This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Matt. Having played a bit as a child, we talked about his reintroduction to chess as an adult. Matt’s story is especially compelling since he has gained about 250 points in his 40’s only spending 1 hour a day on chess. Matt has a narrow study plan of playing games, reviewing his games, doing tactics, and wo…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with FM Dalton Perrine. We discussed his time as a scholastic chess player, high school player, and continuing to play as an adult. We discussed topics such as setting goals, coaching, playing as an adult and creating Chessable courses. You can find Dalton at: https://nextlevelchesscoaching.com/ If you want to j…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Benji. We talked about his own journey into chess, including the thriving London chess club scene. Then we talked about Benji’s work with mindfulness and chess. Benji gave a lot of useful suggestions about how tournament players can think about their situation and how breathing and other exercises can addre…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Spenser. He’s a former scholastic player that has returned to chess as an adult. He heads up the impressive Richmond chess club. We talked about his progress with openings, endgames, and tactics. We discussed his coaching, and what it takes to run a successful chess club. If you want to join The Chess Gym a…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with GM Noel Studer. We took a look at my games and progress in 2024. We examined my chess, my rating improvement, and my study plan. We also discussed Noel’s near course: Beginner Chess Mastery. If you want to join The Chess Gym and support the show use the following link: https://the-chess-gym.circle.so/checko…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Thomas. We spoke about OTB chess is Paris and his preference for OTB games. We focused on his struggles to play online and the anxiety that comes with those games. Thomas had a sudden ratings gain, and we discussed what motivated that jump. He also, gave us his list of the 5 best chess books. If you want to…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Rachel. She’s a former scholastic player, who has returned to chess as a college student. We talked about how she studies chess, her preference for OTB chess, and the importance of coaching. We also discussed her desire to stay away from labeling progress with numbers. Rachel talked about her approach to st…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with David about his journey through life and chess. He talked about books and resources that helped him improve. We spent time talking about the value of process over rating goals. David also talked about his experiences with coaching and tournaments. If you want to join The Chess Gym and support the show use t…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Andrew. He’s about 1 year into his journey. He and his wife got into the game together as a way of being ready to help their daughter learn chess. Andrew has been bitten hard by the chess bug and we discussed his approach to learning and playing chess. He started with random books, some accessible and some …

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with FM Nate Solon. We talked a lot about the best ways to improve your skill at chess. We discussed my current training program, and where it could be improved. We also talked about the Chess Gym, and its role in my training. Nate provided a lot of useful insights. Use this link to purchase Next Level Training:…

This week on Chess Journeys, the habit master Neal Bruce checks in. We talked about his return to and recent success with OTB chess. We discussed in depth his program, why he changed it, and why he got a coach. We also examined the question of if an adult can reach master, including Neal’s thoughts on the Chess Dojo episode. Neal talked about burno…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Anna. We focused on her emphasis on OTB play. Anna plays 1 to 2 games every week OTB and spends a lot of time examining them. We discussed several book that Anna has used to improve her chess such as the Polgar 5334 book. Near the end we discussed Anna’s goals and strategy for bringing more women in to ches…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with David. We focused a lot on his ability to carve out 20-30 hours a week for chess. He believes that most people can make a lot more time, if they are willing to make sacrifices. We also discussed the benefits of the Chess Dojo and direct coaching. David talked about his favorite resources including Tactics T…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Chris. His journey has taken him from 800 to 1700 Chesscom in about 8 years. He got into chess by coaching kids as a beginner. He spent the next several years playing and working on tactics with the ultimate goal of not blundering! Chris provided a lot of tips on eliminating the dreaded blunder. Chris and I…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Will about his rapid ascent from 1000 to 2000 Rapid Chesscom. Will talked a lot about his focus on playing chess and examining his games. When asked questions like how did you learn strategy or endgames his answer was usually by playing games. The interview was a fascinating take on how just playing the gam…

This week on Chess Journeys, we did something a little different. I turned the show over to I Jay Garrison and he interviewed me about my year in chess. It was a wild ride, dropping 200 points and then gaining them all back and more at the end of the year. We talked about my focus on turning knowledge into skill this year, the challenges of losing …

