English Chess Forum

Episode 31 is here! We speculate whether elite online chess is completely oversaturated, whether chess can learn anything from franchise cricket, and discuss a sad missing persons case.

LawrenceCooper wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 20, 2020 5:38 pm

Phil Makepeace wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 20, 2020 3:30 pm

Episode 30 is an interview with English WFM Kanwal Bhatia about her careers in chess and machine learning. We also discuss the state of the game in the country with particular reference to women and girls. Kanwal's a thoughtful and engaging speaker and well-placed to make such judgements.

A very informative interview. It's well worth a listen.

I have belatedly caught up with this interview and I concur with Lawrence that it was half an hour well spent. Kanwal is indeed an interesting and well informed person, but I also found some of Phil's comments thought provoking.

Thanks, David!

We’ve just published Episode 32 as well. We pay tribute to Wolfgang Uhlmann, as well as to FIDE being clowns. Hugh has views on jeans, and Jon has a sing-song. Available on whichever podcast platform you choose!

Phil, I enjoyed the last four so will play 32 soon. Thanks. Nick

Thanks, Nick!

Episode 33 has been unleashed and sees us get a bit grumpy about having our ideas stolen but then brazenly come up with yet more original material. Which will probably be stolen.

Who enjoyed Chess or Cheese from the latest episode?

Anyway, Frankie Mitchell has made us some brilliant new artwork for all our social bits. We're dead happy with them and you should definitely hire her for all your design needs.

Episode 34 is a fun romp through years of failure, decline and ineptitude. We recap Chess 9LX, muse over what correspondence players do in their spare time, and ask what the topical Rule of Six could look like in chess. Enjoy!

The Chess Pit is available on all podcast platforms. For your health.

This week in Episode 35 we discuss the evolutionary prowess of pandas, devote some more time to the mechanisms of adult chess improvement, and engage in cancel culture. Available on all podcast platforms and please do spread the word if you enjoy what we get up to.

The Twitch streams are also coming back and everything so far can be found on our YouTube channel.

Why did Britpop die? When did chess hustling start being a thing? Is Toy Story 3 a good allegory for how children's chess books can be useful for adults? These are august questions, but it's October now, so we only partially answer them in Episode 36.

Episode 37 is here!

It's time to talk as we start a conversation on chess and mental health. But there's still room for other nonsense, including a brief roundup of Altibox Norway Chess, the pointed chess musings of President Gerald Ford, and whether Alex Holowczak is or was an Olympic boxer.

The Chess Pit is available on all podcast platforms!

Episode 38 is here!

The sorry tale of Isa Kasimi dominates proceedings this week but what can be done about game integrity when the world governing body doesn't seem to care? In more cheerful news, we cover the stalemate rule, try to fix the perfect chess dinner party, and discuss streaking (specifically Magnus...).

Episode 39 comes swerving and skidding at you from the turn of the millennium. And 1993.

We wonder why a Short boom didn’t materialise to the same degree as the Fischer-Spassky boom, analyse Aronian’s distractions with a dollop of Firouzja’s panic, and the quiz gets all linguistic.

The Chess Pit is available on all podcast platforms such as Apple, Google, and Spotify. Enjoy!

Episode 40 discusses the sliding scale of activities to do in the rain, the Netflix sensation The Queen's Gambit, and we delve quite literally into the 1953 Zurich tournament book for this week's Christory segment. Enjoy!

We've been up all night watching CNN and there's a somewhat political slant to this week's offering. But there's still room for bad Hungarian pronunciations, a geographical analysis of the world's Top 100 women, and more thoughts on 'The Queen's Gambit'. Enjoy!

We’re planning a Twelve Interviews of Christmas feature, or something maybe a little less ambitious. Who do you think we should try to get?