Photo courtesy of Ren Escalera
Ren Escalera is a 37 year-old dad and adult chess improver. As Ren describes, he had a brief, but strong, passion for chess as a scholastic player in the Phillipines and has rekindled his love for the game in order to help his talented young son improve. Ren’s son, Scott, is rated 1248 at the age of 7, which is good for #16 for his age in the country!
Meanwhile, Ren has seen some vast improvements of his own. Prior to the pandemic, Ren had taken his rating from 1056 to a peak of 1702 in just 1.5 years! How did Ren do it? How did Scott do it? What is next for this powerful father-son tandem? I think you will enjoy Ren and Scott’s inspiring story, as well as his equally useful chess improvement and parenting reflections. You can find more information and timestamps below.
Click here to download the episode
0:00- We begin by discussing how Ren and his son, Scott, became interested in chess. As Ren describes, he loved chess as a kid in the Phillipines but walked away. He introduced his son to it when he was a young boy, and it was then that Ren found himself coming back to it.
10:40- When did his son start to play tournament chess? How did this affect Scott’s interest in chess?
17:00- How many hours per day are Scott and Ren spending on chess? What is their daily routine?
Mentioned: IM Angelo Young, Megan Chen
22:00- What do Scott and Ren study during their 2-3 hours of training per day?
Mentioned: Chess 5334 Problems by Laszlo Polgar, The London System with 2. Bf4 by Ginger GM, Pirc video Damian Lemos, Fundamental Chess: Logical Decision Making by GM Ramesh, Chessking App, Perpetual Chess Episode 190 with Adult Improver Andrew Zinn, Perpetual Chess Episode 42 with James Altucher
28:00- With limited finances, how does Ren’s family handle the expense of chess?
32:00- Are there times that Scott does not want to do chess? How does Ren handle it?
34:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com. Winning Chess Tactics by GM Yasser Seirawan is one of their latest offerings. You might find it on sale if you act quickly.
35:00- Ren answers a Patreon mailbag question regarding whether he believes its true that club-level players should focus primarily on tactics. After that he discusses his approach to reviewing games.
41:00- Ren answers a question from another of the podcast’s Patreon supporters relating to the nature of his rating climb, and whether he has had moments of stagnation and frustration in his quest to improve at chess.
47:00- Ren gives a bit of advice about how to allocate chess study time.
50:00- Ren gives some advice to a fellow parent about how to potentially introduce his 4 year old to chess.
58:30 Ren discusses his goals, and how he thinks he will approach chess as both he and his son continue to improve.
1:01:30- Thanks so much to Ren for sharing his inspiring story! You can keep up with him via the Kings Wisdom Chess Club web page, or email him at escalerarv at gmail.com