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Eric. He’s a father of a young child trying to carve out time for chess. We talked about his plan of about 1 hour of study per day. Eric said something shocking, he doesn’t do tactics. He did complete Everyone’s First Chess Workbook, but puzzles are not part of his daily training. Eric focuses mainly on pla…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Forest, the 11 year old that has been dominating our local chess club of late. The goal of the episode is to figure out how children get so good at chess. Forest didn’t surprise me with his statement that he doesn’t read books, but I was surprised to hear that he doesn’t use many online resources either. Fo…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Cameron about his chess. He’s made a lot of progress from about 500 to 1250 Chesscom. We talked about the different steps in his journey from reading Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess to Gotham Chess’s Bootcamp to his most recently completed book the Amateur’s Mind. Cameron talked about his focus on playing longe…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Alex. We spoke about his journey into chess as a parent of two children. Alex quickly found Chessable and worked on Everyone’s First Chess Workbook. He also listed several openings courses that were helpful as a beginner. We reflected on his time working with coach Shivam, who I had a great time working wit…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Erik. We focused on his journey from 1000 - 2000 lichess (his lifelong goal). He spoke of his initial forays into chess focusing on openings. He also reflected on his experiences with coaching, OTB chess, and rating anxiety. Use this link to purchase Next Level Training: https://nextlevelchesscourses.teacha…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Nick. He’s a busy man with a career, spouse, and children. We spent a lot of time discussing how to fit chess improvement around your life. Nick reflected on different parts of his journey from videos, coaching, opening work, and many tactics puzzles. Nick has made tremendous progress in less than two years…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with NM, podcaster, and author Ben Johnson. We reflected on his recent chess journey. But we spent most of the time talking about his new book: Perpetual Chess Improvement. We discussed a wide range of topics such as the process of writing, early reviews, reasons for writing a book, imposter syndrome, and my tho…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Dennis about his journey from beginner to master. We focused primarily on the struggles he faced from 1800-2200. Dennis faced confidence issues, ratings plateaus, and the pandemic derailing his final steps to master. Dennis referenced a few resources such as Chess Structures and puzzle rush. He worked a lot…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Max about his last two years in tournament chess. He’s played over 200 rated games since the pandemic. We talked about the challenges of fatigue during tournaments, playing sharp openings, and underrated kids. Max talked about his process for trying to break 2200, and his goal of reaching it by the end of t…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Megan. We focused extensively on her amazing achievement of playing rated tournaments in all 50 states! She talked about her favorites, challenging moments, and her motivations for taking on such a challenging task. In the second half of the show, we discussed Megan’s chess improvement plan. Most shocking i…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Jordan. He’s an academic that discovered chess during the chess boom. In two years, he’s made a lot of rating progress, gaining 400 points. Jordan attributes most of his improvement to tactics training and playing. He’s also been influenced by some chess adjacent works such as Flow and the work of Carol Dwe…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Tim. He picked up chess about 2 years ago and has focused much of his journey on learning chess strategy. We talked a lot about the last 6 months where he decided to get more serious despite only having about 5 hours a week for chess improvement. He reflected on his first major tournament, getting a chess c…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Christian. He’s gone through a number of phases in his chess journey, including recently coming back to chess improvement. We talked a lot about his time taking lessons with the recently deceased legendary writer and coach, Jeremy Silman. Christian talked about what the lesson were like focusing on psycholo…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Will. We had a great conversation about his journey from 600 - 1600 Chesscom. Will was initially inspired by videos and his desire to defeat his friend. Now Will is motivated by enjoying the journey and putting in the work. Will noted that he made substantial improvement by changing his thinking process. He…

Use this link to purchase Next Level Training: https://nextlevelchesscourses.teachable.com/p/next-level-training?affcode=1152624_t9sjlp49 Be sure to check out the Chess Journeys Merch Store! You can support the show and look amazing in the process. https://chess-journeys.creator-spring.com/ I’ve been streaming somewhat regularly on https://www.twit…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with FM Nate Solon. We talked about a wide range of topics such as coming back to tournament chess, winning the ALTO, adult only tournaments, writing books and course, and my tournament chess woes. Nate provided a lot of useful ideas for chess improvement and the “hidden skills” in chess. Use this link to purcha…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Jon. He’s an avid adult improver who picked up chess with Pogchamps 1. We talked about his journey from casual player to dedicated improver. Jon’s had a steady climb and has a great attitude. We talked about the value of tournament chess, the challenge of winning games in tournaments, the value of tactics, …

