The Chess Circuit

This is a chat with Ben Graff for the podcast, where we talked about his new book Checkmate, and discussed why you should all buy a copy as a present for your chess-playing friends this Xmas!

Thanks for listening to our podcast!

There are so many ways to get involved with chess.  Add me (@adamraoof) on Facebook and Twitter, for one thing.... and sign up for my newsletter The Chess Circuit at https://chesscircuit.substack.com/

If you are interested in getting involved with my chess tournaments do take a quick look at the calendar at www.chessengland.com - or search for "ECF Chess Calendar" for all the tournaments in England, including mine.

Ben Graff reviews this excellent book here - https://chesscircuit.substack.com/p/a-history-of-chess-in-the-english

This book covers more than a hundred years of chess in the Civil Service, with information about the clubs, the individuals, the events they contested, the successes, and the arguments that sometimes resulted.

Clubs regularly featured leading players of the day and the Civil Service representative team frequently beat strong counties in 50-board matches, as well as participating in a mammoth 500-board match against the rest of England. Names of chess clubs bring a whiff of nostalgia, with India Office, War Office and Civil Service Rifles no longer in existence. Leading players served their country not only in their departments, but at establishments like Bletchley Park in the Second World War. Several civil servants represented their country in international matches. Over a thousand players participated in the league at one stage.

"The original plan was to include maybe 50 annotated games, as we had no idea how much material we would find. When it became clear that there was a lot of information, we (or maybe I) thought it better to concentrate on the history aspect. I have built a database of about 1400 games from CS league, matches and tournaments, and also CS players playing elsewhere, which I am adding to, and I thought I might offer John Saunders the games for Britbase at some stage. Once the book got over 500 pages, adding the games was difficult!" - Kevin Thurlow.

Grandmaster Simon Williams (GingerGM) does super video courses on gingergm.com, and books such as Arkell’s Endings. I have won many games with his ideas!
Buy quality e-books from Forward Chess - for instance The Woodpecker Method or 100 Endgames You Should Know.
Want to impress your friends? Cook them an amazing meal - get brilliant recipes and all the ingredients you need delivered by Gusto - get 50% off your first box and 30% off your first month!
Thanks for supporting my newsletter. Premium subscribers get discounts on tournaments, more articles and regular updates on the chess world. We also have a podcast which comes out every week with interviews and analysis.If you’d like to find out more about what’s going on in the chess world, search for The Chess Circuit and sign up for my free newsletter!

THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS!

In this episode Ben Graff joins me for a chat with Andrew Wainwright and Matthew Webb of The Chess Centre.  No, not that one, this one - https://www.chesscentre.online in Ilkley in Yorkshire!

If you’d like to find out more about what’s going on in the chess world, search for The Chess Circuit and sign up for my free newsletter!

THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS!

• Grandmaster Simon Williams (GingerGM) does super video courses on gingergm.com, and books such as Arkell’s Endings. I have won many games with his ideas!
  
• Buy quality e-books from Forward Chess - for instance The Woodpecker Method or 100 Endgames You Should Know.
  
• Want to impress your friends? Cook them an amazing meal - get brilliant recipes and all the ingredients you need delivered by Gusto - get 50% off your first box and 30% off your first month!
  
• Thanks for supporting my newsletter. Premium subscribers get discounts on tournaments, more articles and regular updates on the chess world. We also have a podcast which comes out every week with interviews and analysis.
  

If you’d like to find out more about what’s going on in the chess world, search for The Chess Circuit and sign up for my free newsletter!

We talked about why Anthony has his chess achievements on his Linkedin profile, and why he is rightly very proud of those! We revisited fond memories of the chess scene, how he founded a very successful business, and we discuss whether chess skills helped him in that endeavour. We also looked at chess and business as problem solving. When Anthony encounters a problem, I can tell that he likes to solve it!  But how do you go about solving a problem?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyeskinazi/

https://www.justpark.com/blog/exclusive-q-a-with-anthony-eskinazi

https://chesscircuit.substack.com/

THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS!

• Grandmaster Simon Williams (GingerGM) does super video courses on gingergm.com, and books such as Arkell’s Endings. I have won many games with his ideas!
  
• Buy quality e-books from Forward Chess - for instance The Woodpecker Method or 100 Endgames You Should Know.
  
• Want to impress your friends? Cook them an amazing meal - get brilliant recipes and all the ingredients you need delivered by Gusto - get 50% off your first box and 30% off your first month!
  
