Ep. 120: Fix Your Chess Mistakes! (Review of "The World's Most Instructive Amateur Game Book")
For club-level chess players and adult improvers, an argument can be made that amateur games are significantly more instructive than Grandmaster games. Amateur games feature themes, ideas, mistakes, a...
11 Aug 202445min
Ep. 119: Ineffective Chess Study Habits
Developing tournament players are often told the following: study tons of Master games, drill tactics, review mate-in-one puzzles, and do not spend more than 10% of your study time on openings. Is thi...
4 Aug 202436min
Ep. 118 (S8 Premiere): Chess Improvement Realities (Also, The King's Indian Attack Opening System)
Welcome to Season 8! Neal begins by discussing the state of the podcast and some harsh truths about chess improvement that are arguably not mentioned enough. The final segment is a discussion of the K...
28 Juli 202433min
Ep. 117 (S7 Finale): Online Chess "Doomsday Feature" to Stop Your Losing Streak
This week's episode is our Season 7 Finale (Season 8 coming soon...). In this light, laid-back, rapid-fire episode, Neal reacts to the enjoyable chess.com article 7 Hot Takes That Are Just True by Ped...
7 Juli 202422min
Ep. 116: The Truth About Bishops & Knights for the Club-Level Chess Player (Game Analysis #10)
This week, Neal discusses another instructive tournament game. We cover the following and more: "Frustration" moves Attacking the fianchetto pawn structure When those h3/h6 pawn moves are good (or ba...
30 Juni 202443min
Ep. 115: What (Some) Chess Coaches Don't Get (Game Analysis #9)
This week, Neal begins by diving into the listener mailbag. This is followed by an instructive analysis of a recent OTB tournament game. We cover the following and more: A common piece of chess coach...
23 Juni 202440min
Ep. 114: How to Avoid Time-Trouble at Club-Level Chess Tournaments
Like it or not, the clock is just as much a part of tournament chess as the board and pieces. Poor clock management is a consistent problem for many players. We cover: Why clock management is essenti...
16 Juni 202438min
Ep. 113: Stop Dropping Pawns! (Game Analysis #8)
You hang one pawn, then eight moves later you hang another, and then your opponent easily wins the game while you're still processing where you went wrong. This is all too common at the club level. In...
9 Juni 202436min
