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  • S3 E10 Puzzles

    S3 E10 Puzzles

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    **There is an error in the first puzzle of the episode: the bishop should be on c4 (NOT c5)**
    Thank you @brianmartin5571 on Youtube for letting me know!

    Hello, and welcome back to another episode - as per tradition, we will be looking at some puzzles this week. I will give you the location of each of the pieces on the board then I will give you some time to solve it before we walk through the solution. We have 3 puzzles this week - easy, medium and hard. Try your best to solve the puzzle before the solution begins.

    Let’s dive in!

    Puzzle number 1:

    White has a knight on e7, a king on h6, and a rook on g1.

    Black has a bishop on c5, rook on e5, and a king on h8.

    Are we ready for puzzle 2?

    White has a room on a6 and a king on f3

    Black has a pawn on a2, a rook on a1, and a king on b4

    Puzzle 3 - this is another important rook and pawn ending that comes up a surprisingly high number of times:

    White has a king on b8, a pawn on b7, and a rook on c1

    Black has a rook on a2 and a king on d8.

    And that is all that we have for this week, tune in next time where we will continue to work on our blindfold skills and look at another game of the Masters.

    http://cassidynoble.com/

  • S3 E9 J. Schulten v Johannes Zukertort (1869)

    S3 E9 J. Schulten v Johannes Zukertort (1869)

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    Today, we are looking at a sometimes overlooked player in chess history. An individual is rumored to have learned 14 languages, he founded a chess magazine, has an opening named after him, and someone who played in the first World Championship - Johannes Zukertort.

    In London, members of the St George’s Chess Club heard of Zukertort’s victory and offered money for him to come play against the unofficial world champion Steinitz. Steinitz had been living in London for 10 years by this point dominating everyone. By accepting this invitation, Zukertort had sparked a rivalry with Steinitz that would last for years.

    1878 saw success for the rising star. He played in the Paris World Expo - an 11 round double round robin tournament. This was considered the first Intercontinental tournament as there were players from the United States making it 7 countries represented out of 12 players.

    In early 1879, while in Dublin, Zukertort played a 12 person blindfolded simul (where he plays 12 players at once without looking at the board) finishing with 8 wins, 1 loss, and 3 draws. One of the opponents that he defeated was Lord Randolph Churchill, the father of Winston Churchill.

    The following year - he defeated the English champion - Joseph Blackburne 9.5 to 4.5. After the match against Blackburne - both Zukertort and Steinitz wrote about the games in their respective magazines taking jabs at one another’s analysis. Zukertort represented the Romantic style of chess while Steinitz represented a more ‘scientific’ approach that we would call the positional style. The various articles and analysis written would antagonize each other beyond strategy and morph into personal insult territory. This animosity would later be named “The Ink War”.

    London, there was a 14-player double round robin (26 total games). A rumored story from the tournament banquet - the Club’s President proposed a toast to the best chess player in the world, to which both Steinitz and Zukertort stood up at the same time. In the first 23 rounds of the tournament, Zukertort scored 22 points, winning the tournament with 3 rounds to go. He finished with 22 out of 26. Steinitz came in 2nd with 19 out of 26. A day after the tournament, Steinitz challenged Zukertort to a one on one match in the United States. The winner would be crowned ‘the champion of the world’.

    Zukertort started off strong - winning 4 of the first 5 games. They then moved to St Louis where Steinitz picked up 3 ½ out of 4. They then concluded in New Orleans. Zukertort is quoted as saying he was ‘living on his wits’ as he was physically fatigued and approaching a mental breakdown. Meanwhile Steinitz had a ‘bottomless pit of mental stamina’. In New Orleans, Steinitz picked up 6 wins in 11 games to become the World Champion by a score of 10-5. After that loss, Zukertort’s health suffered immensely. While in New Orleans, he caught malaria. He also had heart disease, kidney problems, and arteriosclerosis. On top of that, he was broke from losing the match.

    For our game this week, we are traveling to the early part of his career - before the World Championship, before the Ink War, and before the training with Anderseen - we are going to 1869.

    John William Schulten versus Johannes Zukertort.

    Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin.

    1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Bc4 d5 4. exd5 Qh4+ 5. Kf1 Bd6 6. D4 Ne7 7. Bb3 g5 8. c4 b6 9. Nf3 Qh5 10. Qe1 Bf5 11. Ne5 Nd7 12. Ba4 O-O-O 13. Nc6 Nxc6 14. dxc6 Nc5 15. Bd1 Bd3+ 16. Kg1 Rhe8 17. Qd2 Qh4 18. g3 fxg3 19. Kg2 Be4+ 20. Bf3 Bxf3+ 21. Kxf3 Qe4# 0-1

    https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1337018

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Zukertort

    http://cassidynoble.com/



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  • S3 E8 Maurice Ashley v M. Berman (1991)

    S3 E8 Maurice Ashley v M. Berman (1991)

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    Nowadays, we may see this gentleman as a commentator on large scale events such as the US Championship and the World Championship, but he has had a groundbreaking career including participating in the US Chess Championship and becoming the first Black chess Grandmaster. We are of course talking about -the Tiger Woods of Chess - Maurice Ashley.

    He joined the Black Bear School of Chess - a chess group of African American chess enthusiasts popular in the 1970s and 80s. This group produced some of the strongest Black Masters in history. In that same interview, Ashley said “This group was the most influential on my chess - they taught me how to fight to the bitter end and really study intensely. Not by formal lessons, but by just crushing me mercilessly. Truly the school of hard knocks.”

    In 1997, he backed off of coaching and commentating to focus on becoming a Grandmaster. He had an epiphany after seeing Tiger Woods clinch the 1997 Golf Masters and said: “I had been dreaming about being a grandmaster for over a decade, but life had seemed to be constantly pulling me in different directions,” Maurice writes on his website, “It was that Sunday in April watching Tiger realize his dream that convinced me that I needed to change my life and go chase mine.”.

    In 2003:

    He and Susan Polgar became US Chess Federation’s Grandmasters of the YearHe was the commentator on ESPN’s broadcast of Kasparov’s match against X3D Fritz (a match that ended in a 2-2 tie)He wrote an essay called - ‘The End of the Draw Offer?’ which raised questions about ways to avoid quick draws in chess tournaments. He argued that quick draws were detrimental to the game for the viewer, sponsorships, and players. He insisted on a 30 (or 40) move rule in tournaments. This essay helped inspire the rule changes at the US Championship and the New York Masters that are present todayHe also played in his first US Championship placing - scoring 39th out of 58. After this tournament, he announced he would be retiring from competitive chess instead pivoting to coaching and commentating

    He was the 57th person to be inducted into US Chess Hall of Fame. On his plaque, he is described as: “Not only was he the first African-American player to achieve the title of Grandmaster, but one of the greatest ambassadors and promoters the game has ever known”.

    Fast forwarding a little to 2024, Ashley released the book ‘Move by Move Life Lessons On and Off the Chess Board’. He also started the Maurice Ashley Foundation. An organization with the mission to help young people who do not typically have access to resources be able to grow - "Too often, kids with immense potential are overlooked simply because they don’t have access to the right environment or support. This fellowship is about giving those kids a chance to rise, to be seen, and to compete on the world stage."

    “When people asked me at the time, ‘How does it feel to become the first?’ I said, ‘You know, it is cool to be the first. But what excites me is that there is going to be a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and a 10th.’ Here we are 25 years later, I’m still the only one [in the US or in Jamaica]. For me, that is a challenge. That’s unacceptable.”

    1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. c4 c6 5. Nc3 Be6 6. cxd5 Bxd5 7. Nf3 Be7 8. Bd3 Nf6 9. O-O O-O 10. Re1 Re8 11. Ne5 Nbd7 12. Nxd5 cxd5 13. Bg5 h6 14. Bh4 Nf8 15. Bb5 N6d7 16. Bg3 a6 17. Ba4 Rc8 18. Qh5 Nxe5 19. Rxe5 b5 20. Bb3 Bf6 21. Rxd5 Qa5 22. Qxf7+ Kh8 23. Re5 1-0

    https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2387718

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Ashley

    http://cassidynoble.com/

  • S3 E7 Tatev Abrahamyan v N. Christiansen (2006)

    S3 E7 Tatev Abrahamyan v N. Christiansen (2006)

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    This week, we are looking at a 5-time US Women’s Olympiad participant, a 2-time Women’s World Chess Championship participant, a 21-time US Women’s Championship participant, and a lover of all things penguins - Women’s Grandmaster Tatev Abrahamyan.

