Blindfold Chess Podcast

This week, we are looking at a 3 time World Youth Gold Medalist, a 4 time US Women’s Chess Championship participant, and the youngest American to earn the International Master title all before the age of 16 - Alice Lee.  -Podcast Game1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 a6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.Bxe7 Qxe7 6.Nbd2 Nf6 7.g3 O-O 8.Bg2 Nbd7 9.Rc1 c5 10.O-O Re8 11.Re1 cxd4 12.Nxd4 Nc5 13.Qc2 Ncd7 14.a3 e5 15.Nf5 Qe6 16.cxd5 Nxd5 17.Nc4 N7f6 18.e4 Ne7 19.Red1 g6 20.Rd6 gxf5 21.Rxe6 Bxe6 22.Nd6 Rf8 23.exf5 Bd5 24.Qd2 Kh8 25.Qg5 Neg8 26.Bxd5 Nxd5 27.f6 Ngxf6 28.Qxe5 Rad8 29.Rd1 Kg8 30.Rxd5 Nxd5 31.Qg5+ 1-0–https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2758799 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Lee_(chess_player) http://cassidynoble.com/ –My game against Alice: [Event "2022 Winter Open"][Date "2022.01.22"][Round "3"][White "Noble, Cassidy"][Black "WIM Lee, Alice"][Result "0-1"][ECO "B33"][WhiteElo "1970"][BlackElo "2299"]1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Nd5 Be7 10. Bxf6 Bxf6 11. c3 O-O 12. Nc2 Rb8 {This line must be popular in Minnesota. This did not feel like the same line I played in a previous round. I was warned before the game that she is very theoretical, so I tried to 'play normally'.} 13. Be2 Bg5 14. Nce3 Be6 15. O-O Bxe3 16. Nxe3 Ne7 17. a4 Qc7 {I felt a little worse here. I thought she was going to succeed in either d5 or f5 so, I kept trying to prevent that.} 18. Bf3 g6 19. axb5 axb5 20. Ra6 Rb6 21. Qa1 Bc8 22. Ra7 Bb7 23. Rd1 Qb8 24. Qa2 Kh8 {We both had ~30 minutes left. I could not think of a great plan forward. I wanted to increase pressure on d6. My bishop was ready in case of f5. My a7 rook wasn't going to move until Nc8 or Nc6 and my d1 rook was covering the d-file. It felt like my knight could be on either d6, c4, or f6 but I didn't want to give up pressure on d5 and f5. I opted to go for the plan with the knight attacking d6.} 25. c4 Nc8 26. Ra5 f5 27. cxb5 Bxe4 28. Bxe4 fxe4 29. Qc4 Ne7 30. Rda1 Qc8 {I had 8 minutes remaining, she had 6.} 31. Qxe4 Qe6 $16 32. Nc4 $2 {I thought this was the right idea - hit the rook on b6 and put pressure on d6, but I think it tangles my pieces up too much. I also offered a draw here, she declined .} Rbb8 33. g3 $2 {I think I was overly concerned about Rf4. I spent way too long on this move, I dropped to about 1 minute. The rest of the game, I was playing on the 30 second increment.} (33. Ra6 Rf4 34. Rxd6 Qxc4 35. Qxc4 Rxc4) 33... Qf6 34. Qe2 Nf5 35. Ra6 Nd4 36. Qe3 $4 Nc2 37. Qe2 Nxa1 38. Rxd6 Qg7 39. Qd1 Qf7 40. Qe2 Nb3 41. Nxe5 Qf5 42. g4 Qf4 43. Rxg6 Nd4 44. Qc4 $4 Nf3+ 0-1

This week, we are looking at the self-taught chess prodigy, a 4-time British Champion, a World Champion Challenger, someone who sparked the 1990s schism between FIDE and the Professional Chess Association, and someone who has been deeply involved in chess development - traveling to over 150 countries - Nigel Short. --1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Nc6 4. Ngf3 Nf6 5. e5 Nd7 6. Nb3 a5 7. a4 Be7 8. Bb5 Ncb8 9. h4 h6 10. Rh3 b6 11. Rg3 Bf8 12. h5 c6 13. Bd3 Ba6 14. Rg4 c5 15. Bxa6 Nxa6 16. c4 Nb4 17. Nh4 dxc4 18. Nd2 cxd4 19. Nxc4 Qc7 20. Rxd4 Nxe5 21. Qe2 Bc5 22. Re4 Ned3+ 23. Kf1 Qh2 24. Qg4 Qh1+ 25. Ke2 0-1--https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2353282 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Short http://cassidynoble.com/ 

This week, we are looking at the youngest National Champion in Finnish History, the first Canadian woman to earn the Women’s Grandmaster Title, the first canadian woman to earn a FIDE Master title, and popular streamer and model - Nemo Zhou.--1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bg5 Bd7 7. Be2 Rc8 8. O-O a6 9. Kh1 e6 10. Qd2 h6 11. Be3 Ne5 12. f4 Neg4 13. Bg1 h5 14. Bf3 Qc7 15. Rae1 Be7 16. Qe2 Qc4 17. e5 dxe5 18. fxe5 Nd5 19. Qxc4 Rxc4 20. Nxd5 exd5 21. Bxd5 Rc5 22. Bxf7+ Kd8 23. e6 Bc6 24. Nf5 Rxc2 25. Bb6+ 1-0--“In the [Finnish] textbook, my life forever stays at the age of five, but I need to live in the real life, because success belongs in the past.”https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1771231https://qiyuzhou.wordpress.com/in-finland/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemo_Zhou https://www.twitch.tv/akaNemsko http://cassidynoble.com/ 

This week, we are looking at the first National German Champion, a 2-time Soviet Champion, a 2-time World Championship challenger, and someone who was ensnared in 2 World Wars - Efim Bogoljubov. --1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.Nf3 d6 4.d4 Bf5 5.Bd3 Bg6 6.c4 Nb6 7.Bxg6 hxg6 8.e6 f6 9.Qd3 Qc8 10.Qxg6+ Kd8 11.Qf7 Nxc4 12.Nbd2 Nxd2 13.Bxd2 g5 14.d5 c5 15.Bc3 g4 16.Nh4 Rxh4 17.Qxf8+ Kc7 18.Qxe7+ Kb6 19.Qxd6+ Kb5 20.a4 Kc4 21.Qf4+ Kxd5 22.O-O-O Kc6 23.Qd6# 1-0--https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1030796 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efim_Bogoljubow https://www.chess.com/players/efim-bogoljubov http://cassidynoble.com/ 

This week, we are looking at the the strongest woman of her time, the winner of the first International Women’s Chess Championship, the first woman accepted to the Bristol chess club, and the first woman to be the player of a simul - Mary Rudge. --1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Be3 Qf6 6.c3 Nge7 7.Bb5 O-O 8.Nxc6 dxc6 9.Bxc5 cxb5 10.Na3 Re8 11.f3 Ng6 12.O-O Qg5 13.Bf2 Be6 14.Nc2 Rad8 15.Nd4 Bc4 16.Re1 Nf4 17.Bg3 c5 18.b3 Ne2+ 19.Rxe2 Bxe2 20.Qxe2 cxd4 21.f4 Qc5 22.Bf2 Qxc3 23.Rd1 d3 24.Qf3 Qc2 25.Bxa7 Ra8 26.Bd4 Rxe4 27.Qxd3 Re1+ 0-1—https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1284056 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rudge https://www.chessit.co.uk/Centenary/History/1982%20-%2075th/history/book1.htmlhttps://www.chessit.co.uk/Centenary/History/1982%20-%2075th/history/intro.html#:~:text=He%20writes%20%22All%20creeds%20and,.%2C%20which%20was%20agreed%20to. http://cassidynoble.com/ 

This week, we are going to an area of the world we haven’t covered much on this podcast - New Zealand - specifically a 20 year president of his local club, a 20 year Chess column Editor, a 10 time national competitor, and a 2-time national champion spanning 10 years - including the 1st New Zealand National Champion - Henry Hookham.--1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 e6 3. e3 Nf6 4. Bd3 Bd6 5. O-O O-O 6. b3 c5 7. Bb2 Nc6 8. Nbd2 b6 9. c4 Bb7 10. Re1 Re8 11. Rc1 Rc8 12. Ne5 cxd4 13. exd4 dxc4 14. Ndxc4 Bb4 15. Re3 Qd5 16. Rg3 Red8 17. Ne3 Qd6 18. N5g4 Nh5 19. Nh6+ Kf8 20. Qxh5 gxh6 21. Qxh6+ Ke7 22. d5 Rg8 23. Qf6+ Kd7 24. dxc6+ Bxc6 25. Rxg8 Rxg8 26. Qxf7+ 1-0—Hookham’s legacy is known locally in New Zealand and Australia, but outside of that, many may not know him and if you backdate his rating compared to his peers, it places him in the high expert and low Master range - but - he had a profound impact on his local community. Thats part of the reason why I wanted to make this episode - everyone listening can be impactful in your local community - regardless of your age, regardless of your rating - the people around you are the ones you impact the most and are the ones that will remember you the most. —chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1590716chess-history.org/players/pp-hookham.htmlhttps://old.newzealandchess.co.nz/nzchessmag/pdfs/2012-04.pdfhttp://cassidynoble.com/ 

This week, we are looking at the youngest grandmaster in Philippine history, a man who emigrated to the United States after being left by his family at the age of 16, someone who climbed to the world number 2 rating and is a World Fischer Random Champion - Wesley So. --1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Nf3 Ngf6 6. Nxf6+ Nxf6 7. c3 c5 8. Be3 cxd4 9. Bxd4 Be7 10. Bd3 O-O 11. Qc2 h6 12. O-O-O Qa5 13. Kb1 Rd8 14. Ne5 Bd7 15. Qe2 Bc6 16. Rhe1 Bd5 17. c4 Bxg2 18. Bc3 Qb6 19. Rg1 Bc6 20. Nxf7 Kxf7 21. Rxg7+ Kxg7 22. Qxe6 Qxf2 23. Qxe7+ Kg8 24. Bh7+ 1-0—https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1819775 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_So https://www.chess.com/article/view/wesley-so-interview-chess-was-a-way-out http://cassidynoble.com/ 

This week, we are looking at a chess author, commentator, 2-time US Women’s Champion, and a strong advocate for women in the chess scene - Jennifer Shahade. We are traveling back to 1997 to the US Women’s Championship - Jennifer Shahade versus Anna Hahn. Now… if we’re ready, lets begin. —1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bg5 e6 7. Qd2 Be7 8.  O-O-O Nxd4 9. Qxd4 O-O 10. f3 Qa5 11. Qd2 Bd7 12. Kb1 Kh8 13. g4 b5 14. Nxb5  Qxd2 15. Bxd2 Rab8 16. c4 a6 17. Nc3 Bc6 18. Bf4 Rfd8 19. c5 e5 20. cxd6 Bxd6  21. Rxd6 Rxd6 22. Bxe5 Nxe4 23. fxe4 Rd1+ 24. Nxd1 Bxe4+ 25. Bd3 1-0—https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2476856 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Shahade https://chessintheschools.org/our-students-interview-wgm-jennifer-shahade/ https://www.nyu.edu/alumni/news-publications/nyu-connect-newsletter/december-2022/jennifer-shahade.html#:~:text=by%20Rachel%20Utain%20Evans,what%20I%20studied%20at%20NYU. http://cassidynoble.com/ 

Hello everyone and welcome back to Season 4 of the Blindfold Chess Podcast! This week, we are looking at one of the strongest players of the 1940 and 50s, a member of the inaugural class of Grandmasters, and someone who some have said was “Best player to never become world champion” - David Bronstein.For today’s game, we are going back to the USSR Championship of 1959 - David Bronstein versus Nikolai Krogius. Now… if we’re ready - let’s begin.—1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Qc7 5. c4 Nf6 6. Nc3Nxe4 7. Ndb5 Qa5 8. b4 Qxb4 9. Bd2 Nxd2 10. Nc7+ Kd8 11. Qxd2Rb8 12. N7d5 Qa5 13. Be2 e6 14. O-O exd5 15. cxd5 Bb4 16. Rac1Ne7 17. Qf4 Bxc3 18. Qxb8 Nxd5 19. Bf3 Nb6 20. Qf4 f6 21. Qg3g5 22. Bh5 Be5 23. f4 gxf4 24. Qg7 f5 25. Qg5+ 1-0—https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1034064 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bronstein http://cassidynoble.com/ 

