EP.217 - IM to GM Special Episode with IMs Lawrence Trent, Sean Nagle and Attila Turzo

03/09/21 • 130 min

This week’s podcast is a special feature that includes three different IM guests who are working to attain the Grandmaster title! My guests are popular commentator, IM Lawrence Trent, 9-time Minnesota State Champion IM Sean Nagle, and Hungary-based chess trainer, IM Attila Turzo. These guests have very different backgrounds, chess distances to travel and life situations, but they all share the common goal of wanting to earn the highest title in chess. Why is it important to them? What do they need to improve in order to climb this final steep step? What will their study routines entail? I know that many of you will also be pursuing new chess milestones and goals post-pandemic, so I hope that you find some good advice and inspiration in these 3 interviews! Please read on for more details and timestamps for each interview. 0:00- Intro Mentioned: IM Kostya Kavutskiy, IM Eric Rosen, IM Kassa Korley, IM John Bartholomew, IM Greg Shahade, IM Abimanyu Mishru, IM Christopher Yoo, IM Carissa Yip 5:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by HotSaucery.co You should try some of their delicious hot sauces. Use the promo code PERPETUAL to save 10%. You can Follow them on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/hot.saucery/ 6:00- IM Lawrence Trent joins the show! Lawrence is a frequent and popular chess commentator, streamer and content creator. He has served as the manager for his friend GM Fabiano Caruana, and was one of the co-hosts of the original chess podcast, The Full English Breakfast, with Macauley Peterson, GM Stephen Gordon, and GM Simon Williams. He joins us to share his reasons for deciding that now is the time for him to pursue his last GM norm and the 100 FIDE points that he requires to earn the GM title. If anyone dares to bet against Lawrence, he genuinely would appreciate it! . Mentioned: GM Magnus Carlsen, Mike McDonald, Olivier Busquet, Fedor Holz, GM Emil Sutovsoky, GM RB Ramesh 24:00- Patreon mailbag question: “What defines the skill gap between IM and GMs?” Mentioned: IM Ali Mortazavi, GM Keith Arkell, GM Mark Hebden, Sunway (Sitges) Chess Festival 45:00- Thanks to Lawrence for joining the show. Whether you would like to bet against him or root him on in his GM quest, you can follow him on Twitter here. 45:50- IM Sean Nagle joins the show. Sean is a Minnesota based Corporate and Securities Attorney, 9-time Minnesota State Chess Champion,husband, and dad of 3 kids. Mentioned: IM John Bartholomew, GM Andrew Tang, GM Wesley So, FM Peter Giannatos 57:00- Patreon mailbag question: “What does Sean specifically need to work on in order to achieve the improvement he desires?” Mentioned: IM Greg Shahade video: Chess Opening Study for Serious Players: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93kO7OXn9Lc Also mentioned: GM Jacob Aagaard’s Killer Chess Training, GM Maurice Ashley, Tribe of Mentors, GM Alex Shabalov, IM Lawrence Trent, Jacob Aagaard’s Grandmaster Preparation Series, Universal Chess Training by GM Wojciech Moranda, Inner Game of Tennis, The Art of Learning, Against the Rules Podcast with Michael Lewis, Chess Improvement: Its All in the Mindset, Mindset by Carol Dweck, Grit by Angela Duckworth, Getting Unstuck: Break Free of the Plateau Effect, Boris Gelfand’s Series, FM Eduard Zelkind 1:30:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessmood.com! Check out Chessmood’s blog here: https://chessmood.com/blog and check out their YouTube, featuring Lessons with a Grandmaster here: https://www.youtube.com/c/ChessMood 1:30:00- Thanks to Sean for joining us! You can follow him on Twitter here, or reach via chess.com here. 1:30:30- IM Attila Turzo joins the show. Mentioned: GM R.B.Ramesh, GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov, GM Viswanthan Anand, GM Ben Finegold 1:41:00- Patreon mailbag question: “What separates Attila from the Grandmaster level?” Mentioned: Leonid Kubbel, Slavin’s Chess series, GM Jacob Aagaard, Mark Dvoretsky, Mikhail Botvinnik. Alexander Grischuk, IM Greg Shahade, GM Pragganandha, Nagy Laszlo’s First Saturday Tournaments, IM John Bartholomew, FM Peter Giannatos 2:01:00- Thanks so much to Attila for joining the show. Here is how you can contact him and track his quest: Twitch- https://www.twitch.tv/attilaturzo Twitter- https://twitter.com/AttilaTurzo?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCezDjmS_25xjLYi8_jLAWeA First Saturday Tournament- http://www.firstsaturday.hu/2012/index.htm See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Previous Episode