    Born in Armenia, Tatev learned to play chess at the age of 8 when her father took her to the Chess Olympiad of 1996 which took place in her home country. While there, she met Grandmaster Judit Polgar - who at the age of 18 was competing in the Open division of the Olympiad and was the only woman in the Top 10 in the world.

    Tatev had commented - “I was in complete awe. My first thought was, ‘I want to be just like her’” .The following year, she established her first FIDE rating of 2113.

    In 2001, her family moved from Armenia to the United States. It did not take long for her to start making waves in the United States. Her first tournament was the 37th Annual American Open. She finished with a score of 4.5 out of 8 but it was good enough for a provisional rating of 2266 which was above the threshold for United States National Master… from 1 tournament.

    Two years later, she played in the US Junior Championship finishing in the middle of the pack of 10 players, but she was also the only female player in the tournament.

    In her second round of going to the Olympiad, Team USA placed 5th.

    That same year, she also picked up her Womens Grandmaster Title - which requires a FIDE rating above 2300 of at least 30 games and 2 norms.

    If that wasn’t enough, she also had her focus split between chess and studying as she earned a dual degree from California State University Long Beach for Psychology and Political Science.

    2012, she was back to the US Women’s Championship in 6th and back to the Olympiad - this time Team USA finished in 10th place.

    Toward the end of the year, Abrahamyan played in her first Women’s World Chess Championship - a 64 player knockout tournament to see who would become the Women’s World Champion. She was seeded 51st and faced Alexandra Kostenuik the 14th seed where she lost and was eliminated ½ to 1 ½ .

    2013 - she finished 3rd in the US Women’s Championship.

    2014 - she ended in a 3-way tie for first at the US Women’s Championship where Irina Krush ended up the winner after rapid playoff games. Again by finishing in the top 3, Tatev had punched her ticket to the 2015 World Women’s Championship.

    She also played in the Olympiad - this time Team USA finished in 8th.

    The next year, she finished 7th at the US Women’s Championship and entered the Women’s World Championship as the 53rd seed. Her round 1 opponent was Dronavalli Harika, the 12th seed. Tatev ended up 0-2 and was eliminated.

    2016, she finished 2nd at the US Women’s Championship.

    To round out her participation at the US Women’s Championship: In 2017 she came in 8th. 2018 - 6th, 2019 - 3rd. 2020 - 5th. 2021 - 4th. 2022 - 5th. 2023 - 4th. 2024 - 9th.

    For today’s game, we are traveling to the United States Championship back in 2006. Tatev Abrahamyan versus Natasha Christansen.

    Now, if we’re ready… let’s begin

    1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Bc4 Qa5 8. O-O O-O 9. Nb3 Qd8 10. f4 d6 11. h3 Bd7 12. Qe2 Na5 13. Nxa5 Qxa5 14. Bb3 Bc6 15. Bf2 Rac8 16. Rad1 a6 17. Bh4 Rfe8 18. e5 Nd7 19. e6 fxe6 20. Bxe6+ Kh8 21. f5 Rc7 22. fxg6 hxg6 23. Rf5 Qxf5 24. Bxf5 gxf5 25. Qh5+ 1-0

    https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1399216

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatev_Abrahamyan

    https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

  • S3 E6 Eric Hansen v. A. Kim (2019)

    S3 E6 Eric Hansen v. A. Kim (2019)

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    Hello everyone, this week we are looking at the youngest Alberta champion, at one point the highest rated bullet player on Chess.com, the highest rated active Canadian player, and a founder of the Youtube and Twitch channel the “Chessbrahs” - Eric Hansen.

    A couple of years after he started playing chess, in 2003, he participated in the Alberta Provincial Under 12 Championship where he scored 1st with a score of 5 out of 6 and established his provisional Canadian rating at 1316.

    Quickly, his Canadian rating started to skyrocket. By the end of that year, his rating was 1400. By the end of 2004, it was 1800. In 2005, he reached 2050.

    In 2006, he played in the Under 14 Alberta Championship and the Alberta Junior Championship - going undefeated and winning both tournaments.

    Two years later with his Canadian rating above 2300, Eric won the Under 16 Alberta Championship, he finished 1st at the Alberta Championship, and he finished in a tie for 1st at the Alberta Open to become the youngest Alberta Champion in history at the age of 15.

    Once that tournament concluded, Hansen attended the University of Texas on a chess scholarship. It was also around this time that he started to use the name ‘Chessbrah’ as one of his usernames on various chess websites like the Internet Chess Club or ChessCube. He also started to do live broadcasts of him playing on a website called livestream which was shutdown in January 2025.

    Toward the end of the year, he played in the American Continental Championship in Argentina. More than 200 players participated with the top 4 qualifying for the 2013 FIDE World Cup. Hansen finished in a 5-way tie for first. Since there were only 4 spots available, the 5 winners had to play rapid tie-breaks to determine who advanced. Hansen finished in 4th to grab the final World Cup spot.

    To cap off the year, he also won the Canadian Chess Player of the Year.

    The next year, he found himself tying for first with Nigel Short at the Canadian Open. He also found himself back at the FIDE World Cup - this time, seeded 98th out of 128. Again, he was eliminated in the 1st round, this time to Vladimir Malakhov who was the 31st seed with a score of ½ to 1 ½ .

    In 2014, he returned to the Olympiad - this time on board 2 scoring 5 out of 9.

    2015, saw Eric back at the top of the Canadian Closed - this time in a 3 way tie for first.

    As of writing this, Eric is still an active player. He is sitting atop the Canadian rating list of active players by over 100 points and he is rated 150th in the world. The Chessbrah Youtube channel has almost 350,000 subscribers, they’ve amassed 170,000,000 channel views, and their Twitch account has 330,000 followers.

    For today’s game, we are going back just a couple of years to the World Blitz Championship of 2019 in Moscow. Eric Hansen versus Alexey Kim.

    Now, if we’re ready… let’s begin.

    1. e4 e6 2. d4 b6 3. Bd3 Bb7 4. Nf3 g6 5. O-O Bg7 6. Re1 Ne7 7. a4 a6 8. Nbd2 O-O 9. c3 f5 10. b3 Qc8 11. Ba3 Re8 12. exf5 Nxf5 13. h4 Nc6 14. h5 Qd8 15. hxg6 hxg6 16. Ne4 Nce7 17. Qd2 Nd5 18. Ne5 Bxe5 19. dxe5 Qh4 20. g3 Qh3 21. Bf1 Qg4 22. Qxd5 Bxd5 23. Nf6+ Kf7 24. Nxg4 Rh8 25. Bg2 1-0

    https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1987346

    Eric Hansen | Chess Celebrities - Chess.com

    https://www.youtube.com/chessbrah

    https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

  • S3 E5 C. Incutto v. Boris Spassky (1960)

    S3 E5 C. Incutto v. Boris Spassky (1960)

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    This week, we are looking at the long career of the 10th World Champion, the youngest person to become Grandmaster in history (at the time), the youngest Candidate to the World Championship (at the time), and the famed opponent of the 1972 World Championship against Bobby Fischer - Boris Spassky.

    Spassky learned to play chess at the age of 5 on a train evacuating Leningrad during the Siege of Leningrad during WWII.

    At the age of 10, he earned widespread attention by defeating the Soviet champion Mikhail Botvinnik in a simul. During this time, he was studying several hours a day with different Masters including Vladimir Zak who coached other players like Viktor Korchnoi, Alexey Yermolinsky, Gata Kamsky, and others.

    That type of coaching helped as it allowed Spassky to earn the Candidate Master level at age 11, the Soviet Master rank at age 15 and take home 2nd at the Leningrad Championship.

    At the age of 16, Spassky branched out of the Soviet Union to play in his first international tournament in Romania. He tied for 4th, but in the tournament he defeated Vasily Smyslov who was 1 year away from playing Mikhail Botvinnik for the World Championship.

