Perpetual Chess Podcast
Perpetual Chess Podcast
Ben Johnson
Book Recap #5 : Alex Yermolinksy's The Road to Chess Improvement with Bryan Castro
1 hour 9 minutes Posted Mar 20, 2020 at 4:00 am.
After a few programming notes, Bryan Castro joins the show and shares a bit about his personal background.
What does Bryan like about The Road to Chess Improvement?
Both of us used the original Gambit version of Road to Chess Improvement
What was happening in the chess world when this book was released in 1999?
Bryan shares a bit more about Yermolinksky’s background.
For what level player is this book most helpful?
Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.  Check out GM Pentala Harikrishna’s 2020 FIDE Candidates “Game of the Day” analysis and accompanying course here:
-  We dive into the book, as Bryan reads some inspiring opening paragraphs from The Road to Chess Improvement
We discuss the structure of the book and our favorite chapters.
We share a few of our favorite quotes from the book.
We each pick a favorite game from the book.
What are the chess improvement takeaways from The Road to Chess Improvement?
How useful is the book for improvement?
What, if any, are our quibbles with the book?
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:
Blindfold puzzles of the month:
0:00
1:09:29
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Show notes
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. 
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: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/perpetual-chess-podcast/id1185023674?i=1000382608741
Mentioned: GM Kasparov, GM Alexander Khalifman, GM Alexei Shirov, GM Viswanthan Anand 
Mentioned: GM Gregory Serper, GM Alexander Shabalov 
https://www.chessable.com/candidates-2020/course/34649/
 
Mentioned: GM Alekhine, GM Botvinnik, 
Mentioned: Vladimir Zak
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
Mentioned: GM Arthur Yusopov, Yermolinsky-Khmelnitsky 1995, Hjartarson-Yermolinsky 1996  
Mentioned: IM Greg Shahade 
Deep Blue vs. Garry Kasparov
Bryan’s Youtube Channel here:
https://youtube.com/betterchesstraining
Bryan’s website, Better Chess Training here: 
http://www.betterchesstraining.com/
Follow him on twitter here:
https://twitter.com/YourBryanCastro
Puzzle #1- White to move, find the best move 
https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=xyVYfoozbF6iR+wCrD8E3LVWoPU8wRa2aKCSWt9SSPcJjEME8Mrb+Gps4wVo0mBi
Solution #1- 
https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=BTkwJm0GgCBPOr6bmORI2c020+oxdq6CvPpZFqSIU5JeJajZLmJQ+1Dar2t6cnXF
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
 
https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=PORw9ncvRoVlZBKq9xADW1F9Baqw/xYlJ4PcRqNZuq6OstdGFms4ToOP81KIlbJi
 
Solution #2-
https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=oTOKuSqLokqFRarUHxOWMZ4rMpkpXZC0Sg8zv++1qev07Vg9PA0sgLjIvYHJXcdE
 
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