The Chess Circuit – Details, episodes & analysis

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.

Thanks for listening to our podcast!  

There are so many ways to get involved with chess in England.  Add me (@adamraoof) on Facebook and Twitter, for one thing....  

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 and I talk to International Master John Donaldson from the USA. John is not just a chess master, but also a historian and has just published "Bobby Fischer and His World: The Man, the Player, the Riddle, and the Colorful Characters Who Surrounded Him"

We covered a wide range of topics including - What was it that made him decide to write Bobby Fischer and his world?  What were some of the most unusual things John learned in researching this book? How did Bobby make such an incredible leap in strength between the summer of 1955 and 1958?

John is one of those guests who is just so easy to interview - he has so many wonderful anecdotes and meticulously researched and surprising facts at his fingertips we just needed to press RECORD and occasionally ask a few questions. Thanks to John for being such an amazing guest!  I hope to have him on again soon.

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.
  

Ben Graff and I are interviewing Chris Ross today, one of Yorkshire's finest chess players, my team mate in Geoff Brown's Darnall & Handsworth squad in the Sheffield League in the UK - and he also happens to be blind. 

• Can you give us an idea of how STEVE DAVIS got you into chess in the first place?
  
• Playing chess around the world, what’s been your most unusual experience?
  
• You have to manage the clock, your guide dog Bovis (you can hear his squeaky toys in the background), take account of the match situation - how do you juggle all those things?
  
• What’s been your most satisfying victory so far?
  
• You do a lot of chess coaching with quite strong players, what are your top tips for improving your game?
  
• What makes a good team Captain?

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.
  
  

Ben Graff and Adam Raoof  talk to the energetic CEO of Premier Chess.

You guys (Ben and Evan) have met before - when was that and what was the occasion?

In London we are gradually coming out of lockdown (kids are back in school, and over the board chess is scheduled tentatively for July and August - how about New York?

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.
  

Ben Graff and I talk to Ian George about chess in Cornwall!

• 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.
  

Episode 16: Ben Graff and I talk to Voldi Gailans, Junior Development Officer from the Braille Chess Association.

• How effective is chess playing software designed for visually impaired players?
  
• Kaiser speaking chess clock - we had lots of fun trying to work out how to use that!
  
• Is there a good range of accessible chess literature for chess enthusiasts?
  
• What’s the one thing you would like to see happen that would improve the experience of visually impaired chess enthusiasts?

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.
  
  

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!

Hello, and welcome to The Chess Circuit - a podcast all about the wonderful game of chess.

Today we are talking to Jonathan Levitt, who recently published Contemplating Comedy - a book all about one-liners, what we find funny and what we don't!

He also happens to be a chess Grandmaster, and an original thinker in several fields.

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/

Today my guests are David Jenkins, author of Spurious Games, and Ben Graff, who recently  reviewed the novel for The Chess Circuit newsletter.  We spoke for a few hours about a whole range of topics, including how novels shapeshift when they move to other mediums such as film or TV, or the web.

QUESTIONS

• 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!