    At the FIDE Congress of 1953, he was awarded his International Master title.

    At the Candidates tournament of 1956, Spassky tied for 3rd with 4 other players. However, the next two world championship cycles were less kind to Boris.

    In the last round of the Riga tournament where a win would advance him to the Portoroz Interzonal tournament, Spassky missed his winning chance against Mikhail Tal and ended the game with a draw. In the qualifying tournament for the Interzonal in 1960, he lost his last round game to Leonid Stein.

    He also finished 10th out of 20 in the USSR Championship in 1960. However, he did make some waves by being the first high level player in 50 years to play and win with the King’s Gambit against David Bronstein.

    This game would later be used 3 years later as reference in the James Bond film ‘From Russia With Love’.



    During his chess struggles, he was also going through marital struggles with his then wife. They divorced in 1961 and he also broke off training with his coach Tolush whose coaching strategy featured a very strong attacking style.

    One bright spot was in 1960 at the Mar del Plata tournament where he finished in a tie for first place… with Bobby Fischer. During their first career meeting, Spassky defeated Fischer.

    Boris changed his coach to Igor Bondarevsky - known for a calmer strategy. After the change, Spassky won his first USSR Championship in 1961. He tied for 2nd in Havana in 1962, he tied for 1st at the 31st Soviet Final in 1963, and he won 1st at Belgrade in 1964.

    For today’s game, we are traveling 65 years in the past to the Mar del Plata tournament of 1960 - Carlos Incutto versus Boris Spassky.

    Now, if we’re ready, let’s begin.

    1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 f5 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. d3 fxe4 6. dxe4 Bb4 7. Qd3 d6 8. Bd2 Bxc3 9. Bxc3 Bd7 10. O-O-O Qe7 11. Qe3O-O 12. h3 Kh8 13. Bc4 a5 14. Kb1 Be6 15. Bxe6 Qxe6 16. Ng5Qg8 17. Qe2 Nd7 18. g3 Nc5 19. b3 h6 20. h4 a4 21. Nh3 axb3 22. cxb3 Nxb3 23. axb3 Qxb3+ 24. Qb2 Qc4 25. Qc2 Nb4 0-1

    https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1128479

    https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Spassky

  • S3 E4 Maia Chiburdanidze v. O. Andreieva (1973)

    S3 E4 Maia Chiburdanidze v. O. Andreieva (1973)

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    This week, we are looking (at the time) the youngest Women’s World Champion, a 13-time Olympiad Gold Medal Winner, the second Woman in history to be awarded the Grandmaster title, and a Women’s World Champion for 13 years - Maia Chiburdanidze.

    She was born in Kutaisi of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic of the USSR in 1961 where she learned to play chess at the age of 8.

    She played (and won) the 1974 at the Brasov women’s international tournament, when she was 13 years old.

    At the age of 15, she won the USSR Girls’ Championship of 1976. The next year, at the age of 16, she won the USSR Womens’ Championship with a score of 13 out of 17.

    Later that same year, she played in the Tbilisi Women’s Interzonal tournament. At the time, there were 2 interzonal tournaments - one in Roosendaal, Netherlands the other in Tbilisi, USSR. At each tournament, the top three finishers qualified for the Women's Candidates match.

    In 1986 - she won by the same score of 8 ½ to 5 ½ in 14 games to Elena Akhmilovskaya (again, of the Soviet Union). Winning the 1st, 5th, 7th, and 8th games, only losing in game 9.

    The January 1988 FIDE top 100 players - showed Maia’s peak rating as the 45th highest rated player in the world at 2560. Later that year, she defended her title once again against Nana Ioseliani (also of the Soviet Union). This was a close match where Chiburdanidze edged out an 8 ½ to 7 ½ victory. Maia had lost the 2nd to last game, reducing her lead to 1 point with 1 game to go.

    She tried to reclaim her title in 1993, but didn’t make it out of the Candidates tournament (placing 3rd). She reached the finals of the 1995 Candidates tournament, but lost to Susan Polgar. In 1997, she tried again, placing 4th in the Candidates tournament.

    The structure was changed to a 64 person knockout tournament in 2000. That year, she made it to Round 2 before being knocked out. In 2001 and 2004, she made it to the Semi Finals. 2006, she made it to the Quarterfinals. 2008, she lost in the 1st round. And in her last Candidates tournament in 2010, she was knocked out after the 2nd round.

    During her playing career, she was not only a World Champion and perpetual Candidate player, she also participated in a record breaking number of Chess Olympiads.

    At the 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th Women’s Olympiad, she was on Board 1 of the Soviet Union team winning gold every time.

    The 28th and 29th Olympiad, she finished in 2nd for the Soviet Union, earning silver.

    After the Soviet Union fell in 1991, Maia became the team lead of the newly formed Georgian Team. While at the helm, her team took home the gold at the 30th, 31st, 32nd, and 38th Olympiads.

    At the 33rd Olympiad, Georgia took home Bronze and at the 34th, they took home Silver.

    For this week, we are turning the clocks back 50 years to the USSR Women’s Championship of 1973, one of Maia’s first tournaments when she was only 12 years old.

    1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.d4 cxd4 5.cxd4 d6 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Nc3 Nxc3 8.bxc3 dxe5 9.d5 e4 10.Ng5 Ne5 11.Nxe4 Qc7 12.Qd4 Bd7 13.Ba3 f6 14.d6 Qc6 15.dxe7 Bxe7 16.Bxe7 Kxe7 17.Qb4 Kf7 18.f4 Rhe8 19.fxe5 Rxe5 20.O-O-O Rxe4 21.Rxd7+ Ke8 22.Re7+ 1-0

    https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1429266

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maia_Chiburdanidze

    https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/



  • S3 E3 Levon Aronian v P. Bortoli (1994)

    S3 E3 Levon Aronian v P. Bortoli (1994)

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    This week, we are taking a look at who CNN has called the “David Beckham of Chess” - the former World Rapid Champion, World Blitz Champion, World Chess960 Champion, former 2nd highest rating in the world, and 5-time Candidate for the World Championship - Levon Aronian.

    In 2004, he played in his first FIDE World Chess Championship - a 128 player knockout tournament. The winner of the tournament became the FIDE World Champion. Levon - age 22 (the 34th seed), met Magnus Carlsen - age 13 (the 95th seed) in the first round where Aronian won 2 ½ to 1 ½ . He advanced to the 3rd round before being eliminated by Pavel Smirnov. He also earned Bronze for Armenia in the Olympiad.

    In 2005, Aronian cracked the top 10 players in the world by rating. He won the Gibtelecom Masters tournament, the Karabakh tournament, and in the Russian Team Championship he had a performance rating of 2850, and in the Chess World Cup - the 128 player knockout tournament - he was seeded 3rd and ended up winning the event earning him a spot in his first Candidates tournament.

    Levon also won the Finet Chess960 tournament again - requalifying him for the Chess960 World Championship rematch against Peter Svidler. This time, he won 5-3 to become the Chess960 World Champion.

    In 2006, after a win at the Linares and Tal Memorial tournaments, Levon was the number 3 rated player in the world behind Topalov and Anand. He also assisted in earning the gold medal for Armenia in the 37th Chess Olympiad.

    In 2008 and 2009, Aronian played in the FIDE Grand Prix, a series of tournaments over 2 years where the players needed to accumulate points from different tournaments in order to qualify for the next Candidates tournament. He won the 2008 August tournament, the 2009 April tournament, and tied for second at the 2009 August (the average rating of all 3 tournaments was 2700+). He scored well enough to win the Grand Prix qualifying him for the 2012 Candidates Tournament.

    Again, there are so many accomplishments that Aronian has done in his career. Check out his Wikipedia page for a full list since I can't fit the entire script in this description :)

    This week, we are turning the clocks back to 1994 to the Under 12 European Championship. Levon Aronian versus Peter de Bortoli.

    Now, if we’re ready, let’s begin.

    —--------------

    Though he has not won the Classical Chess World Championship, Levon has shown to be arguably one of the most under rated top players we’ve seen in recent memory. He has been the Rapid World Champion, Blitz World Champion, and Chess960 World Champion. For almost 30 years, the name Levon Aronian has been synonymous with elite level chess playing.