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Tess. We had a fascinating conversation about her chess journeys. Tess started out by playing 10,000 rapid games in a short amount of time. Essentially, she was the human form of Alpha Zero. Tess spoke of the different periods of her improvement and what helped her most. We also discussed topics such as tou…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Chris. He’s a busy mechanic trying to balance his career, family, and chess improvement. He picked up the game in 2022, and has made a lot of progress towards his goals. We talked a lot about his approach to chess study. Chris focuses most of his time studying using books such as the Soviet Chess Primer and…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with GM Jesse Kraai. We discussed his chess career, starting at 12 and not making GM until well into adulthood. We spoke a lot about the challenges of improving as an older adult and the joy of senior tournaments. We discussed Jesse’s method of analyzing one’s own games. We also talked about the value of coachin…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Jesse. He’s an avid adult improver who plays at the same club as me. We talked a lot about his rapid improvement journey from 1400 to nearly 1700. His journey included many bumps and rating drops. We talked about the books that had the most impact including Silman’s Reassess Your Chess, endgame work, and ta…

This week on Chess Journeys, I am joined by GM Noel Studer. Noel examined my last 30 games and we discussed the state of my game. I think this is a great episode for anyone wondering how to examine their own game, especially in times of rating loss and turmoil. With Noel’s help we were able to abandon ideas like reworking my opening repertoire or d…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Joe Bruin. He’s a prolific streamer that I’ve run into at the last two OTB tournaments that I attended. We talked a lot about playing chess for fun without expressly trying to improve. Joe has seen massive rating gains at points in his life without studying. He mostly played and streamed a lot of chess. We …

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with the one and only GM Jacob Aagaard. We discussed a wide range of topics such as his chess career, coaching, and adult improvement. Most importantly I asked him if a 40 year old adult could achieve the NM title. We also talked about how adults should go about improving. He expanded on a variety of ideas such …

This week, I spoke with Dawn. She’s a new chess player who picked up the game in her 60’s. We talked a lot about the challenges of having a low rating while still being excited to talk about chess. Dawn suggested a few books such as Everyone’s First Chess Workbook and Susan Polgar’s Learn Chess series. Dawn and I talked about how to analyze games, …

This week on Chess Journeys, I talked to Michael, better known as Noseknowsall. He’s had a steady climb over 8 years of chess. We talked primarily about the books that helped him climb, the Chess Dojo, and other areas that helped his improvement. Michael credits much of his success to Jeremy Silman’s Reassess Your Chess. But Michael also recommends…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Elaynah. She’s a new but dedicated chess improver. She’s made rapid progress from about 400 - 1600 Chesscom rapid in around a year. She spoke about her journey including focusing on not blundering, endgames, tactics, and master games. We explored with detail her first tournament, the National Open in Las Ve…

This week on Chess Journeys, the focus is on my year in chess and a recap of the National Open. Guest of the show Jay Garrison joined me and shared his wisdom on many of the subjects. We focused on tournament prep, tournament performance, who I met at the tournament, ratings dips, what I worked on this year, my goals for next year, and handling set…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Hannah. She started chess with the Queen’s Gambit in 2021. Since then she’s been able to raise her rating at least 500 points, mainly by playing a lot of chess. Hannah found a club early in her journey and has been able to play mostly unrated OTB games. This inspired her to study tactics and some endgames. …

This week, I spoke with Paul. He has a fascinating chess journey. In his 20’s, Paul achieved master and was knocking on the door of the FM title. Thirty years later and some health setbacks, Paul is trying to recapture his previous strength and perhaps even build upon it. We talked about a wide variety of topics such as his training methods, the ch…

This week, I spoke with Brad. We have similar lives, but he has had a much sharper ratings gain. We talked about his focus on playing over studying. Although he has enjoyed Gotham Chess videos and courses, as well as Naroditsky’s speed runs. Brad also recommended a few books such as Amateur to IM. We talked quite a bit about Brad’s first OTB tourna…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Nick. He’s a founding Chesspunk member and Chessable beast. He’s gained about 175 points in the last year. We focused on what he’s changed including studying master games, switching to the Ruy Lopez, doing less opening work, joining the SayChess accountability training group, and taking breaks. It was an en…

This week, I had the honor of interviewing the first GM to appear on Chess Journeys, Noel Studer. We started out by discussing his path to GM. Then we talked extensively about adult improvement. We discussed topics such as the importance of tactics, how to do tactical training, the Steps program, age, and his course Next Level Training. For listene…

This week on Chess Journeys, I had the honor of talking to Philemon. He is the rare person that climbs from new player to master as an adult. Phil shared the secrets to his success: love the process, immersion (putting in the time), and well timed breaks. Phil provided several resources that he used to improve such as The Art of the Attack, My Syst…