• Thanks for supporting my newsletter. Premium subscribers get discounts on tournaments, more articles and regular updates on the chess world. We also have a podcast which comes out every week with interviews and analysis.
  

• Grandmaster Simon Williams (GingerGM) does super video courses on gingergm.com, and books such as Arkell’s Endings. I have won many games with his ideas!
  
• Buy quality e-books from Forward Chess - for instance The Woodpecker Method or 100 Endgames You Should Know.
  
• Want to impress your friends? Cook them an amazing meal - get brilliant recipes and all the ingredients you need delivered by Gusto - get 50% off your first box and 30% off your first month!
  
• Thanks for supporting my newsletter. Premium subscribers get discounts on tournaments, more articles and regular updates on the chess world. We also have a podcast which comes out every week with interviews and analysis.
  

https://www.delanceyukschoolschesschallenge.com/

THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS!

• Grandmaster Simon Williams (GingerGM) does super video courses on gingergm.com, and books such as Arkell’s Endings. I have won many games with his ideas!
  
• Buy quality e-books from Forward Chess - for instance The Woodpecker Method or 100 Endgames You Should Know.
  
• Want to impress your friends? Cook them an amazing meal - get brilliant recipes and all the ingredients you need delivered by Gusto - get 50% off your first box and 30% off your first month!
  
• Thanks for supporting my newsletter. Premium subscribers get discounts on tournaments, more articles and regular updates on the chess world. We also have a podcast which comes out every week with interviews and analysis.
  

• Grandmaster Simon Williams (GingerGM) does super video courses on gingergm.com, and books such as Arkell’s Endings. I have won many games with his ideas!
  
• Buy quality e-books from Forward Chess - for instance The Woodpecker Method or 100 Endgames You Should Know.
  
• Want to impress your friends? Cook them an amazing meal - get brilliant recipes and all the ingredients you need delivered by Gusto - get 50% off your first box and 30% off your first month!
  
• Thanks for supporting my newsletter. Premium subscribers get discounts on tournaments, more articles and regular updates on the chess world. We also have a podcast which comes out every week with interviews and analysis.
  

• Grandmaster Simon Williams (GingerGM) does super video courses on gingergm.com, and books such as Arkell’s Endings. I have won many games with his ideas!
  
• Buy quality e-books from Forward Chess - for instance The Woodpecker Method or 100 Endgames You Should Know.
  
• Want to impress your friends? Cook them an amazing meal - get brilliant recipes and all the ingredients you need delivered by Gusto - get 50% off your first box and 30% off your first month!
  
• Thanks for supporting my newsletter. Premium subscribers get discounts on tournaments, more articles and regular updates on the chess world. We also have a podcast which comes out every week with interviews and analysis.
  
  

https://premierchess.com/ - you seem to be taking on more and more schools in the NY and NY state!  Any plans to take on schools overseas?

You do a lot of fundraising for various charities, how is that going?

Make a difference - Premier Chess has a project in Tanzania - check out this lovely article - https://www.sparkchess.com/teaching-chess-in-africa.html

The Premier Chess Podcast has been running for a while now - https://premierchess.com/premier-chess-podcast  - I’m just a beginner at the podcasting game, any tips?

THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS!

• Grandmaster Simon Williams (GingerGM) does super video courses on gingergm.com, and books such as Arkell’s Endings. I have won many games with his ideas!
  
• Buy quality e-books from Forward Chess - for instance The Woodpecker Method or 100 Endgames You Should Know.
  
• Want to impress your friends? Cook them an amazing meal - get brilliant recipes and all the ingredients you need delivered by Gusto - get 50% off your first box and 30% off your first month!
  
• Thanks for supporting my newsletter. Premium subscribers get discounts on tournaments, more articles and regular updates on the chess world. We also have a podcast which comes out every week with interviews and analysis.
  

• Have you had your vaccination?
  
• Cornish Chess is very active on Social Media, with an excellent website, a Twitter Feed - https://twitter.com/cornwallchess
  
• What do you think the future of chess in Cornwall might be post-Covid?  Queen’s Gambit effect?
  