Welcome to the last episode of the year! We are going to do something a little different today, we are going to look at a couple of chess variants - primarily focusing on Chess960, Freestyle Chess, or Fischer Random - depending on which era of chess you played in.Chess in its current form has been around for hundreds of years, but Shuffle chess has been around for about a quarter of a millennia. For our game this week, we are going back to a game between two former Chess960 World Champions in 2019 - Wesley So versus Peter Svidler.  Now, since this is a 960 game, the backrow of pieces on each side are not in their traditional spots. I will read off the location of each piece now.According to Chess960.net, we are looking at position 900. White has a rook on A1, a light square bishop on b1, their dark square bishop on c1, their king on d1, queen on e1, their rook on f1, and their two knights on g1 and h1. Black has the same set up - a Rook on a8, bishops on b8 and c8, their king on d8, queen on e8, their rook on f8, and their knights on g8 and h8. Now - let’s see how we do. If we’re ready - … Let’s begin.--1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Ng6 4. Qc3 c6 5. O-O Nf6 6. Qxc4 Bg4 7. Ng5 Nf4 8. Ng3 h6 9. N5e4 Nxe4 10. Bxe4 Be6 11. Qc2 Qd7 12. Bxf4 Bxf4 13. Nh5 g5 14. Rad1 Qc7 15. Nxf4 gxf4 16. d5 cxd5 17. Qb3 O-O 18. Bxd5 Bxd5 19. Rxd5 Rad8 20. Rf5 e6 21. Rh5 Kg7 22. Qh3 Rh8 23. Qg4+ Kf8 24. Qh4 Kg7 25. e3 Rd2 26. exf4 Rxb2 27. Qg3+ 1-0—-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess960 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chess_variants https://www.chess.com/game/live/4092688154http://cassidynoble.com/

This week, we are looking at another Indian prodigy. Someone who has not made it to the Candidates tournament yet, but he is knocking on the door with Olympiad victories, consistent wins against current and former world champions, and someone who was on a World Rapid Championship team that took home gold - Arjun Erigasi. --1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 Ne4 3. Bf4 d5 4. f3 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. e4 e6 7. Qd2 b5 8. e5 Nfd7 9. Bg5 f6 10. exf6 gxf6 11. Bh6 Be7 12. O-O-O c5 13. Re1 b4 14. Nb1 Nc6 15. Rxe6 Nxd4 16. Re1 Ne5 17. Ne2 Bf5 18. Nxd4 cxd4 19. Qxd4 Qc7 20. c3 Kf7 21. f4 Ng4 22. Qxd5+ Kg6 23. Qxf5+ 1-0—https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2553668https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjun_Erigaisihttp://cassidynoble.com/

This week, we are looking at the president of the Chinese Chess Federation, someone who played Chinese Chess before pivoting to Western Chess at the age of 10, a Women’s World Champion, the first Asian Woman to earn the Grandmaster title, and someone who has influenced millions of people to start playing the game - Xie Jun. --1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. d4 Nd6 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. dxe5 Ne4  8. Qe2 Bf5 9. Be3 Qc8 10. Nd4 Bc5 11. f3 Bxd4 12. Bxd4 Ng5 13. Nc3 Ne6 14. g4  Bg6 15. f4 f5 16. exf6 O-O 17. f5 Re8 18. fxg6 gxf6 19. gxh7+ Kg7 20. Qf2 Kxh7  21. Be3 Ng7 22. Qf4 Re5 23. Ne4 Qe6 24. Nxf6+ 1-0--https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2505563https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xie_Jun https://cassidynoble.com/ 

This week, we are looking at the longest reigning world champion in the history of the game. The 2nd World Champion, aiding in the handoff process from former to new champion, and a prolific author in not only chess, but also mathematics and philosophy - Emanuel Lasker. ----1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. exd5 Qxd5 4. Nc3 Qe6 5. Nf3 Bd6 6. Bb5+ c6 7. Ba4 Ne7 8. O-O Nd7 9. Bb3 Nd5 10. d4 f6 11. dxe5 fxe5 12. Nxd5 cxd5 13. Bxd5 Bc5+ 14. Kh1 Qa6 15. fxe5 Nb6 16. Bb3 Bg4 17. Bg5 h6 18. Bf7+ Kxf7 19. Nh4+ Ke8 20. Qxg4 hxg5 21. Qe6+ Be7 22. Nf5 Nc8 23. Rad1 1-0---https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1075869 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Lasker http://cassidynoble.com/ 

One of the strongest playing women players in the history of the game, a gold medal Olympiad winner, a World Rapid Champion, a World Blitz Champion, a World Champion runner-up, and being willing to sacrifice her titles to make a point to make a change in the World - Anna Muzychuk has made and continue to make a lasting impact on the chess world that many aspire to today.So that is all that we have for this week, tune in next time where we will continue to work on our blindfold skills and look at another game of the Masters! —-----------1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Bg5 c6 5. Qd2 Bg7 6. Bh6 Bxh6 7. Qxh6 Nbd7 8. O-O-O Qa5 9. Nf3 b5 10. e5 dxe5 11. dxe5 Ng4 12. Qf4 b4 13. Bc4 Ndxe5 14. Nxe5 Nxe5 15. Nd5 f6 16. Nxf6+ exf6 17. Qxf6 Rf8 18. Qg7 Bd7 19. Rhe1 O-O-O 20. Rxe5 1-0--------------https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1573672https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Muzychukhttp://cassidynoble.com/

This week, we are looking at another Indian superstar, an individual and team Olympiad medalist (and winner), a Candidates participant, a Fischer Random World Championship Quarterfinalist, a Biel Chess Festival winner, and a Grand Swiss winner - - Vidit Gujrathi. ---1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd3 d5 6. Nf3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 c5 8.O-O cxd4 9. exd4 b6 10. Bg5 Bb7 11. Qe2 Bxc3 12. bxc3 Nc6 13. Ne5 Ne7 14.Rad1 Rc8 15. Rd3 Ne4 16. Bh4 Qc7 17. Rh3 Nf5 18. Bd3 Nxc3 19. Qh5 h6 20.Bf6 Be4 21. Bxg7 Bxd3 22. Bxh6 Be2 23. Qg5+ 1-0—https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2569156 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidit_Gujrathihttps://cassidynoble.com/ 

This week, we are looking at one of the youngest Grandmasters Masters in history, a European Rapid and Blitz champion, a World Blitz Champion, and a 3 time French Champion - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. --Sicilian Defense: Najdorf (B91)1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. g3 e5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. Bg5 Be6 9. f4 exf4 10. Bxf4 Nc6 11. Qd2 O-O 12. O-O-O Ne5 13. Nd4 Bd7 14. Kb1 Rc8 15. h3 b5 16. a3 Qb6 17. g4 b4 18. axb4 Qxb4 19. g5 Rxc3 20. gxf6 Rb8 21. Nb3 Rxb3 22. cxb3 Qxe4+ 23. Ka1 Bxf6 24. Bg2 Nf3 25. Qe3 Qc2 0-1–https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxime_Vachier-Lagraven https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2013739  http://cassidynoble.com/ 

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode! It is puzzle time! These are some of my favorite episodes to record. I will be giving you the location of each piece that is on the board, and I will give you a little time to consider the solution and solve the puzzle before I present the solution. I highly recommend attempting the puzzles on your own before listening to the solution. This week, we will be looking at 3 different puzzles. I will give an easy one, a medium one, and a difficult one. Puzzle number 1: White has a King on f7White has a Bishop on d4White has a Bishop on f3Black has a King on h6You are playing white and it is white to move. On to puzzle number 2!  It is white to move in this game and you are playing white. White has a Rook on b3White has a King on g2White has a pawn on h2Black has a pawn on g5 Black has a pawn on g4Black has a pawn on h5Black has a King on h4Puzzle 3: You are playing white and it is white to move.White has a Bishop on b4White has a King on d3White has a Rook on g8 Black has a Knight on d6Black has a King on e5 Black has a Bishop on b2http://cassidynoble.com/

This week we are looking at a rising star. A 3-time US Women’s Chess Champion, the youngest female player to defeat a Grandmaster, the youngest American woman in history to earn the International Master title - all before the age of 22 - Carissa Yip.—1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.exd5 Qxd5 5.Ngf3 cxd4 6.Bc4 Qd7 7.O-O Nc6 8.Nb3 a6 9.Re1 Nf6 10.Nbxd4 Nxd4 11.Nxd4 Qc7 12.Qe2 Bd7 13.Bg5 O-O-O 14.Rad1 Bd6 15.Bxa6 Bb4 16.c3 Bd6 17.h3 bxa6 18.Qxa6+ Kb8 19.c4 Bc5 20.Rd3 Ba4 21.Qxa4 Rxd4 22.Rb3+ Bb6 23.Be3 Rd6 24.c5 Rc6 25.Bf4 1-0—https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2768625 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carissa_Yiphttp://cassidynoble.com/

This week, we are looking at the history of a 3 time World Blitz Champion, a 5 time World Champion Candidate, and who some have nicknamed as the ‘funniest’ or the ‘thug life’ Grandmaster - Alexander Grischuk. He never quite reached the pinnacle of the classical chess world. He qualified for multiple Candidates tournaments and World Championship tournaments, landing just short of the title on a couple occasions. But! He did win the World Blitz Champion on 3 different occasions, maintained a 2700+ rating for over 22 years, was the number 3 player in the world and spent a quarter of a century in the top 100 players in the world. So that is all that we have for this week, tune in next time where we will continue to work on our blindfold skills and look at another game of the Masters. –1. b3 Nf6 2. Bb2 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 c5 5. e3 O-O 6. Ne2 d5 7. c4 d4 8. exd4 Ng4 9. Na3 Nc6 10. Nc2 cxd4 11. d3 Qa5+ 12. Kf1 Qf5 13. f4 Nb4 14. Nexd4 Qc5 15. Ba3 a5 16. h3 Qxd4 17. Nxd4 Ne3+ 18. Ke2 Nxd1 19. Raxd1 Bxd4 20. Rhe1 Rd8 21. Kd2 e6 22. Re2 Nxa2 0-1–https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1669171 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Grischuk http://cassidynoble.com/ 

Adorned with 10 different gold medals from team events, being the 10th woman to earn the Grandmaster title, being the Russian Women’s Champion, Europe’s Rapid and Blitz Champion, a 2 time Chess960 World Champion, and a Women’s World Champion - Alexandra Kosteniuk has made a splash in the world of women’s chess. —-1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 e6 4. O-O c5 5. c4 Nc6 6. d4 cxd4 7. cxd5 exd5 8.Nxd4 Be7 9. Nc3 O-O 10. Nb3 Be6 11. Be3 b6 12. Rc1 Qd7 13. Nd4 Ne5 14. Bf4 Ng6 15. Bg5 h6 16. Nxe6 fxe6 17. Bxf6 Bxf6 18. Nxd5 exd5 19. Bxd5+ Kh7 20. Bg8+ 1-0—-https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2078732https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Kosteniuk http://cassidynoble.com/ 

Nowadays, we may hear about Vladimir Kramnik as someone highly suspicious of chess cheating including accusing high level players of misconduct, but that has not always been the case. He was the youngest person to ever reach world number 1 in ratings, he was a World Champion for 7 years, and was a 2 time Chess Oscar winner. So let’s dive into this chess legend’s career. A career that included - being world number 1 several times, a 7-year world champion, a lasting impact on chess opening theory, helping be a voice for those that have cheating accusations against them, and now helping teach the game to a new generation - Vladimir Kramnik has had an impactful career in the chess community. For our game this week, we are going back to the Qatar Masters of 2014. Vladimir Kramnik versus Sanan Sjugirov. ---------1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 c6 4. d3 Bg4 5. O-O Nbd7 6. Qe1 e5 7. e4 Bd6 8. h3 Bh5 9. Nh4 O-O 10. g4 Bg6 11. g5 Nh5 12. Exd5 cxd5 13. Nxg6 hxg6 14. Bxd5 Nf4 15. Bxf4 exf4 16. h4 Qc8 17. Qe4 Qxc2 18. Nc3 Qxb2 19. Qxg6 Bc5 20. Ne4 Qe5 21. Bb3 Bxf2+ 22. Nxf2 f3 23. Ne4 Qd4+ 24. Kh1 Qb2 25. Nf6+ 1-0—------https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1779624https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Kramnikhttp://cassidynoble.com/

Chess is everywhere around us. Its been a game that has resonated with billions of people for almost 1500 years. A game about strategy, hierarchies, players that don’t know it rising to the top of the game, humans that break barriers while playing it - everyone who plays this game has their own stories to tell - be that the games that got away, the games that will go down in their memories forever, or just a funny moment between friends - and that is why we continue to play. There are always more stories to discover, learn, and share with one another.--Phiona Mutesi versus Mustafa Manour Zienab. 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 g6 3. g3 Nc6 4. Bg2 Nf6 5. d3 d6 6. Nge2 Bg7 7. h3 Rb8 8. Be3 O-O 9. O-O b5 10. Qd2 b4 11. Nd1 Nd7 12. f4 a5 13. Rb1 Nd4 14. g4 Nxe2+ 15. Qxe2 Bd4 16. Bxd4 cxd4 17. Qf2 Qb6 18. f5 Ne5 19. Qh4 e6 20. f6 Kh8 21. Qh6 Rg8 22. g5 Bb7 23. Rf4 Nd7 24. Qxh7+ 1-0--So that is all that we have for this week. Tune in next time where we will continue to work on our blindfold skills and look at another game of the Masters.  https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1768889https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phiona_Mutesihttp://cassidynoble.com/