    That is all we have for this week, tune in next time where we will continue to work on our skills and look at another game of the Masters!

    —----------------------

    1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Bg5 Bf5 4.f3 e6 5.e4 dxe4 6.fxe4 Bb4 7.exf5 O-O 8.Nf3 exf5 9.Be2 h6 10.Bxf6 Qxf6 11.O-O Bxc3 12.bxc3 Nd7 13.Rb1 b6 14.Bd3 f4 15.Qd2 g5 16.Rbe1 Qg7 17.h4 g4 18.Qxf4 gxf3 19.Rxf3 Kh8 20.Rg3 Qf6 21.Qe4 1-0

    https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1397179

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levon_Aronian

    https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

  • S3 E2 Judit Polgar v. S. Mamedyarov (2002)

    S3 E2 Judit Polgar v. S. Mamedyarov (2002)

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    In Season 1, we looked at one of the Polgar sisters - Susan. Today, we are looking at the youngest sister - Judit Polgar. Prepare yourself for a large list of records and milestones.

    Judit was born in 1976 in Hungary as the youngest of her two other siblings - Susan and Sofia. They grew up as part of an educational experiment carried out by their dad - Laszlo Polgar - with the hypothesis of - “Geniuses are made, not born”. The philosophy was to have the children focus on a specialized skill - chess - a game historically dominated by men - to show that anyone could prove excellence in any skill if they put the work in for it from a young age.

    In 1986 at the age of 10, Judit defeated her first International Master. In 1987, she defeated her first Grandmaster.

    Throughout their career, the sisters ran into sexism and bureaucracy problems when competing in “Men’s” events. The oldest sibling needed to earn 11 norms before receiving her Grandmaster title when the typical threshold was 3.

    In the published ratings of January 1989, Judit (age 12) was rated 2555 - number 55 on the World list and 35 points ahead of the Women’s World Champion Maia Chiburdandize. This is the start of her reign at the top of Women’s rating leaderboard. British Chess Magazine commented “Judit Polgar’s results make the performances of Fischer and Kasparov at a similar age pale by comparison”, GM Nigel Short remarked - “one of the three or four greatest chess prodigies in history”. GM David Norwood described Judit as: “this cute little auburn-haired monster who crushed you.”

    In 1991, Judit shattered several records by achieving her Grandmaster title after winning the Hungarian National Championship. At the age of 15 years and 4 months - she beat Fischer’s record by a month (a record that stood for 33 years). She was the 4th woman to become a Grandmaster behind - Gaprindashvili, Chiburdanidze, and her older sister Susan Polgar. Judit beat Susan’s record of being the youngest woman grandmaster by 7 years.

    There are so many accomplishments for her, I can't get all of them from the script into this description. Check out the Wikipedia page for more info!

    During her career, she never competed for the Women’s World Championship, but she is the only woman to have won 11 games against reining world number 1, current, or former World Champions including - Carlsen, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, Spassky, Smyslov, Topalov, Anand, Ponomariov, Khalifman, Kasimdzhanov.

    This week, we are traveling back to the Olympiad of 2002, where Team Hungary lost 1 game out of the 56 played. Judit Polgar versus Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

    Now, if we’re ready, let’s begin.

    —-----------------------

    Youngest GM, first woman in top 10, first woman to break 2700, first woman to play in the Candidates tournament, and the top ranked female player for 25 years - if anyone has any doubt of Judit’s skills, her Wikipedia article has 15 citations for “strongest female chess player of all time”.

    1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6 9. Nbd2 Nc5 10. c3 d4 11. Ng5 Bd5 12. Nxf7 Kxf7 13. Qf3+ Ke6 14. Qg4+ Kf7 15. Qf5+ Ke7 16. e6 Bxe6 17. Re1 Qd6 18. Bxe6 Nxe6 19. Ne4 Qe5 20. Bg5+ Kd7 21. Nc5+ Bxc5 22. Qf7+ Kd6 23. Be7+ Kd5 1-0

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judit_Polg%C3%A1r

    https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1256017

    https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

  • S3 E1 Howard Staunton v. D. Harrwitz (1846)

    S3 E1 Howard Staunton v. D. Harrwitz (1846)

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    Hello everyone, welcome back to the third season of the Blindfold Chess Podcast.

    This week, we will be looking at a name synonymous with the chess community - Howard Staunton. If you have been around the game for any length of time, you may have heard of him as an unofficial World Champion in the mid-1800s, or you’ve heard of his opening - the Staunton Gambit of 1. d4 f5 2. e4, or you’ve heard of the House of Staunton chess sets/ company that has been recognized as the recommended chess set of use by FIDE since 2022, but he has more contributions than that to our game.

    Born in 1810 in London, Staunton did not become seriously interested in chess until 1836 when he was 26 years old. He started to play games against Captain Evans - the inventor of the Evans Gambit. In 1838, he lost a match to Aaron Alexandre - a German Chess Writer.

    In 1840, Staunton became the editor of the chess column of the New Court Gazette, then that was spun off into the Chess Player’s Chronicle - which Staunton owned and edited until the 1850’s.

    In 1843 - 5 years after starting to seriously get into the game - Staunton reached a new high. He challenged the French player Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant, the presumed strongest player in the world, to a match. Staunton lost that match 2.5 - 3.5.

    Later in the year, Staunton requested a rematch in Paris against Saint-Amant for a stake of £100 (a little over £12,000 today, or about $16,000). During that match, Staunton pioneered the playing of 1.c4 - that new opening that was later named the ‘English Opening’ after this match. Staunton gained a 7-game lead but faltered before eventually winning the match 13-8 (11 wins, 4 draws, and 6 losses) at the end of 1843.

    His winning of this match awarded him the title of the Unofficial World Champion.

    Saint-Amant wanted a 3rd match, but Staunton declined citing he’d developed heart palpitations during the 2nd match (which some reported was why he faulted). Eventually a 3rd match was agreed upon at the end of 1844, but Staunton caught pneumonia and almost died. The match was later canceled.

    Later that year, Staunton and Captain Kennedy played a game via telegraph in Gosport, England against a team of 3 players in London losing 0.5 - 2.
    The Staunton style is recognized by the tallest piece being the king with a cross over the head, a coronet on the queen, the rooks have battlements on the top, knights have a sculpted head of a horse - modeled after the horses in the Elgin Marbles), and pawns have a small ball on the head and are the smallest pieces. The human-like characters - like bishops, pawns, kings, and queens - there is a flat disk toward the top that separates the body from the head known as a collar.

    Having such a prolific writing career, having the official chess set named after you, having the 4th most popular opening named after you, organizing the first international chess tournament, and being the unofficial World Champion for almost a decade - it is no wonder Staunton’s name is etched into the wall of chess history.

    1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4 Bc5 5.c3 d3 6.b4 Bb6 7.b5 Qe7 8.O-O Nd8 9.e5 Ne6 10.a4 Bc5 11.Nbd2 Nh6 12.Ne4 Nf5 13.Qxd3 d6 14.Re1 O-O 15.exd6 Bxd6 16.Nxd6 Nxd6 17.Ng5 g6 18.Bxe6 Bxe6 19.Qe3 Rfe8 20.Ba3 Qf6 21.Bxd6 cxd6 22.Ne4 Qe7 23.Qd4 Red8 24.Nf6+ Kf8 25.Nd5 1-0

    https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1055861

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Staunton

    https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

  • S2 E28 Cassidy Noble (show host) v J. Fuller (2019)

    S2 E28 Cassidy Noble (show host) v J. Fuller (2019)

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    Hi there, its me Cassidy, I’ve been the writer and voice of this podcast for a couple of years now. I have enjoyed doing the podcast, but life is starting to creep up so this will be my last episode before taking a hiatus.

    I appreciate each and every one of you who download and listen to me. The listenership has been so far beyond what I could imagine for.

    I was hoping to hold off on making an episode until I hit Master level myself, but that isn’t happening any time soon - in fact, I haven’t played in a tournament in over a year at this point and the thought of playing in one is quite a daunting effort.

    A bit about me: my mum taught me to play when I was in kindergarten. I didn’t really take much of an interest in it until I reached high school.

