117 Hailing from Cuba, and now one of the top American women players, WGM Thalia Cervantes is a chess powerhouse. For the past four years, she’s been invited to and played at the elite US Women’s Chess Championship.

And her competitive pursuits are nowhere near finished. Thalia is working diligently with a coach to earn her IM title, with one norm already achieved.

She’s also just released her first Chessable course, called, “Building an Attacking Intuition in Chess,” a subject we explore at length in the second half of the episode.

We also discuss:

• How a club player can develop an attacking intuition through pattern recognition.
• Thalia’s thoughts on her performance at the 2024 US Women’s Chess Championship (and how she prepares for these events.)
• The highlights of her early years in the thriving Cuban chess culture and the importance of Capablanca.
• Her plans post-college and what goes into earning the IM title.

More From Thalia:

• Chessable Course: Building an Attacking Intuition in Chess
• Instagram

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116 What a chess career! GM Boris Avrukh cracked the World Top 50 in 2005 and achieved a peak rating of 2668. He has coached the world’s best players like Fabiano Caruana, Vladimir Kramnik, and Wesley So. And he even got to be the last person to ever play the legendary Mikhail Tal.

Of course, Boris has had an exemplary competitive career representing Israel in six chess Olympiads and winning the World U12 Championship in 1990.

In addition to years of coaching the world’s best and club players alike, Boris has also written countless opening books and published five Chessable courses.

Boris and I talk at length about his course called “Resourceful Chess: Defense & Counterplay,” which will give you some excellent advice on how to play better defense.

We also discuss:

• Why it’s important to recognize key defensive patterns.
• His experience coaching Fabiano Caruana.
• Why Boris choose to highlight Hans Niemann for defensive play in his course (and whether he did so knowing he’d be controversial.)

More From GM Boris Avrukh

• Chessable Courses
• Website
• YouTube
• Twitter

How You Can Support the Pod:

Join this show’s Patreon, called “Podcast Perks,” and get a ton of benefits like: submitting questions to guests, a shout-out of your name on the pod, a DM convo w/ me each month about chess or latest episodes, and more! Join Podcast Perks here.

Or you can…

>>Support this pod by grabbing a chess.com membership which will help you improve your chess & defeat your enemies. A small portion will fund this pod - and every bit helps! Just click this link.

>> Neither? How about checking out Daniel's chess.com profile? Witness his countless, embarrassing blitz losses. He even accepts some friend requests. (Ad)

115 She learned the game at 19. The next year she became a titled player with an 1800+ FIDE rating. Then, several years later, WFM Perpetual Ogbiyoyo founded an organization to spread chess to girls and women throughout Nigeria. Now, she’s expanded her connection to the chess world by moving to New York City. In this episode, we talk about her incredible journey, including:

• How she rose from complete beginner to Woman FIDE Master in one year.
• A window into the culture and community of chess in Nigeria.
• Why she created the organization Promoting Queens and its mission to empower girls everywhere through chess.
• Her aspiration to become the first Nigerian woman Grandmaster.

How You Can Support the Pod:

You can greatly help this pod with a donation. Much time and expense goes into creating this show. And, I’d be very grateful if you could support this endeavor which aims to give you the best in chess interviews. Leave a brief note with your donation and I’ll respond personally to you. Donate here.

Or you can…

>>Support this pod by grabbing a chess.com membership which will help you improve your chess & defeat your enemies. A small portion will fund this pod - and every bit helps! Just click this link.

>> Neither? How about checking out Daniel's chess.com profile? Witness his countless, embarrassing blitz losses. He even accepts some friend requests. (Ad)

More From WFM Perpetual Ogbiyoyo

• Promoting Queens website
• Twitter