This week, we are looking at the rising star Vaishali Rameshbabu, the 3rd woman in India to achieve the Grandmaster title. She and her brother are the first 2 siblings in history to be Grandmasters, to play in the Candidates, and to play in the Candidates in the same year. For today though, we are going back just a couple of years to the 2022 Tata Steel Blitz tournament - Vaishali Rameshbabu versus Kulkarni Bhakti. —--------------------------------1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bf4 e6 4. e3 Bd6 5. Bg3 c5 6. Nbd2 O-O 7. c3 b6 8. Bd3 Bb7 9. Ne5 Nc6 10. f4 Ne7 11. Qf3 Nf5 12. Bf2 Be7 13. g4 Nd6 14. g5 Nfe4 15.Bxe4 dxe4 16. Qg4 cxd4 17.cxd4 Rc8 18. h4 Rc2 19. h5 b5 20. g6 Qa5 21. Rd1 Nc4 22. gxf7+ Kh8 23. Ng6+ hxg6 24. hxg6+ 1-0—---------------------------------Being the 3rd woman to achieve the Grandmaster title in India, playing in her first Candidates tournament last year, and setting her sights at the World Championship - it’ll be great to continue to watch Vaishali improve. So that is all that we have for this week. Tune in next time where we will continue to work on our blindfold skills and look at another game of the Masters. —---------------------------------https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaishali_Rameshbabu https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2420745https://cassidynoble.com/ 

This week, we are looking at the tumultuous and impressive life of the 4th World Champion - Alexander Alekhine. Alekhine’s fingerprints are all over the game we know today - he had many openings named over him including the: Alekhine Defense (e4 Nf6), Alekhine Variations found in the Budapest Gambit, Vienna Game, Ruy Lopez, Winawer Variation, Sicilian Dragon, QGA, Slav, Queens Pawn, Catalan, and Dutch, he had composed several endgame studies, he wrote over 20 chess books, and he had a cat named ‘Chess’ that he took with him to tournaments. Though not officially given the Grandmaster title since FIDE did not give those until 1950, he was given it unofficially from Tsar Nicholas II at the St Petersburg tournament of 1914. This week, we are traveling back to 1921 - before he became world champion to The Hague - Alexander Alekhine versus Max Euwe. —-------1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 c5 3. c4 e6 4. e3 Nc6 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. a3 Bd6 7. dxc5 Bxc5 8. b4 Bd6 9. Bb2 O-O 10. Rc1 Qe7 11. cxd5 exd5 12. Nxd5 Nxd5 13. Qxd5 a5 14. Bb5 axb4 15. a4 Rd8 16. Qh5 g6 17. Qh6 Ne5 18. Ng5 f6 19. Bxe5 fxg5 20. Bc4+ 1-0—--------Being ensnared in World War I, World War II, the Russian Revolution, leaving your home country to never return, all while being at the top of the chess world for 17 years, playing in 5 chess Olympiads, and breaking the simultaneous Blindfold Chess record 3 different times - Alexander Alekhine has earned his plaque in the Chess Hall of Fame. https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1012076https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Alekhine http://cassidynoble.com/ 

Welcome back! This week, we are taking a closer look at someone that Garry Kasparov has praised for her calculation skills, a 20 time US Women’s Chess Championship participant, 4-time US Women’s Champion, and someone who helped the United States win their first Olympic medal(s) - Anna Zatonskih. For today’s game, we are traveling back to the 2nd round of the US Women’s Championship of 2017. Anna Zatonskih versus Emily Nguyen. Now, if we’re ready - lets begin. —------------------1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. c3 d5 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. d4 Nf6 6. Na3 Nc6 7. Be3 cxd4 8. Nb5 Qd8 9. Nbxd4 Nxd4 10. Bxd4 Be7 11. Bd3 O-O 12. Qc2 g6 13. O-O-O Qa5 14. Kb1 b5 15. h4 Rd8 16. h5 Nxh5 17. Rxh5 gxh5 18. Qd2 Kf8 19. Qh6+ Ke8 20. Qxh7 e5 21. Qg8+ Kd7 22. Nxe5+ Kc7 23. Qxf7 1-0—------------------A 3 time Women’s World Championship participant, a 20 time US Women’s Championship participant, a 4 time US Women’s Championship winner, a player in every Olympiad for a quarter of a century, and on the US Women’s team that help earn the United States women their first Olympiad medal - Anna Zatonskih has cemented her mark not only in Ukraine and the United States, but also across the world. —------------------https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1869995https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Zatonskih http://cassidynoble.com/ 

This week, we are looking at not only the current Women’s World Champion, but the 5 consecutive time Women’s World Champion - Wenjun Ju. Her journey to the top of the Women’s World of Chess started at the age of 7 when it was something interesting to do after school. In an interview with Chessbase from November 2020, she said: “My parents didn’t know too much about the game because chess doesn’t have a long history in China. Most people got to know about chess from the 1991 Women’s World Chess Championship when China’s Xie Jun defeated Georgia’s Maia Chiburdanidze. That just happened to be the year I was born” For today’s game, we are going back to 2017 to the IMSA Elite Mind Games Blitz Tournament - Wenjun Ju versus Nana Dzagnidze.—-----------------1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bf4 c5 4. e3 Nc6 5. Nbd2 e6 6. c3 Bd6 7. Bg3 O-O 8. Bb5 Bxg3 9. hxg3 Qd6 10. Bxc6 bxc6 11. Ne5 cxd4 12. exd4 c5 13. g4 cxd4 14. cxd4 h6 15. g5 hxg5 16. Qf3 g4 17. Qf4 Rd8 18. Rh8+ Kxh8 19. Nxf7+ Kg8 20. Nxd6 Ba6 21. O-O-O Rab8 22. Qe5 Bc8 1-0—-----------------Having collected the trifecta of chess achievement of being the Classical, Rapid, and Blitz World Champions, being the now longest reigning Women’s World Champion from China surpassing Xie Jun and Hou Yifan, and now tied for the 2nd most number of Women’s World Championship titles. Ju Wenjun is a pillar of chess achievement and is inspiring a new wave of chess players in her home country and across the world. —https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1899883https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ju_Wenjun http://cassidynoble.com/

**There is an error in the first puzzle of the episode: the bishop should be on c4 (NOT c5)** Thank you @brianmartin5571 on Youtube for letting me know! Hello, and welcome back to another episode - as per tradition, we will be looking at some puzzles this week.  I will give you the location of each of the pieces on the board then I will give you some time to solve it before we walk through the solution. We have 3 puzzles this week - easy, medium and hard. Try your best to solve the puzzle before the solution begins. Let’s dive in! Puzzle number 1: White has a knight on e7, a king on h6, and a rook on g1. Black has a bishop on c5, rook on e5, and a king on h8.Are we ready for puzzle 2?White has a room on a6 and a king on f3Black has a pawn on a2, a rook on a1, and a king on b4Puzzle 3 - this is another important rook and pawn ending that comes up a surprisingly high number of times: White has a king on b8, a pawn on b7, and a rook on c1Black has a rook on a2 and a king on d8.And that is all that we have for this week, tune in next time where we will continue to work on our blindfold skills and look at another game of the Masters. http://cassidynoble.com/

Today, we are looking at a sometimes overlooked player in chess history. An individual is rumored to have learned 14 languages, he founded a chess magazine, has an opening named after him, and someone who played in the first World Championship - Johannes Zukertort.In London, members of the St George’s Chess Club heard of Zukertort’s victory and offered money for him to come play against the unofficial world champion Steinitz. Steinitz had been living in London for 10 years by this point dominating everyone. By accepting this invitation, Zukertort had sparked a rivalry with Steinitz that would last for years. 1878 saw success for the rising star. He played in the Paris World Expo - an 11 round double round robin tournament. This was considered the first Intercontinental tournament as there were players from the United States making it 7 countries represented out of 12 players. In early 1879, while in Dublin, Zukertort played a 12 person blindfolded simul (where he plays 12 players at once without looking at the board) finishing with 8 wins, 1 loss, and 3 draws. One of the opponents that he defeated was Lord Randolph Churchill, the father of Winston Churchill. The following year - he defeated the English champion - Joseph Blackburne 9.5 to 4.5. After the match against Blackburne - both Zukertort and Steinitz wrote about the games in their respective magazines taking jabs at one another’s analysis. Zukertort represented the Romantic style of chess while Steinitz represented a more ‘scientific’ approach that we would call the positional style. The various articles and analysis written would antagonize each other beyond strategy and morph into personal insult territory. This animosity would later be named “The Ink War”.London, there was a 14-player double round robin (26 total games). A rumored story from the tournament banquet - the Club’s President proposed a toast to the best chess player in the world, to which both Steinitz and Zukertort stood up at the same time. In the first 23 rounds of the tournament, Zukertort scored 22 points, winning the tournament with 3 rounds to go. He finished with 22 out of 26. Steinitz came in 2nd with 19 out of 26. A day after the tournament, Steinitz challenged Zukertort to a one on one match in the United States. The winner would be crowned ‘the champion of the world’. Zukertort started off strong - winning 4 of the first 5 games. They then moved to St Louis where Steinitz picked up 3 ½ out of 4. They then concluded in New Orleans. Zukertort is quoted as saying he was ‘living on his wits’ as he was physically fatigued and approaching a mental breakdown. Meanwhile Steinitz had a ‘bottomless pit of mental stamina’. In New Orleans, Steinitz picked up 6 wins in 11 games to become the World Champion by a score of 10-5. After that loss, Zukertort’s health suffered immensely. While in New Orleans, he caught malaria. He also had heart disease, kidney problems, and arteriosclerosis. On top of that, he was broke from losing the match. For our game this week, we are traveling to the early part of his career - before the World Championship, before the Ink War, and before the training with Anderseen - we are going to 1869. John William Schulten versus Johannes Zukertort. Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin. 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Bc4 d5 4. exd5 Qh4+ 5. Kf1 Bd6 6. D4 Ne7 7. Bb3 g5 8. c4 b6 9. Nf3 Qh5 10. Qe1 Bf5 11. Ne5 Nd7 12. Ba4 O-O-O 13. Nc6 Nxc6 14. dxc6 Nc5 15. Bd1 Bd3+ 16. Kg1 Rhe8 17. Qd2 Qh4 18. g3 fxg3 19. Kg2 Be4+ 20. Bf3 Bxf3+ 21. Kxf3 Qe4# 0-1https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1337018https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Zukertort http://cassidynoble.com/

Nowadays, we may see this gentleman as a commentator on large scale events such as the US Championship and the World Championship, but he has had a groundbreaking career including participating in the US Chess Championship and becoming the first Black chess Grandmaster. We are of course talking about -the Tiger Woods of Chess - Maurice Ashley. He joined the Black Bear School of Chess - a chess group of African American chess enthusiasts popular in the 1970s and 80s. This group produced some of the strongest Black Masters in history. In that same interview, Ashley said “This group was the most influential on my chess - they taught me how to fight to the bitter end and really study intensely. Not by formal lessons, but by just crushing me mercilessly. Truly the school of hard knocks.”In 1997, he backed off of coaching and commentating to focus on becoming a Grandmaster. He had an epiphany after seeing Tiger Woods clinch the 1997 Golf Masters and said: “I had been dreaming about being a grandmaster for over a decade, but life had seemed to be constantly pulling me in different directions,” Maurice writes on his website, “It was that Sunday in April watching Tiger realize his dream that convinced me that I needed to change my life and go chase mine.”.In 2003:He and Susan Polgar became US Chess Federation’s Grandmasters of the YearHe was the commentator on ESPN’s broadcast of Kasparov’s match against X3D Fritz (a match that ended in a 2-2 tie)He wrote an essay called - ‘The End of the Draw Offer?’ which raised questions about ways to avoid quick draws in chess tournaments. He argued that quick draws were detrimental to the game for the viewer, sponsorships, and players. He insisted on a 30 (or 40) move rule in tournaments. This essay helped inspire the rule changes at the US Championship and the New York Masters that are present todayHe also played in his first US Championship placing - scoring 39th out of 58. After this tournament, he announced he would be retiring from competitive chess instead pivoting to coaching and commentatingHe was the 57th person to be inducted into US Chess Hall of Fame. On his plaque, he is described as: “Not only was he the first African-American player to achieve the title of Grandmaster, but one of the greatest ambassadors and promoters the game has ever known”. Fast forwarding a little to 2024, Ashley released the book ‘Move by Move Life Lessons On and Off the Chess Board’. He also started the Maurice Ashley Foundation. An organization with the mission to help young people who do not typically have access to resources be able to grow - "Too often, kids with immense potential are overlooked simply because they don’t have access to the right environment or support. This fellowship is about giving those kids a chance to rise, to be seen, and to compete on the world stage." “When people asked me at the time, ‘How does it feel to become the first?’ I said, ‘You know, it is cool to be the first. But what excites me is that there is going to be a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and a 10th.’ Here we are 25 years later, I’m still the only one [in the US or in Jamaica]. For me, that is a challenge. That’s unacceptable.”1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. c4 c6 5. Nc3 Be6 6. cxd5 Bxd5 7. Nf3 Be7 8.  Bd3 Nf6 9. O-O O-O 10. Re1 Re8 11. Ne5 Nbd7 12. Nxd5 cxd5 13. Bg5 h6 14. Bh4  Nf8 15. Bb5 N6d7 16. Bg3 a6 17. Ba4 Rc8 18. Qh5 Nxe5 19. Rxe5 b5 20. Bb3 Bf6  21. Rxd5 Qa5 22. Qxf7+ Kh8 23. Re5 1-0https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2387718https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Ashleyhttp://cassidynoble.com/ 