    I joined my local high school club and began playing in tournaments. My initial rating was 595. I found a lot of friends including my first coach - NM Tim McEntee - a 5 time Iowa state champion.

    It was also around this time that I started playing blindfold chess. In trigonometry class, a friend of mine started playing chess on a keychain chess board that I’d brought. We piled our books around the board to hide it and played during class… until we were caught. We put the board away and started passing a note back and forth with notations on it, and we kept doing that for the rest of the year.

    I finished high school and college with my rating in the mid 1600’s.

    After college, I joined a local university’s club that had great chemistry. A group of us would travel to local tournaments in various states. I made a challenge to jump from the 1600’s to 2000 in one year - I was studying 4-6 hours a day, I won my first Classical game against a Master, and finished close to my goal!

    By the end of the year I made it to 1975 and qualified for the Iowa State Championship in 2018. With months of prep, training, and studying - I finished dead last - half a point in 5 rounds. That was good learning, but brutal for confidence.

    It was about this point that I started to doubt just about everything I knew about the game, the tricks I could get away with at lower ratings didn’t work, the base level of knowledge I had in openings and middle games showed major cracks - it felt like I had to tear down everything I knew.

    I got a new coach who focused on overhauling my openings, and I started putting so much pressure on myself to perform.

    My rating fell back into the 1800’s until I started to get my footing. I fought my way back up including jumping 60 rating points at the Minnesota Open to qualify for the 2022 U2200 Minnesota State Championship.

    At the state championship, I performed well - scoring 3.5 / 5, a tie for first, and my rating crossed the 2000 barrier!

    Since then, I’ve reached a peak of 2031 before falling back into the 1900’s.

    That is where we are now. I’m going to take a break - I’m trying to re-love the game, trying to re-learn who I am, and discover what is out there.

    In today’s game - I want to go back to a blitz game I played back in 2019 that has always been one of my favorites.

    Cassidy Noble versus Jimmy Fuller from chess.com

    Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin.

    1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 a6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Nf3 Bb4 7. Bd3 d6 8. O-O O-O 9. Nd5 Nxd5 10. exd5 f5 11. Bc4 Kh8 12. Bg5 Qe8 13. c3 Ba5 14. Re1 Qg6 15. Be7 Re8 16. Rxe5 dxe5 17. Nxe5 Qb6 18. Nf7+ Kg8 19. d6 h6 20. Ng5+ Kh8 21. Qh5 Bd7 22. Qxh6+ gxh6 23. Bf6# 1-0

    https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/3374579633

    http://cassidynoble.com/

  • S2 E27 Deep Blue

    S2 E27 Deep Blue

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    This week, I wanted to look at a relatively new branch of chess - chess computers.

    The first ‘chess machine’ built in 1770 was called the Mechanical Turk. The supposed machine would play challengers with various indications that it was a functional machine. In reality, a human operated the machine using ‘The Turk’ as a sophisticated marionette.

    You have to jump almost 150 years in the future for the first verified chess computer. El Ajedrecista (ah-he-dre-sis-ta) in 1912 was capable of playing Rook and King versus King endgames - winning every time as well as identifying illegal moves.

    The 1950’s started the boom of chess computing, morphing machines into what we see today.

    In 1951, Turochamp was invented by Alan Turing and David Champernowne. The two of them helped create the first chess playing algorithm. Turochamp had a built in value of pieces - a pawn (being 1), a queen (being 10) - and it could see/understand undefended pieces, captures/recaptures, piece mobility, and other factors. It would calculate which move it could do to have the best internal score, then compare that to what would be the lowest opponent response. It would aggregate all those moves together to determine what move to do. This is the minimax algorithm in action.

    The computer was not strong enough as a computer to complete the algorithm in its entirety so it needed to be manually executed after each move.

    Fast forward to today, in 2024, the currently highest rated computer is Stockfish with an estimated rating of 3632 as of February 2024. For reference - the highest rated human player is 2882.

    It is incredible to see computers continue to climb. We no longer have an ego in the discussion of who is stronger - humans or engines. We use engines every day for learning, analysis, and personal improvement. Engines also act as a great tool to help teach people outside of the chess world on how to read a position without knowledge of the game itself. Engines have helped elevate the game far beyond what humans could have and we still have so much more to learn.

    After that crash course through history, that is all that we have for this week. Tune in next week where we will look at another chess game to continue to work on our blindfold skills.

    (Deep Thought versus David Bronstein - 1992)

    https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1079163

    1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 g5 4. h4 g4 5. Ne5 Be7 6. Qxg4 d6 7. Qg7 dxe5 8. Qxh8 Bxh4+ 9. Kd1 Bg4+ 10. Be2 Bxe2+ 11. Kxe2 Qg5 12. Kf1 f3 13. gxf3 Qg3 14. Rxh4 Qxf3+ 15. Ke1 Qg3+ 16. Ke2 Nc6 17. c3 Qxh4 18. Qxg8+ Kd7 19. Qxa8 Qg4+ 20. Kd3 f5 21. Kc2 1-0

    (Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov - 1997)

    https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070917

    1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Ng5 Ngf6 6.Bd3 e6 7.N1f3 h6 8.Nxe6 Qe7 9.O-O fxe6 10.Bg6+ Kd8 11.Bf4 b5 12.a4 Bb7 13.Re1 Nd5 14.Bg3 Kc8 15.axb5 cxb5 16.Qd3 Bc6 17.Bf5 exf5 18.Rxe7 Bxe7 19.c4 1-0

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue_(chess_computer)

    https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

    https://www.chess.com/article/view/computers-and-chess---a-history

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_chess_engines

  • S2 E26 Francois Philidor v. Cotter (1789)

    S2 E26 Francois Philidor v. Cotter (1789)

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    This week, we are looking at the opera writer and musician who documented chess books and endgames so well we are still using them today.

    Francois-Andre Danican (Dan-ee-con) Philidor came from a well known musical family. His grandfather was given nickname of Philidor by King Louis XIII of France because his oboe playing reminded him of the Italian oboist Filidor.

    When he was 6, Philidor joined the royal choir of King Louis XV of France in 1732. The story goes that Louis XV wanted to listen to the choir every day, so while waiting for the king, the kids would play chess to relieve their boredom. Philidor performed his first work directly for the king at the age of 11. When he was 14, his voice changed and he had to leave the royal choir.

    This started a life of excelling at a music career and chess profession at the same time.

    In the 1740’s - He worked in Paris as a performer, teacher, and music copyist.On the side, he played at the Cafe de la Regence where he played chess against a friends - Benjamin Franklin, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Francois Voltaire among others. In 1749, he wrote Analyse du je des Echecs, the book was so popular that by 1871 (almost 125 years later), it had 70 different editions translated into 5 languages. This book featured the now famous - Philidor Position - a staple of rook endgame studies still used today.

    In the mid 1750’s; For music, Philidor began to focus on writing musical scores. For chess, he played and won a match against his old coach and formerly strongest player in France - Legal de Kermeur (Ka-moor) (Legal is who the Legal’s mate is named after) - after the match, many people began to say Philidor was the strongest player in the world for the next almost 50 years. Side note: they did not have a formal World Championship cycle for another 80 years.

    In the 1760s; he wrote 3 of his most successful musical works - Le sorcier, Tom Jones, and Ernelinde, Princess of Norway. Philidor married his wife and later had 7 children with her.

    In the 1770s; the Freemasons’ Hall in London hosted Philidor’s first performance of Carmen Saeculaire. Chess was not considered a profession during this era. Philidor received payment from London chess clubs for his residency/lessons from February to June every year.

    On May 9th, 1783 he played 3 blindfold chess games at once. Philidor had the players sign affidavits as he thought future generations wouldn’t believe this feat was possible.

    In 1792, he was forced to leave France due to the French Revolution because his name was on the Revolutionary banishment list due to his family’s attachment to the King’s family service.

    During an era of sacrificing pawns, Philidor used pawns to solidify a position (control squares or form pawn chains) and avoid having weaknesses with them (backward or isolated) - these ideas became mainstream in the 1920’s (200+ years ahead of his era) drawing controversy from his peers. His quote of - “Les pions sont de l'âme du jeu” (pawns are the soul of the game) is referenced for middle game strategy today.

