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.
If you would like to help support the podcast, you can do so here.
EP 263- Author Oliver Roeder on the Enduring Appeal of Chess and Other Games
EP 262- IM Kostya Kavutskiy returns
EP 261- "Master to IM" Adult Improver Special with FM Doug Eckert, NM Evan Rosenberg and FM Dalton Perrine
Book Recap #22- Discussing Isaac Lipnitsky's Questions of Modern Chess Theory, with Martin Justesen
EP 260 - IM Christof Sielecki is back!
EP 259- Ben Johnson
EP 258- GM Matthew Sadler
EP 257- GM Erwin L'Ami with a World Championship Wrap Up (and more!)
World Championship Bonus Pod #5- GM Vasyl Ivanchuk on His Career, Twitch Streaming and his Thoughts on the Match
Book Recap #21- Discussing A First Book of Morphy with Mads Jønsson
World Championship Bonus Pod #4- GM Jacob Aagaard on the match, plus Shaun McCoy with a report from Dubai
EP 256- Alex Crompton (Adult Improver Series)
World Championship Bonus Pod #3- GM Jan Timman on the match so far, NM John MacArthur with a Dubai trip report.
World Championship Bonus Pod #2- FM Mike Klein joins from Dubai to recap 5 tense, deadlocked rounds.
EP 255- WGM Tatev Abrahamyan returns
World Championship Bonus Pod #1- The match so far + interviews from Dubai with Geert van der Velde and Jonathan Corbblah
EP 254- World Chess Championship Preview Part 2 with Tai Pruce Zimmerman
EP 253- GM Daniel King Previews the World Championship, plus more!
EP 252- GM Andy Soltis returns!
EP 251- John Hartmann is back!
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