This week, we are looking at a 5-time US Women’s Olympiad participant, a 2-time Women’s World Chess Championship participant, a 21-time US Women’s Championship participant, and a lover of all things penguins - Women’s Grandmaster Tatev Abrahamyan. Born in Armenia, Tatev learned to play chess at the age of 8 when her father took her to the Chess Olympiad of 1996 which took place in her home country. While there, she met Grandmaster Judit Polgar - who at the age of 18 was competing in the Open division of the Olympiad and was the only woman in the Top 10 in the world. Tatev had commented - “I was in complete awe. My first thought was, ‘I want to be just like her’” .The following year, she established her first FIDE rating of 2113. In 2001, her family moved from Armenia to the United States. It did not take long for her to start making waves in the United States. Her first tournament was the 37th Annual American Open. She finished with a score of 4.5 out of 8 but it was good enough for a provisional rating of 2266 which was above the threshold for United States National Master… from 1 tournament.  Two years later, she played in the US Junior Championship finishing in the middle of the pack of 10 players, but she was also the only female player in the tournament. In her second round of going to the Olympiad, Team USA placed 5th.That same year, she also picked up her Womens Grandmaster Title - which requires a FIDE rating above 2300 of at least 30 games and 2 norms. If that wasn’t enough, she also had her focus split between chess and studying as she earned a dual degree from California State University Long Beach for Psychology and Political Science.  2012, she was back to the US Women’s Championship in 6th and back to the Olympiad - this time Team USA finished in 10th place. Toward the end of the year, Abrahamyan played in her first Women’s World Chess Championship - a 64 player knockout tournament to see who would become the Women’s World Champion. She was seeded 51st and faced Alexandra Kostenuik the 14th seed where she lost and was eliminated ½ to 1 ½ .2013 - she finished 3rd in the US Women’s Championship. 2014 - she ended in a 3-way tie for first at the US Women’s Championship where Irina Krush ended up the winner after rapid playoff games. Again by finishing in the top 3, Tatev had punched her ticket to the 2015 World Women’s Championship. She also played in the Olympiad - this time Team USA finished in 8th. The next year, she finished 7th at the US Women’s Championship and entered the Women’s World Championship as the 53rd seed. Her round 1 opponent was Dronavalli Harika, the 12th seed. Tatev ended up 0-2 and was eliminated. 2016, she finished 2nd at the US Women’s Championship. To round out her participation at the US Women’s Championship: In 2017 she came in 8th. 2018 - 6th, 2019 - 3rd. 2020 - 5th. 2021 - 4th. 2022 - 5th. 2023 - 4th. 2024 - 9th.For today’s game, we are traveling to the United States Championship back in 2006. Tatev Abrahamyan versus Natasha Christansen. Now, if we’re ready… let’s begin1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Bc4 Qa5 8. O-O O-O 9. Nb3 Qd8 10. f4 d6 11. h3 Bd7 12. Qe2 Na5 13. Nxa5 Qxa5 14. Bb3 Bc6 15. Bf2 Rac8 16. Rad1 a6 17. Bh4 Rfe8 18. e5 Nd7 19. e6 fxe6 20. Bxe6+ Kh8 21. f5 Rc7 22. fxg6 hxg6 23. Rf5 Qxf5 24. Bxf5 gxf5 25. Qh5+ 1-0https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1399216https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatev_Abrahamyanhttps://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

Hello everyone, this week we are looking at the youngest Alberta champion, at one point the highest rated bullet player on Chess.com, the highest rated active Canadian player, and a founder of the Youtube and Twitch channel the “Chessbrahs” - Eric Hansen.A couple of years after he started playing chess, in 2003, he participated in the Alberta Provincial Under 12 Championship where he scored 1st with a score of 5 out of 6 and established his provisional Canadian rating at 1316. Quickly, his Canadian rating started to skyrocket. By the end of that year, his rating was 1400. By the end of 2004, it was 1800. In 2005, he reached 2050. In 2006, he played in the Under 14 Alberta Championship and the Alberta Junior Championship - going undefeated and winning both tournaments. Two years later with his Canadian rating above 2300, Eric won the Under 16 Alberta Championship, he finished 1st at the Alberta Championship, and he finished in a tie for 1st at the Alberta Open to become the youngest Alberta Champion in history at the age of 15. Once that tournament concluded, Hansen attended the University of Texas on a chess scholarship. It was also around this time that he started to use the name ‘Chessbrah’ as one of his usernames on various chess websites like the Internet Chess Club or ChessCube. He also started to do live broadcasts of him playing on a website called livestream which was shutdown in January 2025. Toward the end of the year, he played in the American Continental Championship in Argentina. More than 200 players participated with the top 4 qualifying for the 2013 FIDE World Cup. Hansen finished in a 5-way tie for first. Since there were only 4 spots available, the 5 winners had to play rapid tie-breaks to determine who advanced. Hansen finished in 4th to grab the final World Cup spot.To cap off the year, he also won the Canadian Chess Player of the Year.The next year, he found himself tying for first with Nigel Short at the Canadian Open. He also found himself back at the FIDE World Cup - this time, seeded 98th out of 128. Again, he was eliminated in the 1st round, this time to Vladimir Malakhov who was the 31st seed with a score of ½ to 1 ½ . In 2014, he returned to the Olympiad - this time on board 2 scoring 5 out of 9. 2015, saw Eric back at the top of the Canadian Closed - this time in a 3 way tie for first. As of writing this, Eric is still an active player. He is sitting atop the Canadian rating list of active players by over 100 points and he is rated 150th in the world. The Chessbrah Youtube channel has almost 350,000 subscribers, they’ve  amassed 170,000,000 channel views, and their Twitch account has 330,000 followers. For today’s game, we are going back just a couple of years to the World Blitz Championship of 2019 in Moscow. Eric Hansen versus Alexey Kim. Now, if we’re ready… let’s begin. 1. e4 e6 2. d4 b6 3. Bd3 Bb7 4. Nf3 g6 5. O-O Bg7 6. Re1 Ne7 7. a4 a6 8. Nbd2 O-O 9. c3 f5 10. b3 Qc8 11. Ba3 Re8 12. exf5 Nxf5 13. h4 Nc6 14. h5 Qd8 15. hxg6 hxg6 16. Ne4 Nce7 17. Qd2 Nd5 18. Ne5 Bxe5 19. dxe5 Qh4 20. g3 Qh3 21. Bf1 Qg4 22. Qxd5 Bxd5 23. Nf6+ Kf7 24. Nxg4 Rh8 25. Bg2 1-0https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1987346 Eric Hansen | Chess Celebrities - Chess.comhttps://www.youtube.com/chessbrah https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

This week, we are looking at the long career of the 10th World Champion, the youngest person to become Grandmaster in history (at the time), the youngest Candidate to the World Championship (at the time), and the famed opponent of the 1972 World Championship against Bobby Fischer - Boris Spassky. Spassky learned to play chess at the age of 5 on a train evacuating Leningrad during the Siege of Leningrad during WWII.At the age of 10, he earned widespread attention by defeating the Soviet champion Mikhail Botvinnik in a simul. During this time, he was studying several hours a day with different Masters including Vladimir Zak who coached other players like Viktor Korchnoi, Alexey Yermolinsky, Gata Kamsky, and others. That type of coaching helped as it allowed Spassky to earn the Candidate Master level at age 11, the Soviet Master rank at age 15 and take home 2nd at the Leningrad Championship.At the age of 16, Spassky branched out of the Soviet Union to play in his first international tournament in Romania. He tied for 4th, but in the tournament he defeated Vasily Smyslov who was 1 year away from playing Mikhail Botvinnik for the World Championship. At the FIDE Congress of 1953, he was awarded his International Master title. At the Candidates tournament of 1956, Spassky tied for 3rd with 4 other players. However, the next two world championship cycles were less kind to Boris.In the last round of the Riga tournament where a win would advance him to the Portoroz Interzonal tournament, Spassky missed his winning chance against Mikhail Tal and ended the game with a draw. In the qualifying tournament for the Interzonal in 1960, he lost his last round game to Leonid Stein. He also finished 10th out of 20 in the USSR Championship in 1960. However, he did make some waves by being the first high level player in 50 years to play and win with the King’s Gambit against David Bronstein. This game would later be used 3 years later as reference in the James Bond film ‘From Russia With Love’. During his chess struggles, he was also going through marital struggles with his then wife. They divorced in 1961 and he also broke off training with his coach Tolush whose coaching strategy featured a very strong attacking style. One bright spot was in 1960 at the Mar del Plata tournament where he finished in a tie for first place… with Bobby Fischer. During their first career meeting, Spassky defeated Fischer. Boris changed his coach to Igor Bondarevsky - known for a calmer strategy. After the change, Spassky won his first USSR Championship in 1961. He tied for 2nd in Havana in 1962, he tied for 1st at the 31st Soviet Final in 1963, and he won 1st at Belgrade in 1964. For today’s game, we are traveling 65 years in the past to the Mar del Plata tournament of 1960 - Carlos Incutto versus Boris Spassky. Now, if we’re ready, let’s begin. 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 f5 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. d3 fxe4 6. dxe4 Bb4 7. Qd3 d6 8. Bd2 Bxc3 9. Bxc3 Bd7 10. O-O-O Qe7 11. Qe3O-O 12. h3 Kh8 13. Bc4 a5 14. Kb1 Be6 15. Bxe6 Qxe6 16. Ng5Qg8 17. Qe2 Nd7 18. g3 Nc5 19. b3 h6 20. h4 a4 21. Nh3 axb3 22. cxb3 Nxb3 23. axb3 Qxb3+ 24. Qb2 Qc4 25. Qc2 Nb4 0-1https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1128479https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Spassky 

This week, we are looking (at the time) the youngest Women’s World Champion, a 13-time Olympiad Gold Medal Winner, the second Woman in history to be awarded the Grandmaster title, and a Women’s World Champion for 13 years - Maia Chiburdanidze. She was born in Kutaisi of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic of the USSR in 1961 where she learned to play chess at the age of 8. She played (and won) the 1974 at the Brasov women’s international tournament, when she was 13 years old.At the age of 15, she won the USSR Girls’ Championship of 1976. The next year, at the age of 16, she won the USSR Womens’ Championship with a score of 13 out of 17.Later that same year, she played in the Tbilisi Women’s Interzonal tournament. At the time, there were 2 interzonal tournaments - one in Roosendaal, Netherlands the other in Tbilisi, USSR. At each tournament, the top three finishers qualified for the Women's Candidates match. In 1986 - she won by the same score of 8 ½ to 5 ½ in 14 games to Elena Akhmilovskaya (again, of the Soviet Union). Winning the 1st, 5th, 7th, and 8th games, only losing in game 9. The January 1988 FIDE top 100 players - showed Maia’s peak rating as the 45th highest rated player in the world at 2560. Later that year, she defended her title once again against Nana Ioseliani (also of the Soviet Union). This was a close match where Chiburdanidze edged out an 8 ½ to 7 ½ victory. Maia had lost the 2nd to last game, reducing her lead to 1 point with 1 game to go.She tried to reclaim her title in 1993, but didn’t make it out of the Candidates tournament (placing 3rd). She reached the finals of the 1995 Candidates tournament, but lost to Susan Polgar. In 1997, she tried again, placing 4th in the Candidates tournament. The structure was changed to a 64 person knockout tournament in 2000. That year, she made it to Round 2 before being knocked out. In 2001 and 2004, she made it to the Semi Finals. 2006, she made it to the Quarterfinals. 2008, she lost in the 1st round. And in her last Candidates tournament in 2010, she was knocked out after the 2nd round. During her playing career, she was not only a World Champion and perpetual Candidate player, she also participated in a record breaking number of Chess Olympiads. At the 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th Women’s Olympiad, she was on Board 1 of the Soviet Union team winning gold every time. The 28th and 29th Olympiad, she finished in 2nd for the Soviet Union, earning silver. After the Soviet Union fell in 1991, Maia became the team lead of the newly formed Georgian Team. While at the helm, her team took home the gold at the 30th, 31st, 32nd, and 38th Olympiads. At the 33rd Olympiad, Georgia took home Bronze and at the 34th, they took home Silver. For this week, we are turning the clocks back 50 years to the USSR Women’s Championship of 1973, one of Maia’s first tournaments when she was only 12 years old. 1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.d4 cxd4 5.cxd4 d6 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Nc3 Nxc3 8.bxc3 dxe5 9.d5 e4 10.Ng5 Ne5 11.Nxe4 Qc7 12.Qd4 Bd7 13.Ba3 f6 14.d6 Qc6 15.dxe7 Bxe7 16.Bxe7 Kxe7  17.Qb4 Kf7 18.f4 Rhe8 19.fxe5 Rxe5 20.O-O-O Rxe4 21.Rxd7+ Ke8 22.Re7+ 1-0https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1429266https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maia_Chiburdanidze https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/ 

