This Week's Roundup
A few updates and podcast interviews
Hey everyone! This week has been very busy for me with a few podcast interviews and traveling to Toronto for the Candidates tournament where I’m currently writing from. This post is going to be a roundup of this week’s events:
Chess Journeys: Tales of Adult Improvement Podcast
I was interviewed by Kevin Scull for the “Chess Journeys: Tales of Adult Improvement” podcast in episode 142 (click here to listen on Spotify). In this interview I talk about my background and how I got into playing chess in the first place. We discuss how I improved in the past when I was younger and what I’m doing to improve nowadays that I’m in my 30’s. We also talk about topics such as setting goals, coaching, playing as an adult and creating Chessable courses (which you can click here to check out).
I really enjoyed the conversation with Kevin and highly recommend his podcast. As I mention in our discussion, I listen to his and others chess podcasts pretty much every time that I’m driving :-)
Click here to listen to the podcast on Spotify
Perpetual Chess Podcast
I was also interviewed by Ben Johnson for the “Perpetual Chess Podcast” in a bonus pod titled “FIDE Candidates Round 12 Breakdown Part 1” (click here to listen on Spotify). This was my third time being interviewed by Ben and I enjoyed it very much. You can listen to my other two interviews with him if you click here and here.
In this interview we talked about the ongoing Candidates tournament and my experience attending the tournament in-person for rounds 11 and 12. We also discussed our projections for the rest of the tournament.
Click here to listen to the podcast on Spotify
Chess.com Daily Puzzle
I submitted a position for Chess.com’s daily puzzle in the past and was recently chosen to have it featured as the daily puzzle on April 16, 2024. Here is the position:
You can try solving it yourself and then watch the explanation video done by NM Dane Mattson by clicking the link here.
Candidates Tournament
I am in Toronto from Tuesday through Friday watching rounds 11 and 12 of the Candidates tournament. It has been a very cool experience seeing many top players up close and in-person. I took plenty of pictures and got a few signatures on my chess board. I’ll probably write a Candidates recap after the tournament is over. Before then, if you want to know more about my experience at the Candidates tournament then check out the Perpetual Chess Podcast episode above.
Here’s to hoping that Hikaru or Fabiano can win the Candidates!
That’s it for the recap this week. I’ll be back with the next Chess Chatter Challenge post very soon!