• How did you enjoy the recent match between Cornwall and Fiji?  (Taione beat Jeremy Menadue - Fiji Champion and winner of the best game
  
• “One of our leading players, David Saqui, died a couple of years ago leaving a substantial sum of money in his will for the development of chess in Cornwall. The Cornwall Chess Trust was set up with 5 trustees, including me as secretary and Robin Kneebone, and recently received the funds from the estate.. It would help greatly if we could have a segment on David and the trust to draw attention to its existence and objects.” - Ian George talks about the plans for the future of Cornish Chess
  
• I am getting round to posting something about the match on my newsletter - https://chesscircuit.substack.com/p/cornwall-vs-fiji - the scores of all the games on the Cornwall Chess website with a report by David Jenkins. It's at http://www.cornwallchess.org.uk/html/archive-online/fiji-2021.shtml

THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS!

• Grandmaster Simon Williams (GingerGM) does super video courses on gingergm.com, and books such as Arkell’s Endings. I have won many games with his ideas!
  
• Buy quality e-books from Forward Chess - for instance The Woodpecker Method or 100 Endgames You Should Know.
  
• Want to impress your friends? Cook them an amazing meal - get brilliant recipes and all the ingredients you need delivered by Gusto - get 50% off your first box and 30% off your first month!
  
• Thanks for supporting my newsletter. Premium subscribers get discounts on tournaments, more articles and regular updates on the chess world. We also have a podcast which comes out every week with interviews and analysis.
  

• Grandmaster Simon Williams (GingerGM) does super video courses on gingergm.com, and books such as Arkell’s Endings. I have won many games with his ideas!
  
• Buy quality e-books from Forward Chess - for instance The Woodpecker Method or 100 Endgames You Should Know.
  
• Want to impress your friends? Cook them an amazing meal - get brilliant recipes and all the ingredients you need delivered by Gusto - get 50% off your first box and 30% off your first month!
  
• Thanks for supporting my newsletter. Premium subscribers get discounts on tournaments, more articles and regular updates on the chess world. We also have a podcast which comes out every week with interviews and analysis.
  
  

Adam Raoof and Ben Graff explain DecodeChess.com with Gideon Segev, their marketing guru.

If you want to explore further, use the discount code chesscircuit for 10% off all plans before 1st May 2021 when you create your account at www.decodechess.com - get yourself a free account and listen to the podcast!

What is DecodeChess and who is it aimed at? 

• How many users are there?
• Are there any top players who use the app, maybe to teach?
• Can it offer players who are rated 2000+ something to help them improve?
• Who are your main competitors in the chess world?
• Decodea - Explainable AI - what’s in development that you can talk about?

Interested in chess?  You can sign up for our free newsletter The Chess Circuit here - https://chesscircuit.substack.com/ - and for the bargain price of £5.00 you can buy a quality colour pdf of all 13 issues of the original A5 print version here - https://payhip.com/b/Jvek including over 500 pages of articles and games analysed by authors like Simon Williams!

If you like the podcast why not try our free newsletter?  You can sign up at https://chesscircuit.substack.com/ and if you upgrade to the paid plans you get more articles and lots of special offers on tournaments and books!

You can buy his excellent book here - https://theconradpress.com/product/contemplating-comedy/

• Is it me, or is the world a much smaller place?  I seem to have come across your name as you played several of my friends in the Cornish Chess League and then as the author of this novel, then I was interviewing Goru Arvind President of the Fiji Chess Federation and it turned out that you had played him when he was a kid, and he told me that you had previously been the President and played for the Fijian Olympiad team!!
  
• Did you get a chance to travel to some of the more remote of the 300 islands?
  

MENTIONED DURING THE CHAT

https://www.fijichess.com/

Prof. David Jenkins and Spurious Games (novel) - http://spuriousgames.org/

One of my favourite galleries in the British Museum is the Oceania gallery - https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/galleries/oceania

Let me know if I've missed anything and I will update this page!

If you’re a premium subscriber to my Newsletter, imaginatively titled The Chess Circuit - https://chesscircuit.substack.com/, you can suggest guests and topics for future episodes and enjoy many more yet-to-be-conceived perks.

You can find the link to my newsletter in the show notes, along with links to anything we’ve talked about during this episode.

Thanks for listening!

• Who taught you chess?  Did you receive any formal training?
• Chess and music - is there a link?
• When did you move to the UK?  How did you find the UK chess scene?!
• Prokofiev v Ostroikh https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1266497
• What is Levitov chess?  Are they collaborating with Chess24?
• Are there any chess books out there which are classics, but never translated into English?
• Do you think chess has a role to play in education?

