Perpetual Chess Podcast

Perpetual Chess Podcast

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

Episodes

EP 449- GM Jesse Kraai on Confronting Tournament Fears, Mental and Physical Fitness, and What’s Next for Him and ChessDojo

September 2, 2025 • 61 mins
ChessDojo’s GM Jesse Kraai is always one of my favorite people to talk chess with, yet somehow it had been five years since his last visit to the pod. Jesse returned at a great time, having been both studying and competing actively, and recently achieving his goal of qualifying for the 2026 U.S. Senior Closed Championship. His recent over-the-board activity provided a springboard for us to discuss a wide range of topics, including:...
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EP 448- NM Max Farberov on Beating Plateaus, Springing Opening Surprises, and Why Speed Chess Matters

August 26, 2025 • 61 mins
NM Max Farberov is a 27-year-old chess instructor, Chessable author, and online speed-chess specialist with a Chess.com blitz rating north of 2600. He joined me after a busy chess summer that included his first European open and one of his best OTB results to date: winning clear first in the Under-2300 section of the Washington International. As Max explains, this breakthrough came only after months of frustration and feeling that ...
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EP 447: Going Pro at 57- GM Alex Fishbein on How New and Challenging Training Methods Fueled an Upset win at the US Senior Invitational 

August 19, 2025 • 64 mins
Going Pro at 57: `GM Alex Fishbein on How New and Challenging Training Methods Fueled an Upset win at the US Senior Invitational  At 57 years old, Tennessee-based Grandmaster and Author, Alex Fishbein, has built an impressive chess résumé, with 12 state-championship titles across four states and multiple appearances in U.S. Championship events. But until recently, his chess had always been balanced with a demanding finance career....
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EP 446- IM Greg Shahade on The State of Professional Chess, Why He Loves the Daily and Classical Formats & Adult Improving at Trivia 

August 12, 2025 • 69 mins
IM Greg Shahade was the very first guest of Perpetual Chess and has remained a frequent and insightful contributor  ever since. A former youth national champion, Greg has subsequently  been involved in the chess world in an array of capacities —founder of the US Chess School (which provides free training to top American juniors), creator of the now-defunct Pro Chess League, and a near-2800-rated blitz player on Chess.com who has ma...
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EP 445- “It Worked So Well That I Stopped Doing It”: Adult Improver Nicholas Sloan on Dealing with Burnout After a Rapid Rating Rise

August 5, 2025 • 58 mins
Nicholas Sloan is a Wisconsin-based Network Engineer, a dad of 4, and an extremely motivated chess improver. Usually. But after an incredible run of gaining 500+ rating points in two years, fueled by consistent hard work and a unique study approach, Nick hit a wall. He gave back 150 rating points, and lost his motivation to work hard on chess. That can happen when you are a family man who is working full-time,  studying for multipl...
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EP 444 – Dr. Benjamin Balas on Chess Streaks, Blunders, and Brain Science

July 29, 2025 • 53 mins
Dr. Benjamin (Ben) Balas is an MIT-educated professor of psychology at North Dakota State University, where his research focuses on visual recognition. He’s also a passionate chess player who blogs frequently about the intersection of science and chess. On his popular LiChess blog, Ben (aka NDPatzer) has explored topics like whether streakiness exists in chess, the science of blunders, and how confirmation bias influences decision-...
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EP 443- GM Jan Gustafsson on Building Opening Repertoires, Freestyle Chess, Father Time, and the Usual Array of Nonsense

July 22, 2025 • 74 mins
Opening expert, Twitch streamer, former Team Magnus member, and longtime friend of the pod, GM Jan Gustafsson is back for another fun and far-reaching interview! We talk about the origins of his new Chessable course on the Austrian Defense, how his approach to repertoire building has evolved, and get his take on the recent Freestyle Chess drama in Vegas. Jan also reflects on the legacy of GM Boris Spassky, laments his struggles wit...
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EP 442- GM Johan Hellsten: Why Defending Is So Difficult — And How to Improve At It

July 15, 2025 • 67 mins
EP 442- GM Johan Hellsten: Why Defending Is So Difficult — And How to Improve At It  GM Johan Hellsten returns to Perpetual Chess for a deep dive into one of the most overlooked yet essential chess skills: defense. Johan is the 2006 Swedish National Champion, and a renowned author and coach, best known for his Mastering Chess series. In this interview, he shares insights from his latest book and Chessable course, Mastering Chess D...
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EP 441- WCM Hannah Sayce: The 24-year old Twitch Streamer on the Key Factors Behind Her Rapid Rise to the WCM Title

July 1, 2025 • 43 mins
In just a few years, 24-year-old Australian Twitch streamer Hannah Sayce went from playing casual online games during lockdown to earning the Woman Candidate Master (WCM) title and competing in international tournaments. Her post-lockdown rise has taken her from below 1000 to a 2300 Chess.com blitz rating. In this conversation, Hannah shares the highs and lows of her chess journey and the strategies behind her rapid improvement. Ke...
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EP 440- GM Alexandr Fier: “I Blunder a Lot” – One of the World’s Most Active Grandmasters on Intuition, Endgame Studies, and Maintaining His Love For the Game

June 24, 2025 • 67 mins
GM Alexandr Fier is a 5 time champion of Brazil and 9 time chess Olympian. He also recently qualified for the FIDE World Cup for the 8th time by finishing tied for first at the American Continental tournament. But aside from all of his impressive accomplishments, what interests me most about GM Fier is how frequently he competes.  Last year alone, he played nearly 200 classical games,, and he has now travelled to over 50 countries....
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EP 439 — Samuel Sonning (Founder of NoctieAI): The Instructive Value of Memorizing Games, the Benefit of Losing Rating Points, and a Deep Dive on Chess and AI