    This week, we are looking at an odds game - Francois-Andre Danican (Dan-ee-con) Philidor versus Cotter from 1789. In this game, white does not have a rook on a1.

    1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. Nf3 exf4 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. Nc3 Qe6+ 6. Kf2 Be7 7. d4 Nf6 8. Bxf4 Ne4+ 9. Nxe4 Qxe4 10. Bxc7 Nc6 11. Bd3 Qe6 12. Re1 Qxa2 13. Bb5 Bd7 14. d5 Qxb2 15. dxc6 bxc6 16. Bxc6 Bxc6 17. Rxe7+ Kxe7 18. Qd6+ Ke8 19. Qxc6+ Ke7 20. Bd6+ Kd8 21. Qc7+ Ke8 22. Qe7# 1-0

    https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1580864

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois-Andr%C3%A9_Danican_Philidor

    https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

  • S2 E25 Yasser Seirawan v. B. Spassky (1990)

    S2 E25 Yasser Seirawan v. B. Spassky (1990)

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    This week, we are looking at one of the most influential names in chess - Yasser Sierawan.

    Yasser was born in Damascus, Syria to his Syrian father and English mother. At the age of 7, his family immigrated to Seattle, Washington.

    He didn’t start playing chess until the age of 12 - this was in 1972, right in the thick of the Fischer Boom that was happening in the United States. The next year, at the age of 13, he became the Washington Junior Champion.

    In 1975, he participated in his first US Open where he defeated his first Grandmaster - Arthur Bisguier.

    At the age of 19, he played in (and won) the World Junior Championship. At a separate event, he played (and won) a game against former World Championship Challenger - Viktor Korchnoi. Korchnoi was impressed with Sierewan’s play and invited Yasser to train in Switzerland for the 1981 World Championship match between Karpov and Korchnoi.

    Yasser shares an interesting story about this where he was offered to sleep in Korchnoi’s master bedroom and Korchnoi would take the guest room. At the time, Korchnoi had just defected from the USSR so if there was an assassination attempt, they would shoot at the person in the master bedroom. I’ve left Yasser’s story in the show notes.

    In 1981, Yasser won his first US Championship in a 2 way tie as well as earned his Grandmaster title.

    Two years later, 1982, Yasser played Anatoly Karpov and defeated him. In a span of 10 years, Yasser went from no chess experience to defeating a reigning world champion.

    He received his first taste of the Candidates tournament in 1985 scoring in the middle of the pack and he won his first US Open. The following year, he won his second US Championship - this time in sole ownership.

    In 1988, he was in the Candidates again, eliminated in the first round, in 1989 he won the US Championship again.

    1990, Yasser reached his peak world ranking list by placing 10th in the world. He won the US Open again. He was also invited to do the commentary for the World Championship between Kasparov and Karpov. Later in the year, he played in his final Candidates tournament - being eliminated in the round robin portion.

    Around this point, there was a schism in the chess world between FIDE and the newly created Professional Chess Association. Starting in 1993, there were 2 simultaneous World Champions

    In 2000, he returned to his winning ways by winning his 4th and final US Chess Championship.

    In 2001, Yasser released a plan called “Fresh Start” to join the chess world back together. The plan was signed by all parties in 2002 called the “Prague Agreement”. Eventually in 2006, the world championship title was reunited.

    The next year, Yasser was awarded the Chess Journalist of the Year award, and in 2006 he was entered in the Chess Hall of Fame.

    Today, you can see him as a commentator and a streamer appearing at the St Louis Chess Club, Chessbrahs, and others - teaching, sharing stories, and talking about games.

    This week, we are going to 1990 - Yasser Seirawan versus Boris Spassky.

    1. d4 b5 2. e4 Bb7 3. Bd3 e6 4. Nf3 a6 5. O-O d6 6. c3 Nd7 7. a4 Ngf6 8. Re1 Be7 9. axb5 axb5 10. Rxa8 Qxa8 11. e5 dxe5 12. dxe5 Nd5 13. Bxb5 Bc6 14. Bxc6 Qxc6 15. Nd4 Qb7 16. Qg4 g6 17. Nd2 c5 18. N4f3 h5 19. Qe4 Qc7 20. Nc4 h4 21. Bg5 Bxg5 22. Nxg5 Rh5 23. Nxe6 1-0

    https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1129587

    https://worldchesshof.org/hof-inductee/yasser-seirawan#

    https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

    Assassination Story - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiexLWApQC8

  • S2 E24 Dommaraju Gukesh v. M. Vachier-Lagrave (2023)

    S2 E24 Dommaraju Gukesh v. M. Vachier-Lagrave (2023)

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    This week, we are looking at the Indian prodigy - Dommaraju Gukesh commonly known as Gukesh D.

    Born in 2006, Gukesh D learned how to play chess at the age of 7.

    Two years after he started to play chess, he won the Under 9 Asian School Championships in 2015 with a 1770 rating.

    He did not stop there, with his rating rapidly climbing - his father gave up his career as an ear, nose, throat surgeon to support his son while his mum continued to be a microbiologist.

    In March of 2018, Gukesh fulfilled the requirements for his International Master title at the age of 11. Later in the year, he participated in the World Youth Championships for the Under 12 division. At the event, he won 5 gold medals - one in each the: team rapid, team blitz, individual class, individual rapid, and individual blitz categories.

    He had a chance to become the youngest GM in history in December 2018, but he drew a must win game, falling short of his final GM norm by ½ of a point at the Sunway Sitges Chess Festival. In an interview with ESPN, Gukesh said - “I was disappointed for 2 days. Then I moved on”.

    The following year, in 2019, he became (at the time) the 2nd youngest player to ever earn his Grandmaster title at the age of - 12 years, 7 months, 17 days. He missed Sergey Karjakin’s record by 17 days.

    From getting his first International Master norm to his final Grandmaster norm, Gukesh played in over 30 tournaments over 16 months covering 276 games in 13 countries. Over a span of 5.5 years, he went from a rating of 1300 to 2500.

    In 2021, he earned gold on Board one at the Chess Olympiad with a 2867 performance rating.

    Last year was a very busy year for Gukesh, he surpassed Vishiwanathan Anand as the top ranked Indian player. The first time in 37 years that Anand was not the top ranked Indian player. He finished 2nd in the FIDE World Cup earning a spot in the 2024 Candidates tournament. He was the youngest to cross the 2750 rating barrier.

    Gukesh is still in school! He attends (Vel-a-mal Vid-e-a-lee-ya) (Mel Aye-an-a-back-um) Velammal Vidyalaya , Mel Ayanambakkam in Chennai. He attends the same school as Praggnanandhaa. In September of 2023, they both received 20 lakh from their school for their chess accomplishments. 20 lakh is approximately $24,000 USD or 22,000 Euros.

    So far in 2024, Gukesh finished in a 4 way tie for 1st in 2024 Tata Steel Chess Tournament.

    There doesn’t seem to be a ceiling for Gukesh’s accomplishments. Time will only tell what he will be able to do in the future.

    This week, we are going to the Tata Steel India tournament from last year - Dommaraju Gukesh versus Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

    Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin.

    1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Nbd7 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bf4 Bb4 7. e3 Ne4 8. Qc2 g5 9. Bg3 Nb6 10. Bd3 Bf5 11. Nd2 Qe7 12. a3 Bxc3 13. bxc3 h5 14.Bxe4 dxe4 15. h4 O-O-O 16. c4 Bg6 17. a4 Rxd4 18. a5 Rhd8 19. axb6 Rxd2 20. bxa7 Rxc2 21. a8=Q+ Kd7 22. Qa4+ Ke6 23. Qxc2 Qb4+ 24. Ke2 1-0

    https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2569140

    https://www.chess.com/players/gukesh-dommaraju

    https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

    https://sportstar.thehindu.com/chess/praggnanandhaa-gukesh-felicitated-school-velammal-nexus-cash-prize-anand-udhayanidhi-stalin-india-chess-news/article67296473.ece

  • S2 E23 Anna Cramling v. T. Simon Lindgaard (2019)

    S2 E23 Anna Cramling v. T. Simon Lindgaard (2019)

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    With a birthday less than a week ago, this week, we are looking at Spanish-Swedish star Anna Cramling.

