Welcome to another edition of Perpetual Chess, Chess Books Recaptured!
My guest co-host this month is Bryan Castro. Bryan is a dad, businessman, chess teacher and adult improver from Buffalo, NY. Bryan and I are both fans of GM Alex Yermolinksy, and we share a strong affinity for his instructive and readable 1999 chess-improvement memoir, The Road to Chess Improvement. We like this book so much that we were not going to let a global pandemic stop us from getting together and sharing our favorite quotes, games and chess-improvement takeaways from this somewhat underappreciated gem. Please read on for more details, timestamps and relevant links.
To see embedded hyperlinks, go here:
www.perpetualchesspod.com/new...
KZfaq background photo courtesy of:
GMBartek / CC BY-SA (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Buy the book here:
www.amazon.com/Road-Chess-Imp...
4:00- After a few programming notes, Bryan Castro joins the show and shares a bit about his personal background.
7:00- What does Bryan like about The Road to Chess Improvement?
Mentioned: Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, GM Jon Ludvig Hammer, IM John Watson’s Review of Road to Chess Improvement, Hear GM Yermolinksy’s interview on Perpetual Chess here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
10:00- Both of us used the original Gambit version of Road to Chess Improvement
11:00- What was happening in the chess world when this book was released in 1999?
Mentioned: GM Kasparov, GM Alexander Khalifman, GM Alexei Shirov, GM Viswanthan Anand
13:00- Bryan shares a bit more about Yermolinksky’s background.
Mentioned: GM Gregory Serper, GM Alexander Shabalov
15:00- For what level player is this book most helpful?
17:30- We dive into the book, as Bryan reads some inspiring opening paragraphs from The Road to Chess Improvement
Mentioned: GM Alekhine, GM Botvinnik,
20:00- We discuss the structure of the book and our favorite chapters.
Mentioned: Vladimir Zak
29:30- We share a few of our favorite quotes from the book.
Mentioned: GM Evgeny Bareev, GM Vassilly Ivanchuk, GM Peter Svidler, GM Vladimir Kramnik, GM Sam Shankland, GM Viktor Korchnoi, GM Jan Timman, GM Alexander Beliavsky, GM Mikhail Tal, GM Mikhail Botvinnik
40:00- We each pick a favorite game from the book.
Mentioned: GM Arthur Yusopov, Yermolinsky-Khmelnitsky 1995, Hjartarson-Yermolinsky 1996
45:00- What are the chess improvement takeaways from The Road to Chess Improvement?
Mentioned: IM Greg Shahade
48:00- How useful is the book for improvement?
49:00 What, if any, are our quibbles with the book?
Deep Blue vs. Garry Kasparov
52:00- Closing remarks and good bye to Bryan Castro. In lieu of paying Bryan for his efforts I will be making a small donation to the East Aurora Chess Club. You can keep up with Bryan the following ways:
Bryan’s KZfaq Channel here:
/ betterchesstraining
Bryan’s website, Better Chess Training here:
www.betterchesstraining.com/
Follow him on twitter here:
/ yourbryancastro
56:00- Blindfold puzzles of the month:
Puzzle #1- White to move, find the best move
share.chessbase.com/SharedGam...
Solution #1-
share.chessbase.com/SharedGam...
Puzzle #2- Black to move and win material
e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Qf6 5. Nxc6 Qxc6 6. Qe2 Bc5 7. Nc3 Ne7
Qf3 Ng6 9. Bc4 Ne5 10. Qe2 {Black to move and win material} 0-1
share.chessbase.com/SharedGam...
Solution #2-
share.chessbase.com/SharedGam...
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