanks to David for sharing his insights! Here are some of the ways to keep up with him: Twitter: https://twitter.com/dsmerdon David’s Chess Blog:  https://www.davidsmerdon.com/ Award Winning Book The Complete Chess Swindler  You can hear our prior interview here. (Episode 30) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    2 hrs and 2 mins
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Profile Image for Daniel Vincent

great content

this podcast is very informative with great interviews. It also has book recommendations that are helpful.