    Anna has a very strong chess background - her father is Grandmaster Juan Manuel Bellon Lopez - the 5 time Spanish Chess Champion and 11 time Spanish Olympiad player. Her mother is - Pia Cramling - the 5th woman to ever to have earned her Grandmaster title, the number 1 woman player in the world in 1984, and she has 9 gold medals between the European Club Cup and Women’s Chess Olympiad.

    Anna started playing chess at the age of 3 and regularly accompanied her parents to tournaments due to not having a babysitter.

    In an interview with Chessbase, her mother commented: “sometimes, e.g. at Olympiads or similar tournaments, we could find someone to help us and you could see an arbiter carrying Anna around!... When she was already a bit older – she’d sit on my legs while I played or next to me sleeping in the trolley. She was a very quiet and calm child and very easy to take with us, so she was almost all the time traveling with her father and me to tournaments.”

    Anna earned her first FIDE rating of 1519 at the age of 10.

    Two years later, she gained 300 rating points over 4 tournaments in 2 months.

    At the age of 14, she broke the 2000 rating barrier. She also participated in her first Olympiad for Sweden. By doing so, she became the youngest female to ever participate in the Olympiad for Sweden - beating the record previously set by her mother. Her mum was also on the 2016 team on board 1 (earning a Bronze medal) and Anna’s father was the team captain. The team finished 23rd out of 140.

    2018 was a busy year for Anna. She reached her peak rating of 2175, earning her her Women’s FIDE Master title. She participated in U20 world junior championships finishing 54th out of 98, she also participated in the U16 World Youth Championships finishing 59th out of 90.

    During the pandemic, Anna backed off of playing in tournaments and instead focused on her streaming career. She commentated with her mother on the 2020 Women’s World Championships, she signed with the Panda esports team becoming the first chess streamer and first Swedish chess player to sign with an esports organization, in 2023 and 2024 she was nominated for the Streamer Awards, and presently - she has more than 360,000 Twitch followers. Over 890,000 Subscribers on Youtube, and almost 400,000 followers on Instagram.

    Anna has done a wonderful job promoting chess and bringing more women into the chess community.

    This week, we are going to the Xtracon Open from 2019. Anna Cramling versus Tobias Lindgaard.

    Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin.

    1. d4 Nc6 2. Nf3 d6 3. e4 g6 4. d5 Nb8 5. c4 Bg7 6. Nc3 Nf6 7. Be2 Nbd7 8. Be3 c5 9. dxc6 bxc6 10. O-O O-O 11. h3 Qc7 12. Rc1 Qb8 13. Qc2 e5 14. Rfd1 Rd8 15. c5 Nf8 16. Nxe5 Bb7 17. cxd6 Rxd6 18. Rxd6 Qxd6 19. Nxf7 Kxf7 20. Qb3+ Ne6 21. Qxb7+ Nc7 22. Nb5 1-0

    https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1969070

    https://en.chessbase.com/post/a-strong-duo-an-interview-with-pia-and-anna-cramling

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Cramling

    https://www.youtube.com/@AnnaCramling

    https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

    http://cassidynoble.com/

  • S2 E22 Jeremy Silman v J. MacFarland (1991)

    S2 E22 Jeremy Silman v J. MacFarland (1991)

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    Passing away in late 2023, International Master Jeremy Silman made a lasting impact on our game through his playing, his consulting, his writing, and his coaching.

    Born in 1954, Silman didn’t start playing chess until he was 12 where he went to his first tournament, ending with a rating of 1068.

    In high school, Silman expressed to his guidance counselor that he wanted to go to “Moscow University” to study chess from the best players of the Soviet Union. Considering this was in the middle of the Cold War, this was not really an option.

    Instead, he joined the Army but he lasted less than 3 months before being discharged and going to San Francisco in 1973. Two years later at the age of 20, earned his Master title.

    The next couple of years, his US Chess Rating began to grow. 2400 in 1980. 2500 in 1981 where he tied for first at the US Open. He hit his peak US Chess rating of 2556 in 1982.

    He met his future wife in 1988 and after 2 months of dating asked her to marry him. In an interview with the New York Times, Ms Feldman said she was unsure because the life of a chess player can be unstable, so she said she would marry him only if he fulfilled the requirements to become an International Master.

    Later in the year, he earned his final IM norm - shortly thereafter he and his wife got married.

    In 1990, he was the winner of the National Open. Two years later, he was the winner of the American Open. Silman reached his peak rating in 1995 when he reached a 2420 rating.

    He never had an interest in trying to achieve his Grandmaster title. His last tournament was in 1999, but by that point, he’d started to phase himself out of tournaments instead focusing on his writing and his coaching.

    He was a coach of the US Junior National Team as well as a columnist for Chess Life, New In Chess, and Chess.com. According to Chess.com, he wrote 481 articles for the website.

    Silman went on to write a total of 39 books selling over 600,000 copies including - Reassess Your Chess, Silman’s Complete Endgame Manual, The Amateur’s Mind, and The Complete Book of Chess Strategy. His success was predominantly in the United States, but his book has now been translated into French and German.

    Not only that, but he was also a chess consultant on high profile shows like - Criminal Minds, Arliss, Monk, Malcolm in the Middle, and Harry Potter (though he is uncredited for his puzzle in the Harry Potter movie).

    Unfortunately, Silman passed away in September of 2023 at the age of 69 from a form of dementia.

    Through his works and education, Jeremy Silman helped influence hundreds of thousands of chess players. Reassess Your Chess was given to me as one of my first chess books I’ve read and Silman’s Complete Endgame Course was one of the first endgame books I enjoyed.

    In today’s game we are going back to 1991 to the Reno Open.

    Jeremy Silman versus James MacFarland.

    Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin.

    1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Nf3 Be7 5.Bg2 O-O 6.Nbd2 Nbd7 7.O-O c6 8.Qc2 b6 9.e4 dxe4 10.Nxe4 Bb7 11.Bf4 Nxe4 12.Qxe4 Nf6 13.Qe2 Bd6 14.Ne5 Bxe5 15.dxe5 Nd7 16.Rfd1 Qe7 17.Rd6 Rac8 18.Rad1 Nb8 19.Qg4 Kh8 20.Bg5 Qc7 21.Be4 c5 22.Bxb7 Qxb7 23.Bf6 1-0

    https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1124892

    https://www.chess.com/news/view/jeremy-silman-1954-2023

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/26/books/jeremy-silman-dead.html

    http://cassidynoble.com/

  • S2 E21 Fabiano Caruana vs B. Gelfand (2010)

    S2 E21 Fabiano Caruana vs B. Gelfand (2010)

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    Fabiano Luigi Caruana, the chess phenom who was the youngest American to earn his Grandmaster title, the youngest to win the Italian Champion, the current top US player, and the number 2 player in the world… - his accomplishments go on for a while, but currently - he is playing in his 5th Candidates tournament aiming for the World Championship.

    Born in Florida in 1992 to his Italian parents, he moved to Brooklyn when he was 4. He played in an after school chess program when he was 5 when his chess talents were discovered. Later that year he played in his first tournament.

    In 2008, he won the Corus C tournament (the Tata Steel tournament) and won the Italian Championship again.

    In 2009, he won the Corus B tournament - becoming the first player to win back to back Corus C and Corus B tournaments.

    In 2010 and 2011, he won back to back Italian Chess Championships.

    However - the 2014 Sinquefield Cup was different. The tournament consisted of 6 players - the number 1,2,3,5,8, and 9 players in the world. Caruana had the performance of his life winning the first 7 games, then drawing 3, and having 0 losses earning him a performance rating of 3098. The highest performance rating in a single tournament ever. Later that year, he earned his peak FIDE rating of 2844 - the third highest rating in history.

    The following year, Caruana moved back to the United States from Italy and began to play under the American flag - in doing so - he became the highest rated American player (a title he has not relinquished since he moved).

    In 2016, he participated in his first Candidates tournament - finishing in a tie for 2nd. A month later, he was playing in his first US Championship. He finished a full point ahead of Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura to become the US Champion.

    The next year, he landed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list under the ‘Games’ category - becoming the first chess player to make the list.