MENTIONED DURING THE CHAT

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1266497

https://en.chessbase.com/post/the-1937-prokofiev-oistrakh-match

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1252046

Levitov Chess - https://www.youtube.com/c/LevitovChess

Nikolai Lugansky - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Lugansky

Photographer - Chris Gloag - https://www.chrisgloag.com/

Let me know if I've missed anything and I will update this page!

This game was played in the 6th and final round of the Hendon Chess Club Championships 2020 https://www.hendonchessclub.com/ and would decide the winner of the overall championships.

Today my guest is Andrew Medworth, the winner of that game (vs David Amior), and the 2020 Club Champion.

You can follow along on Lichess.org by clicking the link in the show notes, or you can copy the PGN (portable game notation) into your chess browser of choice - ChessBase is a very popular chess database.

Let me have your feedback on this episode by leaving comments on The Chess Circuit newsletter - https://chesscircuit.substack.com/ and I will attempt to improve the presentation further.

If you fancy playing chess online, using Tornelo and Zoom, visit https://tornelo.com/chess/orgs/chess-england or https://www.chessengland.com.

https://lichess.org/study/NAPTZcnW

[Event "Hendon Chess Club Championships 2020 - Open"]

[Site "on Zoom"]

[Date "2020.09.24"]

[Round "6.1"]

[White "Medworth, Andrew"]

[Black "Amior, David"]

[Result "1-0"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qd8 4. d4 c6 5. Bc4 Bf5 6. g4 Bg6 7. Ng1e2 e6 8. h4

h6 9. Nf4 Bh7 10. Be3 Nd7 11. Qe2 Bb4 12. g5 Bxc3+ 13. bxc3 hxg5 14. hxg5 Bd3

15. Rxh8 Bxe2 16. Rxg8+ Nf8 17. Kxe2 Qxg5 18. Rh1 0-0-0 19. Rh1h8 Qe7 20. Rxg7

c5 21. Nd3 cxd4 22. Bg5 Qa3 23. Bxd8 Kxd8 24. Rxf7 Qxc3 25. Rh8xf8# 1-0

• Fiji Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/fijichess/
• Fiji Chess Federation Official site - https://www.fijichess.com/
• Prof. David Jenkins (David is a future guest) and Spurious Games (novel) - http://spuriousgames.org/
• Let me know if I've missed anything and I will update this page!
  

Ben Graff (author of The Greenbecker Gambit) and I talk about the recently released Netflix series The Queen's Gambit (released 23 October) based on the book by Walter Tevis. Please give us some suggestions for our next binge watch / review!

https://www.netflix.com/search?q=queens&jbv=80234304

Subscribe to The Chess Circuit podcast on your favourite podcast catcher!

https://anchor.fm/thechesscircuit

MENTIONED IN THE PODCAST

The Greenbecker Gambit, by Ben Graff (benwriting123@gmail.com) - https://theconradpress.com/product/the-greenbecker-gambit/

Chess Improvement, by Peter Wells and Barry Hymer - https://www.crownhouse.co.uk/publications/chess-improvement

If you’re a premium subscriber to my Newsletter, imaginatively titled The Chess Circuit, you can suggest guests and topics for future episodes and enjoy many more yet-to-be-conceived perks.

Today my guest is Andrew Horne, who is a well-known streamer (as ChessHeroes) and chess coach from South Africa.  We talk about;

• Pandemic aside, what is the chess scene like in South Africa?  What kind of events take place and how often?  Every weekend?  South Africa is 400% larger than England!!
  
• Do you get regular opportunities to play in FIDE rated tournaments?
  
• We spoke to Peter Hornsby in an earlier podcast.  How did you get involved in the 2020chess competition?
  
• What kind of audience do you get for your streams?  You are a chess coach, I see that they are aimed at being more educational rather than just being about watching someone play chess for hours (!)
  
• Do you like watching chess online yourself?  Who are your favourite commentators and do you have any role models!?  Like Yasser Seirawan or Sasha Grischuk, or Peter Leko or Peter Svidler.
  
• How did you get your National Instructors title and what has it meant for you and your chess career?
  
• What is the future of chess in (South) Africa?  Is there a base of young players coming through who might represent the future?  Is the coaching scene healthy?  Can you make a living?

THANKS!

MENTIONED DURING THE CHAT

- Chess Heroes - https://www.twitch.tv/chessheroes

- 2020chess a league for students (and now for all!) - https://2020chess.com/

Ben Graff and Adam Raoof discuss the 1983 novel by Walter Tevis and the release of the forthcoming drama on Netflix!