This week, we are taking a look at who CNN has called the “David Beckham of Chess” - the former World Rapid Champion, World Blitz Champion, World Chess960 Champion, former 2nd highest rating in the world, and 5-time Candidate for the World Championship - Levon Aronian.In 2004, he played in his first FIDE World Chess Championship - a 128 player knockout tournament. The winner of the tournament became the FIDE World Champion. Levon - age 22 (the 34th seed), met Magnus Carlsen - age 13 (the 95th seed) in the first round where Aronian won 2 ½ to 1 ½ . He advanced to the 3rd round before being eliminated by Pavel Smirnov. He also earned Bronze for Armenia in the Olympiad.In 2005, Aronian cracked the top 10 players in the world by rating. He won the Gibtelecom Masters tournament, the Karabakh tournament, and in the Russian Team Championship he had a performance rating of 2850, and in the Chess World Cup - the 128 player knockout tournament - he was seeded 3rd and ended up winning the event earning him a spot in his first Candidates tournament.Levon also won the Finet Chess960 tournament again - requalifying him for the Chess960 World Championship rematch against Peter Svidler. This time, he won 5-3 to become the Chess960 World Champion. In 2006, after a win at the Linares and Tal Memorial tournaments, Levon was the number 3 rated player in the world behind Topalov and Anand. He also assisted in earning the gold medal for Armenia in the 37th Chess Olympiad. In 2008 and 2009, Aronian played in the FIDE Grand Prix, a series of tournaments over 2 years where the players needed to accumulate points from different tournaments in order to qualify for the next Candidates tournament. He won the 2008 August tournament, the 2009 April tournament, and tied for second at the 2009 August (the average rating of all 3 tournaments was 2700+). He scored well enough to win the Grand Prix qualifying him for the 2012 Candidates Tournament. Again, there are so many accomplishments that Aronian has done in his career. Check out his Wikipedia page for a full list since I can't fit the entire script in this description :) This week, we are turning the clocks back to 1994 to the Under 12 European Championship.  Levon Aronian versus Peter de Bortoli. Now, if we’re ready, let’s begin. —--------------Though he has not won the Classical Chess World Championship, Levon has shown to be arguably one of the most under rated top players we’ve seen in recent memory. He has been the Rapid World Champion, Blitz World Champion, and Chess960 World Champion. For almost 30 years, the name Levon Aronian has been synonymous with elite level chess playing. That is all we have for this week, tune in next time where we will continue to work on our skills and look at another game of the Masters! —----------------------1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Bg5 Bf5 4.f3 e6 5.e4 dxe4 6.fxe4 Bb4 7.exf5 O-O 8.Nf3 exf5 9.Be2 h6 10.Bxf6 Qxf6 11.O-O Bxc3 12.bxc3 Nd7 13.Rb1 b6 14.Bd3 f4 15.Qd2 g5 16.Rbe1 Qg7 17.h4 g4 18.Qxf4 gxf3 19.Rxf3 Kh8 20.Rg3 Qf6 21.Qe4 1-0https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1397179 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levon_Aronian https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/ 

In Season 1, we looked at one of the Polgar sisters - Susan. Today, we are looking at the youngest sister - Judit Polgar. Prepare yourself for a large list of records and milestones.Judit was born in 1976 in Hungary as the youngest of her two other siblings - Susan and Sofia. They grew up as part of an educational experiment carried out by their dad - Laszlo Polgar - with the hypothesis of - “Geniuses are made, not born”. The philosophy was to have the children focus on a specialized skill - chess - a game historically dominated by men - to show that anyone could prove excellence in any skill if they put the work in for it from a young age. In 1986 at the age of 10, Judit defeated her first International Master. In 1987, she defeated her first Grandmaster. Throughout their career, the sisters ran into sexism and bureaucracy problems when competing in “Men’s” events. The oldest sibling needed to earn 11 norms before receiving her Grandmaster title when the typical threshold was 3. In the published ratings of January 1989, Judit (age 12) was rated 2555 - number 55 on the World list and 35 points ahead of the Women’s World Champion Maia Chiburdandize. This is the start of her reign at the top of Women’s rating leaderboard.  British Chess Magazine commented “Judit Polgar’s results make the performances of Fischer and Kasparov at a similar age pale by comparison”, GM Nigel Short remarked - “one of the three or four greatest chess prodigies in history”. GM David Norwood described Judit as: “this cute little auburn-haired monster who crushed you.” In 1991, Judit shattered several records by achieving her Grandmaster title after winning the Hungarian National Championship. At the age of 15 years and 4 months - she beat Fischer’s record by a month (a record that stood for 33 years). She was the 4th woman to become a Grandmaster behind - Gaprindashvili, Chiburdanidze, and her older sister Susan Polgar. Judit beat Susan’s record of being the youngest woman grandmaster by 7 years. There are so many accomplishments for her, I can't get all of them from the script into this description. Check out the Wikipedia page for more info! During her career, she never competed for the Women’s World Championship, but she is the only woman to have won 11 games against reining world number 1, current, or former World Champions including - Carlsen, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, Spassky, Smyslov, Topalov, Anand, Ponomariov, Khalifman, Kasimdzhanov. This week, we are traveling back to the Olympiad of 2002, where Team Hungary lost 1 game out of the 56 played. Judit Polgar versus Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.Now, if we’re ready, let’s begin. —-----------------------Youngest GM, first woman in top 10, first woman to break 2700, first woman to play in the Candidates tournament, and the top ranked female player for 25 years - if anyone has any doubt of Judit’s skills, her Wikipedia article has 15 citations for “strongest female chess player of all time”. 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6 9. Nbd2 Nc5 10. c3 d4 11. Ng5 Bd5 12. Nxf7 Kxf7 13. Qf3+ Ke6 14. Qg4+ Kf7 15. Qf5+ Ke7 16. e6 Bxe6 17. Re1 Qd6 18. Bxe6 Nxe6 19. Ne4 Qe5 20. Bg5+ Kd7 21. Nc5+ Bxc5 22. Qf7+ Kd6 23. Be7+ Kd5 1-0https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judit_Polg%C3%A1rhttps://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1256017 https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/ 

Hello everyone, welcome back to the third season of the Blindfold Chess Podcast. This week, we will be looking at a name synonymous with the chess community - Howard Staunton. If you have been around the game for any length of time, you may have heard of him as an unofficial World Champion in the mid-1800s, or you’ve heard of his opening - the Staunton Gambit of 1. d4 f5 2. e4, or you’ve heard of the House of Staunton chess sets/ company that has been recognized as the recommended chess set of use by FIDE since 2022, but he has more contributions than that to our game. Born in 1810 in London, Staunton did not become seriously interested in chess until 1836 when he was 26 years old. He started to play games against Captain Evans - the inventor of the Evans Gambit. In 1838, he lost a match to Aaron Alexandre - a German Chess Writer.In 1840, Staunton became the editor of the chess column of the New Court Gazette, then that was spun off into the Chess Player’s Chronicle - which Staunton owned and edited until the 1850’s. In 1843 - 5 years after starting to seriously get into the game - Staunton reached a new high. He challenged the French player Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant, the presumed strongest player in the world, to a match. Staunton lost that match 2.5 - 3.5. Later in the year, Staunton requested a rematch in Paris against Saint-Amant for a stake of £100 (a little over £12,000 today, or about $16,000). During that match, Staunton pioneered the playing of 1.c4 - that new opening that was later named the ‘English Opening’ after this match. Staunton gained a 7-game lead but faltered before eventually winning the match 13-8 (11 wins, 4 draws, and 6 losses) at the end of 1843. His winning of this match awarded him the title of the Unofficial World Champion.Saint-Amant wanted a 3rd match, but Staunton declined citing he’d developed heart palpitations during the 2nd match (which some reported was why he faulted). Eventually a 3rd match was agreed upon at the end of 1844, but Staunton caught pneumonia and almost died. The match was later canceled.Later that year, Staunton and Captain Kennedy played a game via telegraph in Gosport, England against a team of 3 players in London losing 0.5 - 2. The Staunton style is recognized by the tallest piece being the king with a cross over the head, a coronet on the queen, the rooks have battlements on the top, knights have a sculpted head of a horse - modeled after the horses in the Elgin Marbles), and pawns have a small ball on the head and are the smallest pieces. The human-like characters - like bishops, pawns, kings, and queens - there is a flat disk toward the top that separates the body from the head known as a collar. Having such a prolific writing career, having the official chess set named after you, having the 4th most popular opening named after you, organizing the first international chess tournament, and being the unofficial World Champion for almost a decade - it is no wonder Staunton’s name is etched into the wall of chess history. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4 Bc5 5.c3 d3 6.b4 Bb6 7.b5 Qe7 8.O-O Nd8 9.e5 Ne6 10.a4 Bc5 11.Nbd2 Nh6 12.Ne4 Nf5 13.Qxd3 d6 14.Re1 O-O 15.exd6 Bxd6 16.Nxd6 Nxd6 17.Ng5 g6 18.Bxe6 Bxe6 19.Qe3 Rfe8 20.Ba3 Qf6 21.Bxd6 cxd6 22.Ne4 Qe7 23.Qd4 Red8 24.Nf6+ Kf8 25.Nd5 1-0https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1055861https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Staunton https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/ 

Hi there, its me Cassidy, I’ve been the writer and voice of this podcast for a couple of years now. I have enjoyed doing the podcast, but life is starting to creep up so this will be my last episode before taking a hiatus. I appreciate each and every one of you who download and listen to me. The listenership has been so far beyond what I could imagine for. I was hoping to hold off on making an episode until I hit Master level myself, but that isn’t happening any time soon - in fact, I haven’t played in a tournament in over a year at this point and the thought of playing in one is quite a daunting effort. A bit about me: my mum taught me to play when I was in kindergarten. I didn’t really take much of an interest in it until I reached high school. I joined my local high school club and began playing in tournaments. My initial rating was 595. I found a lot of friends including my first coach - NM Tim McEntee - a 5 time Iowa state champion. It was also around this time that I started playing blindfold chess. In trigonometry class, a friend of mine started playing chess on a keychain chess board that I’d brought. We piled our books around the board to hide it and played during class… until we were caught. We put the board away and started passing a note back and forth with notations on it, and we kept doing that for the rest of the year.I finished high school and college with my rating in the mid 1600’s. After college, I joined a local university’s club that had great chemistry. A group of us would travel to local tournaments in various states. I made a challenge to jump from the 1600’s to 2000 in one year - I was studying 4-6 hours a day, I won my first Classical game against a Master, and finished close to my goal! By the end of the year I made it to 1975 and qualified for the Iowa State Championship in 2018. With months of prep, training, and studying - I finished dead last - half a point in 5 rounds. That was good learning, but brutal for confidence. It was about this point that I started to doubt just about everything I knew about the game, the tricks I could get away with at lower ratings didn’t work, the base level of knowledge I had in openings and middle games showed major cracks - it felt like I had to tear down everything I knew. I got a new coach who focused on overhauling my openings, and I started putting so much pressure on myself to perform. My rating fell back into the 1800’s until I started to get my footing. I fought my way back up including jumping 60 rating points at the Minnesota Open to qualify for the 2022 U2200 Minnesota State Championship. At the state championship, I performed well - scoring 3.5 / 5, a tie for first, and my rating crossed the 2000 barrier! Since then, I’ve reached a peak of 2031 before falling back into the 1900’s. That is where we are now. I’m going to take a break - I’m trying to re-love the game, trying to re-learn who I am, and discover what is out there. In today’s game - I want to go back to a blitz game I played back in 2019 that has always been one of my favorites. Cassidy Noble versus Jimmy Fuller from chess.com Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin. 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 a6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Nf3 Bb4 7. Bd3 d6 8. O-O O-O 9. Nd5 Nxd5 10. exd5 f5 11. Bc4 Kh8 12. Bg5 Qe8 13. c3 Ba5 14. Re1 Qg6 15. Be7 Re8 16. Rxe5 dxe5 17. Nxe5 Qb6 18. Nf7+ Kg8 19. d6 h6 20. Ng5+ Kh8 21. Qh5 Bd7 22. Qxh6+ gxh6 23. Bf6# 1-0 https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/3374579633 http://cassidynoble.com/