June 17, 2025 • 50 mins
This week’s guest is Samuel Sonning, a Swedish computer scientist, former Google engineer, and founder of NoctieAI—a user-friendly chess platform featuring rating tests and bots designed to play like humans. In our conversation, Samuel discusses his unique improvement philosophy as an adult learner, including how memorizing famous games helped him build intuition and visualization skills. A passionate player himself, many of Sam’s ...
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EP 438- Tony Ballard: Chess, Freedom, and Lessons Learned From 26 Years in Prison

June 10, 2025 • 66 mins
In this memorable episode of Perpetual Chess, we welcome back Tony Ballard, who spent 26 years incarcerated and credits chess with helping him change the course of his life. When we last spoke in Episode 289 (2022), Tony was still in a minimum-security facility. Now fully free, he’s making the most of his second chance. He’s working full-time at the Paul Mitchell Barber School, has founded a nonprofit—Masters and Mentors—to teach c...
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EP 437- Coach Jay Stallings and NM Adam Weissbarth talk Chess Teaching, Chess in the Movies and The Challenges and Rewards of Running a Chess Business

June 3, 2025 • 85 mins
This two-part episode of Perpetual Chess features two of the most impactful figures in American chess education: Coach Jay Stallings and Adam Weissbarth. First up, Coach Jay shares insights from his decades of experience teaching over 30,000 students,and also discusses his recent work consulting on the chess scenes in the new Hollywood blockbuster The Accountant 2. Additionally, Jay reviews some of the teaching tools he currently r...
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EP 436- Adult Improver Torkil Jara Bårdsgjerde on How Workplace Trash Talk Sparked a Lifelong Passion for Chess 

May 27, 2025 • 76 mins
EP 436- Adult Improver Torkil Jara Bårdsgjerde on How Workplace Trash Talk Sparked a Lifelong Passion for Chess  In this inspiring and relatable installment of the Adult Improver Series, we meet  Torkil Jara Bårdsgjerde, a 39-year-old father of two, from Norway who discovered competitive chess after a bit of playful banter with a workplace rival. That exchange sparked a fascination with the game—and when the pandemic hit shortly a...
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EP 435- IM Alex Ostrovskiy on Opening Prep, Norm Tournaments, and His Core Chess Improvement Advice &

May 20, 2025 • 63 mins
IM Alex Ostrovskiy is a former Scholastic National Champion, New York State Champion, and accomplished coach who has earned one GM norm, and reached a peak USCF rating of 2560. In addition to his coaching work, Alex is a regular commentator on GM Hikaru Nakamura's Twitch channel, and a tournament organizer who runs frequent invitational tournaments in New York City (where he has lived since the age of 5.) Alex and I discussed the f...
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EP 434- GM Mauricio Flores Rios: The Acclaimed Chess Structures Author on How to Approach Different Chess Imbalances, Chess & A.I., and The Missing Ingredient in Freestyle Chess

May 13, 2025 • 56 mins
GM Mauricio Flores Rios' first book, Chess Structures, is a modern classic which is seemingly recommended on a weekly basis on Perpetual Chess. After nine years of work, Mauricio has recently released its follow-up, Chess Imbalances: A GM Guide. Like Chess Structures, it is a highly instructive book with a beautiful selection of games and useful guidelines to aid one's chess decision-making. We discussed the following:  His op...
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EP 433- GM Kenneth Rogoff: From the World Juniors to the World Bank. Dr. Rogoff on His Remarkable Transition from Top Young Chess Talent to Renowned Economist. 

May 6, 2025 • 69 mins
Dr. Kenneth Rogoff has undoubtedly had one of the highest-profile and most interesting careers of any Grandmaster working outside of chess. He is an author and Harvard professor who was once singled-out by none other than Bobby Fischer, as a player who had shown remarkable chess improvement. As a young chess star, Dr. Rogoff actually dropped out of high school to move to Europe and pursue chess professionally, but by age 18 he had ...
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EP 432- NM Dana Mackenzie: The 5 Steps to Becoming a Chess Master & Other Chess Stories and Advice

April 29, 2025 • 67 mins
NM Dana Mackenzie is a former math professor turned science writer who has maintained a passion for chess throughout his life and career changes.He is a USCF Life Master and was the 2 time state champion of North Carolina.  Dana had a long running and popular chess blog which has now been turned into a book Did You Come Here to Play Chess or Have Fun? The book features plenty of chess improvement advice, with a particular emphasis ...
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EP 431- GM Mihail Marin:The Award-Winning Author shares Chess Wisdom from Across the Generations

April 22, 2025 • 72 mins
GM Mihail Marin is a prolific and popular author, trainer, and 3-time Romanian national champion. He has made numerous contributions to the chess canon but is probably best known for the book Learn from the Legends, published in 2005, which received high praise from GM Daniel Naroditsky, IM Jeremy Silman, and many others. In 2025, its much-anticipated sequel, Learn from the Legends 2: Chess Heroes at Their Best has finally been rel...
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EP 430: GM Susan Polgar on Perseverance and Empowering the Next Generation

April 15, 2025 • 65 mins
GM Susan Polgar is a World Chess Hall of Famer and former Women’s World Champion. She is also the holder of numerous records, including being the first female  “triple crown winner” and the first woman to earn the Grandmaster title by norms and rating. She is also an author, and Chessable author. Her latest book,  Rebel Queen: The Cold War, Misogyny and the Making of Grandmaster is a candid and fascinating memoir which looks back a...
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