0:00- Intro and Alex’s breakdown of the ongoing European Chess Championship. On the day that we talked Alex was enjoying a break from the tournament
10:20- We discuss Alex’s brand new Chessable course, The Najdorf Sicilian Simplified. This includes the story of how he began to collaborate with Chessable, and why now is a good time to learn more about the storied Najdorf defense. In our conversation, Alex gives some updates on the theory of particular lines of the Najdorf, including the contributions that GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave made to the Poison Pawn Variation. The Karpov-Kasparov game that GM Colovic mentions can be seen here.
26:30- Alex’s chess improvement advice for club players. If you want instant results, Alex says, the first thing you should do is improve your calculation. He says that the fact that you are doing the work is more important than the tools that you use to do it.
The viral Quora post that Alex wrote and that we reference can be read here. (In the interview, I erroneously said that Alex’s post got 67,000 views, but actually that particular post got 18,000 views. it is Alex’s Quora posts in total that got 67,000 views.) The study composer that Alex mentions who helped him finally achieve the GM title is Genrikh M. Kasparyan. For all of Alex’s book recommendations check out his blog posts here, here and here. The more beginner-oriented tactics books/courses that Alex mentions in our interview are Mastering Mates 1: 1,111 One-Move Mates by Jon Edwards, and Chess - 5334 Problems, Combinations, and Games by Lazlo Polgar. For his own chess, Alex greatly enjoyed the Jonathan Rowson books, Understanding the Grunfeld, Seven Deadly Chess Sins, Chess for Zebras
42:30- Why is Jose Raul Capablanca Alex’s favorite player? What is his favorite book about Capablanca? The game that Alex is referring to may have been this one. I was unable to find the video footage of Bobby Fischer playing over a game that Alex mentions. If you find it, please email me. and I will add it to the show description :)
50:30- How and why did Alex just become President of the Association of Chess Professionals? How did he become involved with the FIDE Fair play commission?
58:30- Goodbye and contact info. Read Alex’s blog here, follow him on Twitter here and Facebook here.
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Book Recap #15 : Discussing Secrets of Practical Chess and Attacking the Strongpoint
EP.218 - GM Max Illingworth
EP.217 - "IM to GM" Adult Improver Special with IMs Lawrence Trent, Sean Nagle and Attila Turzo
EP.216 - Dr. Jana Krivec
EP.215 - Dr. Vishnu Sreekumar (Adult Improver Series)
EP.214 - GM Vlastimil Hort
EP.213 - IM Greg Shahade returns again
EP.212 - IM John Donaldson returns again!
Book Recap #14 : The Seven Deadly Chess Sins by GM Jonathan Rowson
EP.211 - IM Andras Toth
Bonus Pod - GM Lubomir Kavalek (2003 Interview with Fred Wilson)
EP.210 - Tom Vanderbilt
EP.209 - Martin Justesen (Adult Improver Series)
Book Recap #13: Simple Chess by GM Michael Stean
EP.208 - FM Andrey Terekhov
EP.207 - Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam
EP.206 - FM Carsten Hansen returns
EP.205 - WGM Katerina Nemcova
Book Recap #12 : Talking Improve Your Chess Now, with FM Alex Chua
EP.204 - FM Nathan Resika (Adult Improver Series)
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