This week, I wanted to look at a relatively new branch of chess - chess computers. The first ‘chess machine’ built in 1770 was called the Mechanical Turk. The supposed machine would play challengers with various indications that it was a functional machine. In reality, a human operated the machine using ‘The Turk’ as a sophisticated marionette. You have to jump almost 150 years in the future for the first verified chess computer. El Ajedrecista (ah-he-dre-sis-ta) in 1912 was capable of playing Rook and King versus King endgames - winning every time as well as identifying illegal moves.The 1950’s started the boom of chess computing, morphing machines into what we see today. In 1951, Turochamp was invented by Alan Turing and David Champernowne. The two of them helped create the first chess playing algorithm. Turochamp had a built in value of pieces - a pawn (being 1), a queen (being 10) - and it could see/understand undefended pieces, captures/recaptures, piece mobility, and other factors. It would calculate which move it could do to have the best internal score, then compare that to what would be the lowest opponent response. It would aggregate all those moves together to determine what move to do. This is the minimax algorithm in action. The computer was not strong enough as a computer to complete the algorithm in its entirety so it needed to be manually executed after each move. Fast forward to today, in 2024, the currently highest rated computer is Stockfish with an estimated rating of 3632 as of February 2024. For reference - the highest rated human player is 2882. It is incredible to see computers continue to climb. We no longer have an ego in the discussion of who is stronger - humans or engines. We use engines every day for learning, analysis, and personal improvement. Engines also act as a great tool to help teach people outside of the chess world on how to read a position without knowledge of the game itself. Engines have helped elevate the game far beyond what humans could have and we still have so much more to learn. After that crash course through history, that is all that we have for this week. Tune in next week where we will look at another chess game to continue to work on our blindfold skills. (Deep Thought versus David Bronstein - 1992) https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1079163 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 g5 4. h4 g4 5. Ne5 Be7 6. Qxg4 d6 7. Qg7 dxe5 8. Qxh8 Bxh4+ 9. Kd1 Bg4+ 10. Be2 Bxe2+ 11. Kxe2 Qg5 12. Kf1 f3 13. gxf3 Qg3 14. Rxh4 Qxf3+ 15. Ke1 Qg3+ 16. Ke2 Nc6 17. c3 Qxh4 18. Qxg8+ Kd7 19. Qxa8 Qg4+ 20. Kd3 f5 21. Kc2 1-0(Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov - 1997)https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070917 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Ng5 Ngf6 6.Bd3 e6 7.N1f3 h6 8.Nxe6 Qe7 9.O-O fxe6 10.Bg6+ Kd8 11.Bf4 b5 12.a4 Bb7 13.Re1 Nd5 14.Bg3 Kc8 15.axb5 cxb5 16.Qd3 Bc6 17.Bf5 exf5 18.Rxe7 Bxe7 19.c4 1-0https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue_(chess_computer)https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/https://www.chess.com/article/view/computers-and-chess---a-history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_chess_engines

This week, we are looking at the opera writer and musician who documented chess books and endgames so well we are still using them today. Francois-Andre Danican (Dan-ee-con) Philidor came from a well known musical family. His grandfather was given nickname of Philidor by King Louis XIII of France because his oboe playing reminded him of the Italian oboist Filidor. When he was 6, Philidor joined the royal choir of King Louis XV of France in 1732. The story goes that Louis XV wanted to listen to the choir every day, so while waiting for the king, the kids would play chess to relieve their boredom. Philidor performed his first work directly for the king at the age of 11. When he was 14, his voice changed and he had to leave the royal choir. This started a life of excelling at a music career and chess profession at the same time. In the 1740’s - He worked in Paris as a performer, teacher, and music copyist.On the side, he played at the Cafe de la Regence where he played chess against a friends - Benjamin Franklin, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Francois Voltaire among others. In 1749, he wrote Analyse du je des Echecs, the book was so popular that by 1871 (almost 125 years later), it had 70 different editions translated into 5 languages. This book featured the now famous - Philidor Position - a staple of rook endgame studies still used today.In the mid 1750’s; For music, Philidor began to focus on writing musical scores. For chess, he played and won a match against his old coach and formerly strongest player in France - Legal de Kermeur (Ka-moor) (Legal is who the Legal’s mate is named after) - after the match, many people began to say Philidor was the strongest player in the world for the next almost 50 years. Side note: they did not have a formal World Championship cycle for another 80 years.In the 1760s; he wrote 3 of his most successful musical works - Le sorcier, Tom Jones, and Ernelinde, Princess of Norway. Philidor married his wife and later had 7 children with her. In the 1770s; the Freemasons’ Hall in London hosted Philidor’s first performance of Carmen Saeculaire. Chess was not considered a profession during this era. Philidor received payment from London chess clubs for his residency/lessons from February to June every year.On May 9th, 1783 he played 3 blindfold chess games at once. Philidor had the players sign affidavits as he thought future generations wouldn’t believe this feat was possible. In 1792, he was forced to leave France due to the French Revolution because his name was on the Revolutionary banishment list due to his family’s attachment to the King’s family service.During an era of sacrificing pawns, Philidor used pawns to solidify a position (control squares or form pawn chains) and avoid having weaknesses with them (backward or isolated) - these ideas became mainstream in the 1920’s (200+ years ahead of his era) drawing controversy from his peers. His quote of - “Les pions sont de l'âme du jeu” (pawns are the soul of the game) is referenced for middle game strategy today. This week, we are looking at an odds game - Francois-Andre Danican (Dan-ee-con) Philidor versus Cotter from 1789. In this game, white does not have a rook on a1.1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. Nf3 exf4 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. Nc3 Qe6+ 6. Kf2 Be7 7. d4 Nf6 8. Bxf4 Ne4+ 9. Nxe4 Qxe4 10. Bxc7 Nc6 11. Bd3 Qe6 12. Re1 Qxa2 13. Bb5 Bd7 14. d5 Qxb2 15. dxc6 bxc6 16. Bxc6 Bxc6 17. Rxe7+ Kxe7 18. Qd6+ Ke8 19. Qxc6+ Ke7 20. Bd6+ Kd8 21. Qc7+ Ke8 22. Qe7# 1-0https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1580864https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois-Andr%C3%A9_Danican_Philidorhttps://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

This week, we are looking at one of the most influential names in chess - Yasser Sierawan. Yasser was born in Damascus, Syria to his Syrian father and English mother. At the age of 7, his family immigrated to Seattle, Washington.He didn’t start playing chess until the age of 12 - this was in 1972, right in the thick of the Fischer Boom that was happening in the United States. The next year, at the age of 13, he became the Washington Junior Champion.In 1975, he participated in his first US Open where he defeated his first Grandmaster - Arthur Bisguier. At the age of 19, he played in (and won) the World Junior Championship. At a separate event, he played (and won) a game against former World Championship Challenger - Viktor Korchnoi. Korchnoi was impressed with Sierewan’s play and invited Yasser to train in Switzerland for the 1981 World Championship match between Karpov and Korchnoi. Yasser shares an interesting story about this where he was offered to sleep in Korchnoi’s master bedroom and Korchnoi would take the guest room. At the time, Korchnoi had just defected from the USSR so if there was an assassination attempt, they would shoot at the person in the master bedroom. I’ve left Yasser’s story in the show notes. In 1981, Yasser won his first US Championship in a 2 way tie as well as earned his Grandmaster title.  Two years later, 1982, Yasser played Anatoly Karpov and defeated him. In a span of 10 years, Yasser went from no chess experience to defeating a reigning world champion.He received his first taste of the Candidates tournament in 1985 scoring in the middle of the pack and he won his first US Open. The following year, he won his second US Championship - this time in sole ownership. In 1988, he was in the Candidates again, eliminated in the first round, in 1989 he won the US Championship again. 1990, Yasser reached his peak world ranking list by placing 10th in the world. He won the US Open again. He was also invited to do the commentary for the World Championship between Kasparov and Karpov. Later in the year, he played in his final Candidates tournament - being eliminated in the round robin portion. Around this point, there was a schism in the chess world between FIDE and the newly created Professional Chess Association. Starting in 1993, there were 2 simultaneous World ChampionsIn 2000, he returned to his winning ways by winning his 4th and final US Chess Championship. In 2001, Yasser released a plan called “Fresh Start” to join the chess world back together. The plan was signed by all parties in 2002 called the “Prague Agreement”. Eventually in 2006, the world championship title was reunited. The next year, Yasser was awarded the Chess Journalist of the Year award, and in 2006 he was entered in the Chess Hall of Fame. Today, you can see him as a commentator and a streamer appearing at the St Louis Chess Club, Chessbrahs, and others - teaching, sharing stories, and talking about games. This week, we are going to 1990 - Yasser Seirawan versus Boris Spassky.1. d4 b5 2. e4 Bb7 3. Bd3 e6 4. Nf3 a6 5. O-O d6 6. c3 Nd7 7. a4 Ngf6 8. Re1 Be7 9. axb5 axb5 10. Rxa8 Qxa8 11. e5 dxe5 12. dxe5 Nd5 13. Bxb5 Bc6 14. Bxc6 Qxc6 15. Nd4 Qb7 16. Qg4 g6 17. Nd2 c5 18. N4f3 h5 19. Qe4 Qc7 20. Nc4 h4 21. Bg5 Bxg5 22. Nxg5 Rh5 23. Nxe6 1-0https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1129587 https://worldchesshof.org/hof-inductee/yasser-seirawan#https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/ Assassination Story - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiexLWApQC8 

This week, we are looking at the Indian prodigy - Dommaraju Gukesh commonly known as Gukesh D.Born in 2006, Gukesh D learned how to play chess at the age of 7. Two years after he started to play chess, he won the Under 9 Asian School Championships in 2015 with a 1770 rating. He did not stop there, with his rating rapidly climbing - his father gave up his career as an ear, nose, throat surgeon to support his son while his mum continued to be a microbiologist. In March of 2018, Gukesh fulfilled the requirements for his International Master title at the age of 11. Later in the year, he participated in the World Youth Championships for the Under 12 division. At the event, he won 5 gold medals - one in each the: team rapid, team blitz, individual class, individual rapid, and individual blitz categories. He had a chance to become the youngest GM in history in December 2018, but he drew a must win game, falling short of his final GM norm by ½ of a point at the Sunway Sitges Chess Festival. In an interview with ESPN, Gukesh said - “I was disappointed for 2 days. Then I moved on”. The following year, in 2019, he became (at the time) the 2nd youngest player to ever earn his Grandmaster title at the age of -  12 years, 7 months, 17 days. He missed Sergey Karjakin’s record by 17 days. From getting his first International Master norm to his final Grandmaster norm, Gukesh played in over 30 tournaments over 16 months covering 276 games in 13 countries. Over a span of 5.5 years, he went from a rating of 1300 to 2500. In 2021, he earned gold on Board one at the Chess Olympiad with a 2867 performance rating. Last year was a very busy year for Gukesh, he surpassed Vishiwanathan Anand as the top ranked Indian player. The first time in 37 years that Anand was not the top ranked Indian player. He finished 2nd in the FIDE World Cup earning a spot in the 2024 Candidates tournament. He was the youngest to cross the 2750 rating barrier. Gukesh is still in school! He attends (Vel-a-mal Vid-e-a-lee-ya) (Mel Aye-an-a-back-um)  Velammal Vidyalaya , Mel Ayanambakkam  in Chennai. He attends the same school as Praggnanandhaa. In September of 2023, they both received 20 lakh from their school for their chess accomplishments.  20 lakh is approximately $24,000 USD or 22,000 Euros. So far in 2024, Gukesh finished in a 4 way tie for 1st in 2024 Tata Steel Chess Tournament. There doesn’t seem to be a ceiling for Gukesh’s accomplishments. Time will only tell what he will be able to do in the future. This week, we are going to the Tata Steel India tournament from last year - Dommaraju Gukesh versus Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin. 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Nbd7 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bf4 Bb4 7. e3 Ne4 8. Qc2 g5 9. Bg3 Nb6 10. Bd3 Bf5 11. Nd2 Qe7 12. a3 Bxc3 13. bxc3 h5 14.Bxe4 dxe4 15. h4 O-O-O 16. c4 Bg6 17. a4 Rxd4 18. a5 Rhd8 19. axb6 Rxd2 20. bxa7 Rxc2 21. a8=Q+ Kd7 22. Qa4+ Ke6 23. Qxc2 Qb4+ 24. Ke2 1-0https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2569140https://www.chess.com/players/gukesh-dommaraju https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/ https://sportstar.thehindu.com/chess/praggnanandhaa-gukesh-felicitated-school-velammal-nexus-cash-prize-anand-udhayanidhi-stalin-india-chess-news/article67296473.ece 

With a birthday less than a week ago, this week, we are looking at Spanish-Swedish star Anna Cramling. Anna has a very strong chess background - her father is Grandmaster Juan Manuel Bellon Lopez - the 5 time Spanish Chess Champion and 11 time Spanish Olympiad player. Her mother is - Pia Cramling - the 5th woman to ever to have earned her Grandmaster title, the number 1 woman player in the world in 1984, and she has 9 gold medals between the European Club Cup and Women’s Chess Olympiad. Anna started playing chess at the age of 3 and regularly accompanied her parents to tournaments due to not having a babysitter. In an interview with Chessbase, her mother commented: “sometimes, e.g. at Olympiads or similar tournaments, we could find someone to help us and you could see an arbiter carrying Anna around!... When she was already a bit older – she’d sit on my legs while I played or next to me sleeping in the trolley. She was a very quiet and calm child and very easy to take with us, so she was almost all the time traveling with her father and me to tournaments.”Anna earned her first FIDE rating of 1519 at the age of 10.Two years later, she gained 300 rating points over 4 tournaments in 2 months.At the age of 14, she broke the 2000 rating barrier. She also participated in her first Olympiad for Sweden. By doing so, she became the youngest female to ever participate in the Olympiad for Sweden - beating the record previously set by her mother. Her mum was also on the 2016 team on board 1 (earning a Bronze medal) and Anna’s father was the team captain. The team finished 23rd out of 140.2018 was a busy year for Anna. She reached her peak rating of 2175, earning her her Women’s FIDE Master title. She participated in U20 world junior championships finishing 54th out of 98, she also participated in the U16 World Youth Championships finishing 59th out of 90.During the pandemic, Anna backed off of playing in tournaments and instead focused on her streaming career. She commentated with her mother on the 2020 Women’s World Championships, she signed with the Panda esports team becoming the first chess streamer and first Swedish chess player to sign with an esports organization, in 2023 and 2024 she was nominated for the Streamer Awards, and presently - she has more than 360,000 Twitch followers. Over 890,000 Subscribers on Youtube, and almost 400,000 followers on Instagram.Anna has done a wonderful job promoting chess and bringing more women into the chess community.This week, we are going to the Xtracon Open from 2019. Anna Cramling versus Tobias Lindgaard. Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin. 1. d4 Nc6 2. Nf3 d6 3. e4 g6 4. d5 Nb8 5. c4 Bg7 6. Nc3 Nf6 7. Be2 Nbd7 8. Be3 c5 9. dxc6 bxc6 10. O-O O-O 11. h3 Qc7 12. Rc1 Qb8 13. Qc2 e5 14. Rfd1 Rd8 15. c5 Nf8 16. Nxe5 Bb7 17. cxd6 Rxd6 18. Rxd6 Qxd6 19. Nxf7 Kxf7 20. Qb3+ Ne6 21. Qxb7+ Nc7 22. Nb5 1-0 https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1969070 https://en.chessbase.com/post/a-strong-duo-an-interview-with-pia-and-anna-cramling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Cramling https://www.youtube.com/@AnnaCramling https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/ http://cassidynoble.com/ 

Passing away in late 2023, International Master Jeremy Silman made a lasting impact on our game through his playing, his consulting, his writing, and his coaching. Born in 1954, Silman didn’t start playing chess until he was 12 where he went to his first tournament, ending with a rating of 1068. In high school, Silman expressed to his guidance counselor that he wanted to go to “Moscow University” to study chess from the best players of the Soviet Union. Considering this was in the middle of the Cold War, this was not really an option. Instead, he joined the Army but he lasted less than 3 months before being discharged and going to San Francisco in 1973. Two years later at the age of 20, earned his Master title. The next couple of years, his US Chess Rating began to grow. 2400 in 1980. 2500 in 1981 where he tied for first at the US Open. He hit his peak US Chess rating of 2556 in 1982. He met his future wife in 1988 and after 2 months of dating asked her to marry him. In an interview with the New York Times, Ms Feldman said she was unsure because the life of a chess player can be unstable, so she said she would marry him only if he fulfilled the requirements to become an International Master. Later in the year, he earned his final IM norm - shortly thereafter he and his wife got married. In 1990, he was the winner of the National Open. Two years later, he was the winner of the American Open. Silman reached his peak rating in 1995 when he reached a 2420 rating. He never had an interest in trying to achieve his Grandmaster title. His last tournament was in 1999, but by that point, he’d started to phase himself out of tournaments instead focusing on his writing and his coaching.He was a coach of the US Junior National Team as well as a columnist for Chess Life, New In Chess, and Chess.com. According to Chess.com, he wrote 481 articles for the website.Silman went on to write a total of 39 books selling over 600,000 copies including - Reassess Your Chess, Silman’s Complete Endgame Manual, The Amateur’s Mind, and The Complete Book of Chess Strategy. His success was predominantly in the United States, but his book has now been translated into French and German. Not only that, but he was also a chess consultant on high profile shows like - Criminal Minds, Arliss, Monk, Malcolm in the Middle, and Harry Potter (though he is uncredited for his puzzle in the Harry Potter movie).Unfortunately, Silman passed away in September of 2023 at the age of 69 from a form of dementia. Through his works and education, Jeremy Silman helped influence hundreds of thousands of chess players.  Reassess Your Chess was given to me as one of my first chess books I’ve read and Silman’s Complete Endgame Course was one of the first endgame books I enjoyed. In today’s game we are going back to 1991 to the Reno Open. Jeremy Silman versus James MacFarland. Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Nf3 Be7 5.Bg2 O-O 6.Nbd2 Nbd7 7.O-O c6 8.Qc2 b6 9.e4 dxe4 10.Nxe4 Bb7 11.Bf4 Nxe4 12.Qxe4 Nf6 13.Qe2 Bd6 14.Ne5 Bxe5 15.dxe5 Nd7 16.Rfd1 Qe7 17.Rd6 Rac8 18.Rad1 Nb8 19.Qg4 Kh8 20.Bg5 Qc7 21.Be4 c5 22.Bxb7 Qxb7 23.Bf6 1-0https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1124892https://www.chess.com/news/view/jeremy-silman-1954-2023https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/26/books/jeremy-silman-dead.html http://cassidynoble.com/ 

Fabiano Luigi Caruana, the chess phenom who was the youngest American to earn his Grandmaster title, the youngest to win the Italian Champion, the current top US player, and the number 2 player in the world… - his accomplishments go on for a while, but currently - he is playing in his 5th Candidates tournament aiming for the World Championship. Born in Florida in 1992 to his Italian parents, he moved to Brooklyn when he was 4. He played in an after school chess program when he was 5 when his chess talents were discovered. Later that year he played in his first tournament. In 2008, he won the Corus C tournament (the Tata Steel tournament) and won the Italian Championship again. In 2009, he won the Corus B tournament - becoming the first player to win back to back Corus C and Corus B tournaments.In 2010 and 2011, he won back to back Italian Chess Championships.However - the 2014 Sinquefield Cup was different. The tournament consisted of 6 players - the number 1,2,3,5,8, and 9 players in the world. Caruana had the performance of his life winning the first 7 games, then drawing 3, and having 0 losses earning him a performance rating of 3098. The highest performance rating in a single tournament ever. Later that year, he earned his peak FIDE rating of 2844 - the third highest rating in history. The following year, Caruana moved back to the United States from Italy and began to play under the American flag - in doing so - he became the highest rated American player (a title he has not relinquished since he moved).In 2016, he participated in his first Candidates tournament - finishing in a tie for 2nd. A month later, he was playing in his first US Championship. He finished a full point ahead of Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura to become the US Champion. The next year, he landed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list under the ‘Games’ category - becoming the first chess player to make the list. 2018 was also a big year for Fabiano. In March, he played in his 2nd Candidates tournament where he won and advanced to play Magnus Carlsen for the championship. He was the first American world championship challenger since Fischer in 1972. The match against Carlsen was close, what else do you expect when the world number 1 and 2 play a match? The first game was 115 moves. Game 6 - Fabi had a “chance” to win with a ‘forced mate in 30’ on move 67, but they drew. Carlsen had a chance in Game 12, but offered a draw. All 12 games they played ended in draws. Carlsen’s strategy was to beat Fabi in the rapid tie breaks - and that he did, winning all 3 and keeping his title. Since then, Fabiano has kept busy. He qualified again for the Candidates in 2020 and 2022. He won his 2nd and 3rd US Championships in 2022 and 2023, and how, he is playing in his 5th Candidates tournament to try to dethrone Ding Liren as the current World Champion. In today’s game, we are going back to the World Blitz Championship of 2010.Fabiano Caruana v Boris GelfandNow, if we’re ready - let’s begin.1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 d6 3. f4 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bc4 Nc6 6. O-O Nf6 7. d3 O-O 8. f5 gxf5 9. Qe1 fxe4 10. dxe4 Be6 11. Nd5 Ne5 12. Nxe5 dxe5 13. Bg5 Bxd5 14. exd5 Qd6 15. Qh4 Nxd5 16. Rad1 e6 17. Rf6 Qc7 18. Bxd5 exd5 19. Rd3 Rfd8 20. Bh6 Bxh6 21. Qxh6 e4 22. Rg3+ 1-0https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1599806https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabiano_Caruanahttps://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/http://cassidynoble.com/

Welcome back to another episode! In today’s episode,  I will be providing you with the locations of the different pieces on the board. It is your job to figure out the solution by pausing the podcast before moving on. Today, we will be looking at 3 puzzles each around a different endgame theme starting from Easy and working our way to Hard. Here is your first puzzle - White has a king on e5 and a pawn on c5. Black has a King on d8 with white to move. Again, that is White has a king on e5 and a pawn on c5. Black has a King on d8 with white to move.Please pause and find the solution before moving on. Solution coming in 5 seconds. —- -— This puzzle looks at the concept of opposition. When the white king steps to d6, it forces black to protect the queening square by stepping to c8. White follows up with King to c6. If they could, they would ‘pass’, but black is forced to give up ground and white will procure the queening square by stepping to either b7 or d7. Time to move on to the next puzzle, this one is a little tougher. White has a King on c4, a rook on f7, and a rook on h6. Black has a king on e8 and a Queen on a5 with white to move. Again, that is a King on c4, a rook on f7, and a rook on h6. Black has a king on e8 and a Queen on a5 with white to move. Please pause and find the solution before moving on. Solution coming in 5 seconds. —- — This one is quite incredible. Even with so few pieces on the board, white is able to sacrifice their rook since the black queen is trapped. Rook to a7 attacks the queen, a queen that has no square to go to without being captured or allowing quite to access the ladder mate by playing Rook to h8 checkmate. Black gives up the queen and allows white to check the king and force it on the same rank as the queen. Then white will win the Rook versus King ending. Onto the last puzzle! This one is a little tricky, we’ll be looking at a couple variations. White has a king on h8 and a pawn on c6. Black as a king on a6 and a pawn on h5.Again, White has a king on h8 and a pawn on c6. Black as a king on a6 and a pawn on h5.Please pause and find the solution before moving on. Solution coming in 5 seconds. —- - — This puzzle is Richard Reti's Famous Endgame Puzzle originally published in 1921. Black has a passed pawn that ‘can’t’ be captured by the white king while white’s passed pawn is firmly under black’s control. White needs to utilize the idea of ‘multi-purpose’ moves in order to simultaneously move toward his pawn and track down black’s pawn. We are going to look at the second variation now which contains sub-variations. Return to the starting position and remember the position when we enter a sub-variation. —-------There are two main ideas here, but they both start with King g7 to move closer to both pawns. Black now has the option to either try to stop white’s pawn by moving his king closer which gives white time to move toward black’s pawn allowing both pawns to be captured - ending in a draw. Conversely, black could try to advance his pawn, giving white enough time to move toward his own pawn allowing his queen to promote at the same time as black’s - resulting in a draw. That concludes our 3 puzzles for this week. Tune in next episode where we will continue to work on  our visualization with another game of the Masters.  https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/http://cassidynoble.com/

The Iron Tigran was Tigran Petrosian’s nickname for his solid defensive style. Born in 1929, he started learning chess when he was 8. During WWII - Petrosian was orphaned and needed to sweep streets to earn a living. During this time, he got sick and developed a hearing problem that would affect him for the remainder of his life.   Using his ration money, Petrosian bought Chess Praxis by Nimzowitsch and by age 12, he began training at the Tiflis Palace of Pioneers - a place where students could focus on creative work and sports training.  His first coach - Archil Ebralidze was a fan of Nimzowitsch and Capablanca who discouraged wild tactics and speculative combinations. Ebralidze’s solid style made its way into Tigran’s play. In 1951, Petrosian was in Moscow participating in the Soviet Championship. At that tournament, he played the World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik for the first time. That game went through two different adjournments and lasted a total of 11 hours of play to secure a draw. Tigran ended up finishing in 2nd in the tournament, earning him his International Master title. That tournament qualified him for the Interzonal Tournament in Stockholm where he finished in 2nd - earning him his Grandmaster title and qualifying him for his first of 8 different Candidates tournaments.Tigran developed a reputation for quick draws or in general just drawing his games. That made him incredibly consistent - never really losing, but also never really winning major tournaments, he would hold 2nd or 3rd place in many tournaments much to the chagrin of his colleagues and the press.   His first 3 Candidates in 1954, 1956, and 1960 he placed 5th, 3rd, and 3rd.  1962 was different. Petrosian won clear first in the Candidates - 19 draws, 8 wins, and 0 losses - in fact in all of 1962 he never lost a tournament game. That qualified him to play Mikhail Botvinnik in the 1963 World Championships.   Petrosian’s solid style suited him well in match play. The focus on prophylactic play allowed him to wait for an opponent's mistake before taking the opportunity to strike. He took down Botvinnik 12.5 to 9.5 to become the World Champion at age 33. As World Champion - Tigran campaigned for a chess newspaper across the entire Soviet Union rather than just Moscow. This newspaper was later rebranded as ‘64’ and is still in publication today.3 years after his first win, he was challenged to the World Championship by Boris Spassky to which Tigran defended his title 12.5 to 11.5.The next tournament cycle in 1969 was a rematch between Petrosian and Spassky where Spassky came out the winner 12.5 to 10.5 relegating Petrosian back to the Candidates.In 1972, he lost to Bobby Fischer in the finals. That year Fischer became World Champion.During all of this, Tigran participated in 10 straight Olympiads from 1958 to 1978 winning 9 team gold medals, and 6 individual gold medals. Over the 20-year 129-games played period - he had 78 wins, 50 draws, and 1 loss. In today’s game, we are going back to the Bled tournament of 1961. Tigran Petrosian versus Ludek Pachman Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin.1.Nf3 c5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 g6 4.O-O Bg7 5.d3 e6 6.e4 Nge7 7.Re1 O-O 8.e5 d6 9.exd6 Qxd6 10.Nbd2 Qc7 11.Nb3 Nd4 12.Bf4 Qb6 13.Ne5 Nxb3 14.Nc4 Qb5 15.axb3 a5 16.Bd6 Bf6 17.Qf3 Kg7 18.Re4 Rd8 19.Qxf6+ Kxf6 20.Be5+ Kg5 21.Bg7 1-0https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1104948 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigran_Petrosian https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/ http://cassidynoble.com/ 