PLOT SPOILER ALERT!

Based on the novel by Walter Tevis, the Netflix limited series drama THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT is a coming-of-age story that explores the true cost of genius.

Abandoned and entrusted to a Kentucky orphanage in the late 1950s, a young Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy)  discovers an astonishing talent for chess while developing an addiction to tranquilizers provided by the state as a sedative for the children. Haunted by her personal demons and fuelled by a cocktail of narcotics and obsession, Beth transforms into an impressively skilled and glamorous outcast while determined to conquer the traditional boundaries established in the male-dominated world of competitive chess.

The series is directed and written by two-time Academy Award nominee Scott Frank and executive produced by Frank, William Horberg and Allan Scott, who also co-created the series.

THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Marielle Heller, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Moses Ingram, Harry Melling and Bill Camp.

I particularly like the calming sound of wood pigeons in the background!

=======================

If you’re a premium subscriber to my Newsletter, imaginatively titled The Chess Circuit, you can suggest guests and topics for future episodes and enjoy many more yet-to-be-conceived perks.

MENTIONED DURING THE CHAT

- Pinpoint Learning - www.pinpointlearning.co.uk - excellent software for kids to prepare for their exams

- Chess960, AKA Fischer Random Chess - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer_random_chess

Let me know if I've missed anything and I will update this page!

David Cordover bounced back from the pandemic by creating a totally unique platform, www.tornelo.com, where people could organise and play chess tournaments.  Six months later Tornelo is now seeing events with 1000+ participants and recently hosted the prestigious ECU European Youth Championships.

The oldest of 5 children, David was born in London and lived in 15 countries before settling in Australia. He briefly attended Melbourne High School, leaving half-way through Year 10 to pursue his passion for chess.

David's varied business career started at age 11 with the ubiquitous lawn mowing rounds and door-to-door sales. When he was 16 he founded Chess Kids, adding a retail business in 1999 and launching a National Schools Chess event in 2002. Chess Kids was acquired by Kids Unlimited in 2014.

If you’re a premium subscriber to my Newsletter, imaginatively titled The Chess Circuit, you can suggest guests and topics for future episodes and enjoy many more yet-to-be-conceived perks.

If you’re a premium subscriber to my Newsletter, imaginatively titled The Chess Circuit, you can suggest guests and topics for future episodes and enjoy many more yet-to-be-conceived perks.

MENTIONED DURING THE CHAT

- ScorchChess - https://scorchapp.co.uk/ - excellent management software for leagues

- European Chess Union - https://www.europechess.org/

- ScorchChess Social Media - https://www.facebook.com/scorchchess and https://twitter.com/scorchchess

- Four Nations Chess League - 4NCL - http://www.4ncl.co.uk/ - UK premier national team chess competition

- Tornelo - www.tornelo.com 

Let me know if I've missed anything and I will update this page!

Chess For Life - https://matthewsadler.me.uk/chess-for-life/

Matthew Sadler's website - https://matthewsadler.me.uk/

Matthew's YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0pQR9jhWhWRhAA9v49kurw

If you’re a premium subscriber to my Newsletter, imaginatively titled The Chess Circuit, you can suggest guests and topics for future episodes and enjoy many more yet-to-be-conceived perks.

MENTIONED DURING THE CHAT

The Greenbecker Gambit - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Greenbecker-Gambit-Ben-Graff/

FIDE - The World Chess Federation - www.fide.com

Ben Graff radio interview - https://sndup.net/296m

Four Nations Chess League - 4NCL - http://www.4ncl.co.uk/ - UK premier national team chess competition

Let me know if I've missed anything and I will update this page!

I chat to Peter Hornsby of www.2020chess.com, the innovative student team chess tournament that has gone global during the pandemic!  We cover making chess commentary accessible to all, cheating in chess, what his plans are post-pandemic and more.

Apologies for the poor sound quality at my end!  It's a learning curve and the next podcast will be much more professional...

If you’re a premium subscriber to my Newsletter, imaginatively titled The Chess Circuit, you can suggest guests and topics for future episodes and enjoy many more yet-to-be-conceived perks.

MENTIONED DURING THE CHAT

Scorchchess - https://scorchapp.co.uk/ - excellent management software for leagues

Four Nations Chess League - 4NCL - http://www.4ncl.co.uk/ - UK premier national team chess competition