Photo by Macauley Peterson
This week author, teacher, YouTube presenter and philosophy Ph. D, Grandmaster Jesse Kraai is with me again to share more of his wisdom. Given his academic background, it is always fun to hear Jesse philosophize about chess and life, and this was a good time to catch up with him as we talked about the ways that tournament chess is changing and speculated about how it might continue to change due to shifts in perspective brought on by the coronavirus. Naturally we also talked about lots of chess improvement ideas, as Jesse shared his current chess goals, his approach to chess, and outlined the vision of ChessDojo. ChessDojo is a new online chess learning community that Jesse has launched together with IMs David Pruess and Kostya Kavutskiy. As always, please read on for more details and timestamps.
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0:00- Jesse discusses his personal experiences with the coronavirus, something which fans of his Youtube videos saw him endure. Jesse also discusses the ways that the coronavirus affects his chess teaching, Chessdojo, and how it might affect chess tournaments in coming years.
Mentioned:
Jesse Kraai’s first appearance on Perpetual Chess in October of 2017:
GM Jesse Kraai’s Road Back to 2500 series
IM Kostya Kavutskiy, IM David Pruess, GM Jesse Kraai
Chess Dojo YouTube channel Chess Dojo discord
22:00- This episode is brought to you in part by Chessable!
Check out the excellent book Chess Structures with Chessable's MoveTrainer capability here.
24:00- What are Jesse’s core beliefs about how to improve at chess?
Mentioned:
Jesse’s video- The True Path to Chess Improvement
The Road to Chess Improvement by GM Alex Yermolinksy , Chess24’s Magnus Invitational
IM Greg Shahade,GM Garry Kasparov
34:30- We discuss Chess.com’s fun ongoing tournament, The “I’m Not a GM Speed Chess Invitational”.
Mentioned: IM Danny Rensch, IM Greg Shahade, IM Christof Sielecki, IM Lawrence Trent, IM David Pruess, IM John Bartholomew, WGM Anna Zatonskih
38:30- How can club players go about learning structures rather than lines in openings?
The London System, The Colle, The Zukertort
45:45- A question from a Patreon supporter of the podcast asks Jesse if his background as a student of philosophy shapes his views on chess.
Mentioned: GM Emanuel Lasker, Martin aka Saychess on Twitter, GM Capablanca, Chess for Life by Mathew Sadler and Natasha Regan, The Scandanavian expert whose name I was forgetting is GM Sergei Tiviakov
1:00:00- Our conversation transitions to a discussion of whether chess books are decreasing in popularity. Mentioned: GM Fidel Corrales Jimenez, IM Cyrus Lakdawala
1:06:15- A Patreon supporter writes to ask Jesse’s opinion of the TV show Stranger Things.
1:11:00- Thanks to Jesse for re-joining us!
Keep up with GM Jesse Kraai here:
Follow ChessDojo here:
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