Category: Product Reviews

A couple of years ago I stumbled across the chess podcast The Full English Breakfast.  I think I was reading an interview or a profile of Lawrence Trent and it mentioned the FEB in some regard.

So I searched it out and found to my dismay that the last episode was a way back in the past.  This was sometime maybe around late 2015 or so and they hadn’t done anything since Jan 2014.  Even so their last regular episode had been all the way back in 2012.

Nevertheless I devoured those 27 episodes.  I must have listened to them 3-4 times each.  I found them to be enjoyable and insightful even if they were all from a few years earlier.  Events I had forgotten about suddenly seemed contemporary again.

But every time I came to that final episode I was sad to hear it end.

Then, on January 14th of this year the producer of The FEB Macauley Peterson, posted on their Facebook Page “What was your favorite all time FEB episode?  Or favorite individual segment? (BTW…Not just navel gazing here.)”

My immediate thought was “They’re bringing it back!” which was of course instantly followed by “But for how long?”

One of the things that seemed to plague the show was that it was always an on again off again affair.  The show premiered with a pilot episode, then was immediately on hiatus for around a year, then came back and was very intermittent.  Then, at times they tried to get into a regular rhythm but would go off the tracks just when they seemed to be right in the pocket.

We’ll get back to our good friends at The FEB shortly…and now for something completely different.

Flash forward to perhaps a month after Macauley’s semi-cryptic tweet.  The protest of Nazi Paikidze against the FIDE Women’s World Championship event is in full swing.

On one of her posts on either Twitter or Facebook (I don’t recall which) I see this guy named Ben Johnson say some words of support followed by something like “It was great having you on the Perpetual Chess podcast.”

“Woah woah woah!” I told myself.  There’s another chess podcast? Indeed there was!  NM, chess teacher, and former professional poker player Ben Johnson had started a weekly interview podcast.

From what I gather Ben had no former experience in the field of journalistic interviews, but he clearly has a lot of natural talent, which has grown as the show has gotten deeper in to its run.

Ben did the thing that really more of us should do.  He was stunned that there were no chess podcasts since The FEB had gone offline so he started one.  He saw a need and he took steps to fill it.  So kudos to him!

The format of the Perpetual Chess podcast is essentially the same as you would expect on a sports interview show.  Ben has a conversation with the guests on topics crossing many spectrums, those maintaining a chess centric theme.

So you very well may hear about poker, investing, Hearthstone, cooking, and fitness, but all the while never straying too far from the chess.

Back to our good friends at The FEB.  The format of their show has changed somewhat over the years, but the overall structure is relatively similar.  Generally it’s Macauley, Lawrence Trent, and another English player chatting about a topical chess item.

In the original incarnation of the show GM Stevie G (Stephen Gordon) held down the spot quite nicely.  However, he has apparently done the unthinkable and gotten himself a real job 🙂

In the current incarnation GM Simon Williams has been holding the chair and doing so rather well.  It would be nice, however, to hear his name in the introduction!

They now do one show each week.  The trade off is that the shows are much shorter than they used to be, but that’s fine since they are producing regular content!

So far The FEB has had 16 new episodes since their re-launch (although they are talking about a hiatus this Summer), and Perpetual Chess is on episode 29 and counting.

I urge everyone reading this to support both of these efforts.

For The FEB you can become a patron for as little as $1 a month!  I personally do the $5 a month donation and I really wish that more people would.

For Perpetual Chess you can purchase books from Amazon using the links from the Perpetual Chess Books page.  These are books either written or recommended by guests of the show.

Someday, when Ben adds a donate button I’ll become a patron of that show too 🙂

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

Well here it is…the last review I’m likely to be doing for a while since I’m using only QC products for a while.

For the record I was working on this one for a bit.  In fact I nearly had it completed when my site crashed and I lost everything.

So here we go…

This book which was recently released by NM Paul Powell is subtitled “How to Defeat the Yugoslav Attack” which is of course the most critical line against the Dragon.

While Fischer may have once claimed the Dragon was a bust (“sac, sac, mate” anyone?) the truth is much more complex.  The Dragon remains one of the most critical and deeply analyzed openings in chess.

It also seems to be a favorite for lower level players.  I have a few thoughts as to why that is, and I think that they are relevant for this review.

First of all, I think that the Dragon seems “easy” to play due to it’s somewhat systemic nature.  The first 10-11 moves are pretty easy to remember unlike many other openings.

Secondly, I think that the Dragon (along with most lines of the Sicilian) comes with reasonably easy to understand plans.

Those two things combine to make this opening very popular among certain groups of players.

Seizing on that opportunity, Paul and his publisher, Mongoose Press, have written a book that speaks to those players.

Let’s be perfectly clear about what this is not.  This is not a book designed to show you the latest intricacies on move 22 against the 9.0-0-0 variation of the Yugoslav.  Books like that exist and if you are a player around the Class A or above level then those books are really what you want.  But if you are not (and let’s face it, the majority of chess players are not) then this book is the book for you.

Really the book is split in to two distinct books.  “Book 1: Ideas and Patterns” and “Book 2: Quizzes.”

The first book is composed of chapters which cover a particular variation through the annotation of sample games.  Lines include 9.Bc4 Nd7; 9.0-0-0 Nxd4; 9.g4 Nxd4; 9.g4 Bxg4; 9.Bc4 Nxd4; 9.0-0-0 d5; 9…a5; 9…Qa5; 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.0-0-0 Rb8; 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.0-0-0 Qb8; 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.0-0-0 Qc7, and an odds and ends chapter.

There is also a very nice interlude piece where the author discusses transpositions.  I think that concept is very undercovered as relates to club level players, so it’s nice to see it here.  In some cases it’s important to know what line is likely to transpose into a different line since it helps a player feel a bit more familiar in various move orders.

NM Powell’s annotations are to my taste perfect for what he is trying to achieve.  Often they are along the lines of “White should reject this move on principle as it weakens the c3-knight” or “As we have seen in many games, the pattern of sacrificing a knight at g4 or e4 is a common theme for launching an attack.  If you embed the search for these kinds of opportunities into your DNA you’ll win some spectacular games over your chess career.”

This is not to say that the analysis shies away from variations.  It does not. In fact, when it is needed, the author goes in to some quite deep analysis to show his point.  However where possible to explanations tend to be more verbal than variational, which I believe will serve readers of this book quite well.

It’s also important to point out that with so many variations covered in a 184 page book, nothing is covered deeply.  Then again, I don’t believe it’s intended to be. As near as I can tell it’s intended to lightly cover a wide range of topics which will give the reader a nice broad background from which to grow.

The second book – quizzes – also offers up a nice selection of typical Dragon positions and tactics to help the reader understand how to unleash the latent power in this opening.

Of course I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that one of the things that I really enjoyed about this book is the mention of Israel Zilber in the dedication.  If you don’t know who Zilber was then do yourself a favor and read Searching for Bobby Fischer by Fred Waitzkin.

All in all I think that this book achieves it’s goal and should be read by anyone lower rated than Class A who plays or is thinking about playing the Dragon.  It should also be read by anyone who prefers verbal explanatory analysis regardless of what openings they play.

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott