111 - Jack Rudd and Mansa Keita - Checkmates

Jack’s chess blog:
https://chessgospinny.blogspot.com/

Follow Jack on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/imjackrudd

Jack’s Lichess account:
https://lichess.org/@/JackRudd

Mansa’s Medium blog:
https://medium.com/@rasmansa

Follow Mansa on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/rasmansa

Mansa’s Lichess account:
https://lichess.org/@/rasmansa

References

Lichess, free online chess website:
https://lichess.org/

Information about AlphaGo:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaGo

Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy by John Watson:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secrets-Modern-Chess-Strategy-Nimzowitsch/dp/1901983072

Ludek Pachman’s Modern Chess Strategy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pachmans-Modern-Chess-Strategy-Pachman/dp/4871874966/

Timestamps

2:32 Jack and Mansa relate how they started playing chess and how it has affected their lives. How Iona recently got into chess.

7:46 How can studying chess benefit people? Does chess provide you with transferable skills? What can it teach you?

12:02 Favourite players both historically and currently.

13:26 How have computers impacted chess-playing? What has the impact of AlphaGo been? What are computers good for in chess?

17:06 Where do beginners go wrong? Mansa’s tips for beginners.

19:43 A question from Twitter: what is your favourite chess piece and why?

21:03 Advice on how to study and play chess. Jack’s current favourite chess book.

25:46 Another Twitter question: is chess computationally solvable? Is chess now doomed to always end in draws at the highest level?

30:04 The upcoming World Championship: will there be a draw or will it be more messy and exciting?

31:35 Another Twitter question: if it was up to you, what would the format of the World Championship be?

33:08 Thanks to computers, there are no longer adjournments in chess: what has been the effect of this on how games are played?

35:50 Blunders in chess.

38:34 Another Twitter question: will our increasingly short attention spans affect chess?

40:30 Another Twitter question: why is there a paucity of women in chess?

46:08 Another Twitter question: why has such a slow, cerebral game become popular in drama as a backdrop?

46:58 Would you encourage others to play chess. Why or why not?

48:10 Mansa: chess as escapism, as a unifier, as egalitarian, as meritocratic, as a demonstration of personal responsibility; the beauty of chess.