Perpetual Chess Linkfest #111, January 31, 2025

Confusing Enough

Happy Freestyle Friday everyone! Scroll on down for this week’s chess links- Ben

Chess Improvement

White to move and win! Fun endgame study (Weenink, 1918) that Ivan Veselov deconstructs. Read all about it on 64 Squares

Martin Justesen has recently made a tactics website he has been working on, TacticsLadder.com, free for all to use. (Say Chess)

Jen Shahade has a great post on the importance of defensive puzzles in chess. How can White force a draw? Answer on Jennifer’s Substack.

Kevin Lincoln on how he is trying to learn to take more risks in his games (Good Moves)

On the topic of risk-taking, In GM Serper’s must-read column, he provides a clear explanation of Tal’s brilliant 18. Bg6!! amid a broader discussion of why Tal’s swashbuckling style was the key to his greatness.

David Hamm on why he has changed his rules and is playing more for fun. “Enjoyment over improvement is the bottom line." 💯 (LiChess Blog)

Chess Books

GM Jesus de la Villa, (of 100 Endgames You Must Know fame) is out with a new book, 50 Mistakes You Should Know. Forward Chess provides a sneak peek. (Forward Chess)

PSA- When people ask me for book recommendations, I often point them towards my dedicated web page. I recently gave the page an overdue update and included some favorites from the last few years. Did I miss anything? (Perpetual Chess Recommended Books)

Chess DoJo and NM Dan Heisman also have useful book recommendation lists. (Dan Heisman’s Recommended Books) (ChessDojo Recommended Books)

Chess Podcasts and Videos

This week’s pod was with Dr. Joel Sneed, a clinical psychologist who is feeling tortured by his pursuit of the NM title. We talked about what Joel would advice himself if he were his patient, and how he can try to derive more happiness from chess. (Perpetual Chess YouTube)

Late to this, but shout out to the Perpetual Chess Patreon subs that alerted me to GM Irina Krush’s YouTube channel. This video about time management is quite instructive, probably best-suited for those rated 1000 to 1600. (GM Irina Krush’s Youtube)

Chess News

The young guns are out in front at Tata Steel. FM Dennis Monokroussos provides an incisive breakdown. “Abdusattorov’s recipe for defeating GM Sarana was similar to Gukesh’s against Warmerdam: great risk in the opening and the middlegame, hoping to create a position that’s confusing enough to outwit his lower-rated opponent…It wasn’t a well-played game at all, but it was a typical win for the young Uzbek superstar, who is one of the biggest fighters in the chess world.” (The Chess Mind)

Misc.

This is one of the many photos I like by renowned chess photographer Lennart Ootes. (You can order a print on his webshop) Find out more about Lennart in this profile by Karel van Delft for Chessable

As he moved from the 1910’s to the 1920’s in his “Century of Chess” series, Sam Kahn thought he was done writing about Siegbert Tarrasch, but he stayed relevant in the 1920s. “But whatever Tarrasch’s misfortunes, and whatever one might say about him personally, he was really good at chess — and his adherence to classicism in the thick of hypermodernism helped to showcase the abundant resources of classical chess.” (Chess.com Blog)

Have a good weekend!- Ben