109 The upcoming World Championship should be a fascinating one! GM Ding Liren is the reigning world champ. While he’s an extraordinary talent, his rating and performance have backslid this past year. And, sadly, Ding has been struggling with psychological issues...

Meanwhile, India’s brightest chess talent and Ding's opponent, GM Gukesh Dommaraju, will be the youngest player to ever compete in the World Championship at 18 years old.

Gukesh, though he’s been stellar in his recent competitive performances, will have to face a lack of experience at the highest level.

To help explore and illuminate the different issues at play, FM Carsten Hansen returns to the podcast for another World Championship preview.

Carsten is one of the most prolific chess authors around we discuss the unique challenges for each player, whether their styles will be a factor, and clues to look for in the early games to help you know who may win the match.

The event begins on November 25th, 2024…

BUT…this episode will be worth listening to even several days later to help understand the match and gain some fascinating chess insights.

More From FM Carsten Hansen:

• Carsten’s co-authored book: A Century of Chess
• Carsten’s chess books
• Carsten on Twitter

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Our guest this week is a self-taught FIDE Master, coach, and popular course creator hailing from the Netherlands: Midas Ratmas.

Midas has built his chess career around helping club players and beginners.

As such, he’s developed a special talent for teaching chess to players at this level.

Midas has already published over a dozen Chessable courses covering areas like the opening, tactics, and strategy - with many more on the horizon.

In this episode, we talk about:

• The 3 ways he makes opening courses more accessible and easier for club players to manage.
• Why beginners - and maybe even club players - should learn the strategies that stem from each of the individual chess pieces.
• How he plans to achieve his goal of earning the IM title.
• Straightforward advice on endgames & calculation from his upcoming courses.

Midas’s Chessable course page

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107 Few adult club players are as committed to the game as Nick Visel.

For years, he’s been racking up countless OTB classical games, poring through books and courses, and sharing his wisdom on Chess Twitter.

Currently, Nick stands at 1600 USCF with ambitions of becoming a Class A player and reaching National Master.

Nick shares great tips from his earned wisdom, plus how he’s willing to scale back his chess when other areas of his life take priority.

In this episode, we discuss:

• A better way to learn openings beyond just tedious memorization.
• Why he’s reduced his chess study workload and how it helps him avoid burnout.
• Why he thinks Karpov would have beaten Fischer had they played in 1975.
• The importance of a poker face in OTB chess

More From Nick:

• Twitter
• Nick’s Substack

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