Perpetual Chess Linkfest #116, March 14, 2025

Universal Player

Hello there fellow chess devotees. We’ve got a great collection of links for you this week, I really enjoyed catching up on everything. You can take your time reading this week’s links, because I will be traveling next week, and thus will be back in your inboxes on March 28. Until then, keep your pieces safe!- Ben

Chess Improvement

FM Nate Solon whether you should “play up” in tournaments in order to face tougher competion (Zwischenzug)

Kevin Lincoln goes deep on the psychology of taking a draw offer against a higher rated opponent. (Good Moves)

NM Laura Smith offers some good advice for newer players (Chess.com)

I always enjoy “SheldonofOsaka’s” chess dispatches from Japan. Although he qualified for the Japan championship he writes “I'm in no way kidding myself, I was very lucky. Osaka is nowhere near the summit of the Japan chess scene, the real killers are found in Tokyo”

Chess.com is doing an “Improvement Challenge”called Coachchamps involving some top trainers and ambitious amateurs. You can apply to be a contestant if interested. (Chess.com)

Roman Vidonyak is not a household name, yet has trained many super GMs including Anish Giri. IM Sagar Shah delves into his story. (Chessbase News)

GM Alex Colovic examines Bobby Fischer’s innovative handling of the King’s Indian Defense as Black. “I have always considered the King’s Indian to be a very dynamic opening that needs to be played with a very aggressive mindset, always looking for the attack and going forward, but looking at Fischer’s games I discovered for myself a completely new approach to this opening.”

Podcasts

I haven’t had a chance to listen yet, but a podcast with Dirk jan ten Geuzendam interviewing GM Peter Leko is basically a “can’t miss” for me. (New in Chess)

This week on Perpetual Chess I interviewed IM Willy Hendriks about his latest book, The Philosopher & The Housewife (Perpetual Chess YouTube)

White to Move and Win (Tarrasch-Gunsberg 1887) (This was my favorite puzzle from Willy’s book, so much so that I made a video discussing it. If you just want the answer, you can go to move 28 of this LiChess study.) If you think you solved it instantly you might want to look a bit deeper.

For those of you into poker, Jennifer Shahade has relaunched her award-winning poker-adjacent podcast The Grid. Her guest is the amusing British poker pro Barney Boatman. (Jennifer’s Substack)

Misc.

Sam Kahn looks at the legacy of legendary author and player Richard Reti. “"In almost every game he played against me he invented something new.” (Chess.com)

Carl Portman, the author of Chess Behind Bars visited a British prison to play chess with inmates and shared his experiences. “The London System was very evident!” (ECF Blog)

Julian from the Chess Engine Lab looked at rating progression of different eras of prodigies and determined that the current crop of young stars is getting better faster. (The Chess Engine Lab)

The kind and candid Super GM David Navara discussed the likelihood that he has Asberger’s Syndrome in an expansive interview with IM Sagar Shah. Tarjei Svensen summarizes the interview and shares a few standout games of the Czech #1. (Chess.com)

Another banger from GM Gregory Serper- What did his teacher, World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik’s think of the recently deceased Boris Spassky? “I remember Botvinnik's advice: If you want to learn how to attack, then you should study Tal's games; if you want to learn how to defend, then you should study Petrosian's game, but if you want to learn how to play any position and become a universal player then you should study Spassky's games.” (Chess.com)

Reviews

GM Danny Gormally reviewed the new British chess show, Chess Masters: The Endgame “If there is a fault in the show, as others have pointed out, it goes through stuff so quickly. There is the feel that the audience perhaps won’t find the chess interesting enough in it’s own right, so we need to “jazz it up”. (Daniel Gormally’s Blog)

A Review by Lucy Mangan in The Guardian was even less generous than GM Gormally- “So dull, its almost unwatchable.” (The Guardian)

Leonard Barden also discussed the show. I don’t think that those of us outside the U.K. have a way to watch yet, so we can only look forward to forming our own opinions! (The Guardian)

Path to Chess Mastery shares his thoughts on John Nunn’s Best Games (Path to Chess Mastery)