I have been a fan of Sam Shankland for several years. I love that he plays the Caro Kann, his books are good, but mostly - I appreciate his blunt and brutal honesty when talking to people. Born in 1991, Sam started playing chess at 6, but only really started playing in tournaments at the age of 11.When he was 17, he started making a splash nationally and internationally by winning the Pacific Coast Open, the California State Championship, and tying for first at the World Youth Under 18 Chess Championships which earned him his International Master title. In 2010, he won the US Junior Championship in back to back Armageddon games, qualifying him for his first US Chess Championship tournament.The following year, he earned his Grandmaster Title and participated in the World Cup - advancing to the second round by having the largest upset by beating the 18th seeded Peter Leko while Shankland was seeded 111th.  In his second Chess Olympiad event in 2014, he took home Gold for his performance as a reserve player with a 9/10 score and a performance rating of 2829. He also defeated GM Judit Polgar in her last professional game before she retired.2018 was a banner year for Shankland - he not only qualified, but won the US Chess Championships in St Louis amongst a field that included 3 top 10 players in the world. In that tournament, he increased his rating to 2701 becoming the 7th American in history to break the 2700 rating barrier. The following year at the Tata Steel tournament - he drew World Champion Magnus Carlsen and beat former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik in Kramnik’s final game before retiring. He also reached his peak rating of 2731 at number 21 in the world. In 2021, he won the Prague Masters tournament with a performance rating over 2900 - the highest in the tournament’s history. A couple of fun facts about Shankland: He has been an analyst for Magnus Carlsen in World Championship preparations in 2014 and 2016 (against Anand and Karjakin). He was also featured on Fox’s survival show ‘Kicking and Screaming’. Sam is also a successful author! He has written 4 different books. He doesn’t do it for the money or for others’ education. In an interview on the World Chess Youtube channel he said:  “I don’t really write books for other people, I write them because it forces me to train really well... Whenever I think of some idea of something I want to work on a lot, ‘I think well if I force myself to write a book about it maybe I’ll work on it even better.’ ” . In the span of 14 years Shankland went from playing in his first tournament at age 11 to winning the US Championship that featured 3 of the top 10 players in the world. In his career - so far - He has participated in 11 US Championships in 13 years, been a 3 time-medalist on 10 different US Olympiad Teams, and aided a World Champion in their preparation. Sam is the role model for hard work and determination when pursuing a goal. This week, we are going to 2010 at the Philadelphia Open. Sam Shankland versus Vladimir Romanenko.  Now if we’re ready, let’s begin. 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. Qd2 Qc7 9. f4 Be7 10. f5 Bc4 11. O-O-O Nbd7 12. g4 Nxg4 13. Rg1 Nxe3 14. Qxe3 Rc8 15. Rxg7 h6 16. Kb1 Bg517. Qh3 Qd8 18. Bxc4 Rxc4 19. Rxd6 Qe7 20. Rxd7 Qxd7 21. Rxg5 Rc6 22. Rg1 Rd6 23. Nd5 Qa4 24. Qc3 1-0https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1579416https://samshankland.com/

 Born in 1941, Nona Gaprindashvili was the youngest of 6 kids and the only girl. She began playing chess at 5 from watching her brother play. Her first major break came when her brother had to back out of a local Team Championship. Nona stepped in to fill his place and performed very well scoring 5th overall. There is a really nice interview she gave to Chessbase in 2018 walking through her chess life and accomplishments, I have left those in the show notes. Vakhtang Karseladze - one of Georgia’s top chess trainers of the time - noticed her play and offered to properly train her starting in 1954. Two years later in 1956 at the age of 14,  Gaprindashvili won the Women’s Soviet Union Championship. Five years later was the start of Nona’s absolute dominance on the global stage. She won the 1961 Candidates tournament a full 2 points ahead of the 17 person field which qualified her to play in the 1962 Women’s World Championship against Elisaveta Bykova. Gaprindashvili crushed her in a 9 to 2 match score. Her victory at the World Championship stage was seen as the beginning of a ‘women’s chess revolution’ in Georgia and some go as far as an ‘intellectual revolution’ for Georgian women.She went on to defend her title: In 1965, against Alla Shulimovna Kushnir winning 8.5 to 4.5 In 1969, winning a rematch against Kushnir with the same 8.5 to 4.5 scoreIn 1972, winning a close rematch against Kushnir that Gaprindashvili won 8.5 to 7.5In 1975, she won against fellow Georgian Nana Alexandia 8.5 to 3.5In 1978, she was finally dethroned by the then 17 year old (and 20 year younger) Maia Chiburdanidze, ending her 16 year reign as the Women’s World Champion. 1978 was busy for Nona. She participated in the Lone Pine International tournament scoring well enough to be the first woman to ever earn a norm for the title of Grandmaster. At a meeting by the FIDE Congress of 1978, Gaprindashvili was awarded the Grandmaster title. She has said her tournament performance at Lone Pine and earning her Grandmaster title as one of her greatest achievements in chess. AND she is still playing! She participated in the 2023 European Senior Women’s Chess Championships at the age of 82. She has won the Senior tournament 7 times with her most recent being in 2022 in the 65+ age division. Gaprindashvili not only was the first woman to earn the Grandmaster title, dominate the Women’s World Championship for 16 years through 5 different cycles, play in 12 Olympiads, and win 7 different Senior Championships - but she has been a role model that many have looked up to by causing women to get into the game, being an active voice in politics, and earning the Presidential Order of Excellence by the Georgian President. There is so much we can learn from players like her. This week, we are traveling back to 1963 to the 9th Soviet Team Championship. Nona Gaprindashvili vs Evgenia Guseva.Now if we’re ready, let’s begin. 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 O-O 8.Bc4 Bd7 9.Qd2 Nc6 10.O-O-O Rb8 11.h4 Nxd4 12.Bxd4 b5 13.Be2 Qa5 14.h5 b4 15.Nd5 Nxd5 16.Bxg7 Nc3 17.Qh6 Nxe2+ 18.Kd2 b3+ 19.Kxe2 Rfc8 20.hxg6 Rxc2+ 21.Ke3 1-0https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2285813https://en.chessbase.com/post/nona-gaprindashvili-interview-bled-2018https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nona_Gaprindashvilihttps://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/ http://cassidynoble.com/ 

This episode was a struggle to cram all of Viswanathan Anand’s accomplishments into a highlight script! The Indian Grandmaster has been one of the most dominant and successful players in the game for over almost 4 decades. He was born on December 11, 1969, and moved to Chennai, India, and began playing chess at the age of six from his mother who was a chess aficionado.Anand’s rise in the chess world was very quick. He won the sub-junior championship with a perfect 9/9 score in 1983 at the age of 14. The next year, he won the Asian Junior Championship picking up his International Master norm in the process. In 1985 he became the youngest Indian player to earn his International Master title at the age of 15.The next year, he won his first of 3 Indian Chess Championships in a row at age 16, 17, and 18.In 1988, when he was 18, he became India’s first Grandmaster at the Shakti Finance International tournament in Kovai, India. In 1993, he played in his first of 10 World Championship cycles with varying levels of success. In 1995, he faced Garry Kasparov for the World Championship losing 10.5 to 7.5. In 1998, the format was changed to a 100 person knockout tournament where Karpov beat Anand in the finals 5 to 3.  In 2000, Anand won the 100 person knock out tournament against Shirov 3.5 to 0.5. In 2005, the format was changed to be a round robin tournament where Anand tied for 2nd with Svidler behind Topalov who won it. In 2007, Anand won the round robin World Championship a point ahead of the field. Starting in 2008, the format was changed to a 12 game match. Anand defeated Kramnik 6.5 to 4.5.In 2010, Anand defended his title against Topalov 6.5 to 5.5.In 2012, Anand defended his title against Boris Gelfand 8.5 to 7.5.In 2013, Anand was dethroned by Magnus Carlsen losing 6.5 to 3.5 in 10 games. In his last World Championship appearance in 2014, Anand fought through the Qualification cycles to rematch Carlsen but lost 6.5 to 4.5.Anand’s contributions to the game go well beyond the chess board as well. He has been awarded: An Order for Friendship from RussiaIndian Sportsman of the Year, Indian of the Year, Excellence in Chess Award, Best Sportsperson, the Chess Oscar 6 different times, and the National Citizens AwardIn India, he has received a host of National Honors including the- Arjuna Award, Padma Shri, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Padma Bhushan, and the Padma Vibhushan awardHe even has a planet named after him - Planet 4538 VishyanandIn an effort to give back to his home country, he has been on the Olympic Gold Quest Board to support India’s elite sportspersons. With his help and training, after he became the first Indian Grandmaster, India now has 84 Grandmasters, 10 of the top 100 Women players are Indian and 9 of the top 100 Open Global players are Indian (including 3 of the top 15).This week, we are going to 2013 at Wilk aan Zee Group A.Levon Aronian versus Viswanathan Anand. Now if we’re ready, let’s begin. 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Bd3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 b5 8. Bd3 Bd6 9. O-O O-O 10. Qc2 Bb7 11. a3 Rc8 12. Ng5 c5 13. Nxh7 Ng4 14. f4 cxd4 15. exd4 Bc5 16. Be2 Nde5 17. Bxg4 Bxd4+ 18. Kh1 Nxg4 19. Nxf8 f5 20. Ng6 Qf6 21. h3 Qxg6 22. Qe2 Qh5 23. Qd3 Be3 0-1https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1704763https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viswanathan_Anandhttps://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/ http://cassidynoble.com/ 

This week, we are looking at the Hungarian chess player, commentator, and streamer - Anna Rudolf. She began playing chess at the age of 4 with her sister, Kata. The two of them had Laszlo Rudolf as a father who played competitive chess as well, reaching a peak rating of 2185 FIDE. Laszlo was also a world champion of Hexagonal Chess. At the age of 9, Anna drew media attention by beating Grandmaster Lajos Portisch in a simul. In 1999, Anna won the girls Under 12 division of the International youth tournament and the under 12, Hungarian National Championship while her sister won the Under 10 division of both tournaments. That victory qualified her for the World Youth Championship where Anna finished 9th out of 66. In 2003, Anna won the Hungarian National Championship in the Under 16 division finishing 1.5 points ahead of second place. That victory qualified her for the World Youth Championship where she finished 4th, 1 point behind the winners.  2007 was a busy year for Anna - she won the Under 20 Hungarian Junior Girls’ Championship crossing the 2300 rating barrier with an 8 out of 9 score. She earned her first two Women’s Grandmaster Norms at the European Individual Women’s Chess Championship. Then in December, she had her best tournament performance at the Vandoeuver Open where she beat a Grandmaster and an International Master. Midway through the tournament, 3 Latvian players accused her of hiding a chess computer in her lip balm - the allegations were untrue and Anna finished with a performance rating of 2541 earning her her final WGM norm and her first International Master norm. Now in the Adult division, Anna won the Hungarian National Championship 3 times in 2008, 2010, and 2011. She reached her peak rating in 2010 with a published rating of 2393, but for one tournament she had an unpublished rating above 2400 (she picked up her final international master norm in 2015). At her peak, she was number 71 in the top 100 women players in the world. She has also represented Hungary on the Chess Olympiad in 2008 and 2012 as well as the European Team Championship from 2009 to 2015. In 2016, Anna made a pivot and began focusing her efforts on streaming and broadcasting. She started her Youtube Channel in 2016 and Twitch in 2018. She hasn’t played in any tournaments since 2017, but she was named the “Outstanding Athlete of the City” in 2017 in her hometown of Bátaszék and she was an official commentator of the 2018 World Championship (Carlsen versus Caruana) with her idol Judit Polgar. Her online following has only grown, currently she has over 200,000 subscribers on Youtube and over 275,000 on Twitch that tune in to her variety of content that she streams. This week, we are going to 2001 at the Girls Under 14 European Championships.Anna Rudolf versus Marta Nestorow. Now if we’re ready, let’s begin. 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. g3 a6 5. Bg2 Qc7 6. O-O Nf6 7. d4 cxd4 8. Nxd4 Nxd4 9. Qxd4 Bc5 10. Qd1 h6 11. Kh1 d6 12. f4 O-O 13. g4 e5 14. f5 b5 15. g5 hxg5 16. Bxg5 Nh7 17. Nd5 Qd7 18. Ne7+ Kh8 19. Qh5 Bb7 20. Rf3 Bxe4 21. Qxh7+ 1-0https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1194324 https://www.twitch.tv/anna_chesshttps://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/ http://cassidynoble.com/