    2018 was also a big year for Fabiano. In March, he played in his 2nd Candidates tournament where he won and advanced to play Magnus Carlsen for the championship. He was the first American world championship challenger since Fischer in 1972.

    The match against Carlsen was close, what else do you expect when the world number 1 and 2 play a match? The first game was 115 moves. Game 6 - Fabi had a “chance” to win with a ‘forced mate in 30’ on move 67, but they drew. Carlsen had a chance in Game 12, but offered a draw. All 12 games they played ended in draws. Carlsen’s strategy was to beat Fabi in the rapid tie breaks - and that he did, winning all 3 and keeping his title.

    Since then, Fabiano has kept busy. He qualified again for the Candidates in 2020 and 2022. He won his 2nd and 3rd US Championships in 2022 and 2023, and how, he is playing in his 5th Candidates tournament to try to dethrone Ding Liren as the current World Champion.

    In today’s game, we are going back to the World Blitz Championship of 2010.

    Fabiano Caruana v Boris Gelfand

    Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin.

    1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 d6 3. f4 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bc4 Nc6 6. O-O Nf6 7. d3 O-O 8. f5 gxf5 9. Qe1 fxe4 10. dxe4 Be6 11. Nd5 Ne5 12. Nxe5 dxe5 13. Bg5 Bxd5 14. exd5 Qd6 15. Qh4 Nxd5 16. Rad1 e6 17. Rf6 Qc7 18. Bxd5 exd5 19. Rd3 Rfd8 20. Bh6 Bxh6 21. Qxh6 e4 22. Rg3+ 1-0

    https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1599806

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabiano_Caruana

    https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

    http://cassidynoble.com/

  • S2 E20 Puzzles

    S2 E20 Puzzles

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    Welcome back to another episode!

    In today’s episode, I will be providing you with the locations of the different pieces on the board. It is your job to figure out the solution by pausing the podcast before moving on. Today, we will be looking at 3 puzzles each around a different endgame theme starting from Easy and working our way to Hard.

    Here is your first puzzle - White has a king on e5 and a pawn on c5. Black has a King on d8 with white to move.

    Again, that is White has a king on e5 and a pawn on c5. Black has a King on d8 with white to move.

    Please pause and find the solution before moving on.

    Solution coming in 5 seconds.

    —- -—

    This puzzle looks at the concept of opposition. When the white king steps to d6, it forces black to protect the queening square by stepping to c8. White follows up with King to c6. If they could, they would ‘pass’, but black is forced to give up ground and white will procure the queening square by stepping to either b7 or d7.

    Time to move on to the next puzzle, this one is a little tougher.

    White has a King on c4, a rook on f7, and a rook on h6. Black has a king on e8 and a Queen on a5 with white to move.

    Again, that is a King on c4, a rook on f7, and a rook on h6. Black has a king on e8 and a Queen on a5 with white to move.

    Please pause and find the solution before moving on.

    Solution coming in 5 seconds.

    —- —

    This one is quite incredible. Even with so few pieces on the board, white is able to sacrifice their rook since the black queen is trapped. Rook to a7 attacks the queen, a queen that has no square to go to without being captured or allowing quite to access the ladder mate by playing Rook to h8 checkmate. Black gives up the queen and allows white to check the king and force it on the same rank as the queen. Then white will win the Rook versus King ending.

    Onto the last puzzle! This one is a little tricky, we’ll be looking at a couple variations.

    White has a king on h8 and a pawn on c6. Black as a king on a6 and a pawn on h5.

    Again, White has a king on h8 and a pawn on c6. Black as a king on a6 and a pawn on h5.

    Please pause and find the solution before moving on.

    Solution coming in 5 seconds.

    —- - —

    This puzzle is Richard Reti's Famous Endgame Puzzle originally published in 1921. Black has a passed pawn that ‘can’t’ be captured by the white king while white’s passed pawn is firmly under black’s control.

    White needs to utilize the idea of ‘multi-purpose’ moves in order to simultaneously move toward his pawn and track down black’s pawn.

    We are going to look at the second variation now which contains sub-variations. Return to the starting position and remember the position when we enter a sub-variation.

    —-------

    There are two main ideas here, but they both start with King g7 to move closer to both pawns. Black now has the option to either try to stop white’s pawn by moving his king closer which gives white time to move toward black’s pawn allowing both pawns to be captured - ending in a draw. Conversely, black could try to advance his pawn, giving white enough time to move toward his own pawn allowing his queen to promote at the same time as black’s - resulting in a draw.

    That concludes our 3 puzzles for this week. Tune in next episode where we will continue to work on our visualization with another game of the Masters.

    https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

    http://cassidynoble.com/

  • S2 E19 Tigran Petrosian v. L. Pachman (1961)

    S2 E19 Tigran Petrosian v. L. Pachman (1961)

    · Blindfold Chess Podcast

    The Iron Tigran was Tigran Petrosian’s nickname for his solid defensive style. Born in 1929, he started learning chess when he was 8. During WWII - Petrosian was orphaned and needed to sweep streets to earn a living. During this time, he got sick and developed a hearing problem that would affect him for the remainder of his life.

    Using his ration money, Petrosian bought Chess Praxis by Nimzowitsch and by age 12, he began training at the Tiflis Palace of Pioneers - a place where students could focus on creative work and sports training.

    His first coach - Archil Ebralidze was a fan of Nimzowitsch and Capablanca who discouraged wild tactics and speculative combinations. Ebralidze’s solid style made its way into Tigran’s play.

    In 1951, Petrosian was in Moscow participating in the Soviet Championship. At that tournament, he played the World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik for the first time. That game went through two different adjournments and lasted a total of 11 hours of play to secure a draw. Tigran ended up finishing in 2nd in the tournament, earning him his International Master title.

    That tournament qualified him for the Interzonal Tournament in Stockholm where he finished in 2nd - earning him his Grandmaster title and qualifying him for his first of 8 different Candidates tournaments.

    Tigran developed a reputation for quick draws or in general just drawing his games. That made him incredibly consistent - never really losing, but also never really winning major tournaments, he would hold 2nd or 3rd place in many tournaments much to the chagrin of his colleagues and the press.

    His first 3 Candidates in 1954, 1956, and 1960 he placed 5th, 3rd, and 3rd. 1962 was different. Petrosian won clear first in the Candidates - 19 draws, 8 wins, and 0 losses - in fact in all of 1962 he never lost a tournament game. That qualified him to play Mikhail Botvinnik in the 1963 World Championships.

    Petrosian’s solid style suited him well in match play. The focus on prophylactic play allowed him to wait for an opponent's mistake before taking the opportunity to strike. He took down Botvinnik 12.5 to 9.5 to become the World Champion at age 33.

    As World Champion - Tigran campaigned for a chess newspaper across the entire Soviet Union rather than just Moscow. This newspaper was later rebranded as ‘64’ and is still in publication today.

    3 years after his first win, he was challenged to the World Championship by Boris Spassky to which Tigran defended his title 12.5 to 11.5.

    The next tournament cycle in 1969 was a rematch between Petrosian and Spassky where Spassky came out the winner 12.5 to 10.5 relegating Petrosian back to the Candidates.

    In 1972, he lost to Bobby Fischer in the finals. That year Fischer became World Champion.

    During all of this, Tigran participated in 10 straight Olympiads from 1958 to 1978 winning 9 team gold medals, and 6 individual gold medals. Over the 20-year 129-games played period - he had 78 wins, 50 draws, and 1 loss.

    In today’s game, we are going back to the Bled tournament of 1961.

    Tigran Petrosian versus Ludek Pachman

    Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin.

    1.Nf3 c5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 g6 4.O-O Bg7 5.d3 e6 6.e4 Nge7 7.Re1 O-O 8.e5 d6 9.exd6 Qxd6 10.Nbd2 Qc7 11.Nb3 Nd4 12.Bf4 Qb6 13.Ne5 Nxb3 14.Nc4 Qb5 15.axb3 a5 16.Bd6 Bf6 17.Qf3 Kg7 18.Re4 Rd8 19.Qxf6+ Kxf6 20.Be5+ Kg5 21.Bg7 1-0

    https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1104948

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigran_Petrosian

    https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

    http://cassidynoble.com/

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