EP.216 - Dr. Jana Krivec

This week Dr. Jana Krivec joins me. She is the seven-time Woman’s National Champion of Slovenia. Jana is also a Professor of Psychology at the School of Advanced Social Studies in Nova Gorica, Slovenia. She has recently released a book that synthesizes her interests in chess and brain science. Her book, Improve Your Life by Playing a Game, gives a rundown of the many psychological issues that chess players often confront, and offers actionable advice on how we all can improve our study habits and our approaches to playing chess. I had a good time speaking with Dr. Krivec, and I think that you will enjoy the interview. Please read on for more details and timestamps. 0:00- We begin by discussing the cognitive biases that are most prevalent amongst chess players. Mentioned: Adult Improver interview with Dr. Vishnu Sreekumar, (The book recap I mentioned with Dr. Christopher Chabris will be out later this month) , The Dunning Kruger Effect, Emanuel Lasker, Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman 15:00- How can we combat these biases? 20:00- Perpetual Chess is proud to be brought to you in part by Chessable.com. Their latest offerings include, Lifetime Repertoires: The Queen’s Gambit Declined by GM Alex Colovic and The Psychology of Chess Tactics 21:00- Dr. Krivec answers a question from the Patreon mailbag about how to deal with the common issue of online “chess tilt.” Mentioned: The Power of Habit 39:00- Jana answers a Patreon question about how to deal with stress in online chess and she’s asked whether she thinks chess is helpful or harmful with anxiety issues. Mentioned: Autogenic Training, Progressive Muscle Relaxation 55:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessmood.com! Check out Chessmood’s blog is here: https://chessmood.com/blog and check out their YouTube, featuring Lessons with a Grandmaster here: https://www.youtube.com/c/ChessMood 56:00- What factors were most instrumental in Jana’s chess successes? 1:04:00- Does Dr. Krivec have an opinion about whether it is better to learn from books or from online tools like Chessable? 1:12:00- Thanks so much to Dr. Krivec for joining the show. You can contact her via Facebook. You can purchase or see a free teaser of her book via Thinkers Publishing Here: Improve Your Life by Playing a Game – Learn how to turn your life activities into lifelong skills - Thinkers Publishing If you would like to help support Perpetual Chess, you can do so here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Next Episode

EP.218 - GM Max Illingworth

GM Max Illingworth is one of Australia’s top players and is the 2 time national Australian Champion among other distinctions. in recent years, Max has shifted his focus from competing to training. His work ethic has evident, as in the last years ce co-authored the book, Dismantling the Sicilian, contributes actively on Facebook chess forums, and has launched his own training site, Illingworth Chess Academy. In our interview, we dive deep into the topic of chess improvement, and Max provides a lot of good insights about how he became so strong at tournament chess, blitz chess, and even the chess variant called Crazyhouse! Please read on for all of the details and timestamps. 0:00- We begin by discussing Max’s approach to adapting the right mindset for chess. Mentioned: Facebook Chess Endgame Studies and Composition Group, IM Cyrus Lakdawala, Chess Improvement: Its All in the Mindset, 8:30- Max discusses his affinity for a chess variant called Crazyhouse 10:30- What did Max do to raise his online blitz rating from 2800 to 2950? 13:50- What should non GMs do to improve their blitz ratings, and their games generally? Mentioned: Max Illingworth interview with Bryan Castro: http://www.betterchesstraining.com/2019/05/gm-max-illingworth.html The Woodpecker Method , CT-Art 23:45-Perpetual Chess is proud to be brought to you in part by Chessable.com. They are having a big sale this week, to check out what's available, you can go here: Chess Courses Online - For All Levels in all - Chessable.com 24:30- Patreon mailbag question: “What advice do you have for one who wants to start solving endgame studies but finds most of them too difficult?” Mentioned: Philip Stamma Endgame Studies, Say Chess’ Blindfold Endgame Trainer is here: https://saychessblog.com/blindfold-endgame-puzzles/ 31:00- Another mailbag question: “What advice does Max have for club players on how to learn to evaluate positions?” Mentioned: Simple Chess, Podcast recapping Simple Chess 39:00- One more Patreon mailbag question: “How can one learn to assess one’s own strengths and weaknesses?” Mentioned: Openingtree.com, Aimchess.com 42:30- What Chessbooks does Max recommend? Mentioned: Logical Chess Move by Move, My System, Art of Attack in Chess, The Complete Chess Swindler by GM David Smerdon 47:30- Max tells the story of the moment that his competitive fire for chess was ignited. Mentioned: GM Yasser Seirawan, GM Ian Rogers, GM Darryl Johansen, IM John Paul Wallace 52:30- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessmood.com! Check out Chessmood’s blog is here: https://chessmood.com/blog and check out their YouTube, featuring Lessons with a Grandmaster here: https://www.youtube.com/c/ChessMood 53:00- Patreon question: “What advice does Max have for pursuing goals?” Mentioned: Episode 215 with Vishnu Sreekumar 57:00- How has Max been impacted by legendary Australian players Cecil Purdy and GM Ian Rogers? Mentioned: Chess Fundamentals by Jose Raoul Capablanca, IM Andras Toth, Van Perlo’s Endgame Tactics, IM Stephan Solomon 1:05:00- In closing, Max shares a few of his interests away from the board.? 1:09:00- Thanks to Max for joining the show! Here are the best ways to keep up with him. Web page- Illingworth Chess Academy Facebook- Max Illingworth | Facebook If you would like to help support Perpetual Chess, you can do so here: Ben Johnson is creating Perpetual Chess Podcast | Patreon See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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