111 - Jack Rudd and Mansa Keita - Checkmates

Two for Tea Podcast

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.