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Perpetual Chess Podcast

EP.172 - GM Andy Soltis Returns

Perpetual Chess Podcast

Perpetual Chess LLC

Sports, Leisure, Hobbies

4.8 • 678 Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2020

⏱️ 64 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Despite having retired from his day job at the NY Post, noted chess author and historian GM Andy Soltis remains quite busy writing chess books. This week he returns to Perpetual Chess to tell some great stories and discuss the books that he has been working on since our last conversation, in September of 2018. In particular, we discussed GM Soltis’ new book, How to Swindle in Chess, and his recently updated classic, Bobby Fischer Rediscovered. Andy was able to also provide some great historical perspective on topics ranging from chess in New York City in past decades, to the 2020 FIDE Candidates, to the coronavirus. Please read on for further details and timestamps.    0:00- We begin by catching up a bit on the impact that the coronavirus had on GM Soltis’ travel plans, and Andy shares some great historical perspective on some New York City chess characters.    Mentioned: Marshall Chess Club, GM Robert Byrne and IM Donald Byrne, GM Arthur Bisguier, IM James Sherwin, GM William Lombardy, Caroline Marshall, Manhattan Chess Club, Bobby Fischer, IM Ray Weinstein, Bruce Pandolfini, GM Nicolas Rossolimo   13:15- When I spoke with Andy, the 2020 FIDE Candidates Tournament was ongoing despite the coronavirus, and he was able to provide some historical perspective on other historical tournaments that took place under unusual circumstances.  Mentioned:  Mannheim 1914 Chess Tournament, Alexander Alekhine, Frank Marshall, Efim Bogoljubov, Ian Nepomniatchi, Alexander Grischuk, Ding Liren-Caruana 2020, Capablanca-Marshall 1918, GM Mikhail Tal, Carlsen-So 2020, Fischer-Taimanov 1971 match, game 4,Bobby Fischer: The Greatest? By Max Euwe, Frank Brady, FM Asa Hoffman, My Great Predecessors: Volume 4    29:00- Andy expounds on an interesting column he recently wrote for Chess Life magazine, called The Half Life of Truth: How long is it relevant what the result would have been in a famous chess game with best play?  Mentioned: Bobby Fischer Rediscovered, Fischer-Celle 1964, Fischer-Blackstone 1964, Fischer-Spassky 1972 Game 1, The Complete Chess Swindler by GM David Smerdon    37:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com. Check out Garry Kasparov’s My Great Predecessors, using Chessable’s MoveTrainer here: https://www.chessable.com/my-great-predecessors-part-1/course/22994/   38:00- What did GM Soltis discover in researching his new book, How to Swindle in Chess  Mentioned: GM Viswanathan Anand, Keres-Geller 1962, Carlsen-Van Wely, Viktor Korchnoi, GM Emanuel Lasker   48:00- How should chess improvers stuck at home with extra study time spend that time?   Mentioned: GM Magnus Carlsen, GM Tigran Petrosian, GM Mikhail Tal, Ruth Haring, GM Peter Biyiasis, Eliot Hearst     55:00- In closing, Andy tells a story in which he compares his experiences after September 11 in  NYC to the current tense moments we are now living through.    Thanks, as always, to GM Soltis for sharing his chess knowledge with us. You can buy all of his books here: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B000APTX5I?_encoding=UTF8&node=283155&offset=0&pageSize=12&searchAlias=stripbooks&sort=date-desc-rank&page=1&langFilter=default#formatSelectorHeader   If you would like to help support Perpetual Chess, you can do so here: https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello everyone. I am Ben Johnson and this is the perpetual chess podcast. Perpetual chess is a weekly

0:09.9

chess interview show where we talk with accomplished chess players, authors, and personalities

0:14.0

about their lives, their careers and how to improve at chess. Perpetual chess is brought to you

0:19.2

through the generosity of its Patreon and PayPal

0:21.6

supporters and by chescible.com.

0:27.6

Hey everyone and welcome back to perpetual chess. We have a returning guest joining us this week.

0:34.4

He is an acclaimed and prolific chess author and historian. He writes the long-running

0:40.2

chess to enjoy column for Chess Life magazine. He's got, I don't know how many books under his

0:45.7

belt. I'm guessing under 50. We'll ask him in a minute. He's been busier than ever lately with

0:50.6

an expanded and updated version of his acclaimed book, Bobby Fisher Rediscovered.

0:56.6

And he has also just released the book How to Swindle in Chess. And he's got even more on the way.

1:03.1

So welcome back to the program, Grandmaster Andy Saltus.

1:07.8

Glad to be here, Ben. I enjoy the last time when you talked.

1:11.3

Likewise, yeah, and we're recording under this.

1:13.6

Of course, every day feels like strange circumstances right now.

1:17.0

We're recording just for, let the record show for on March 23rd, 2020.

1:23.1

So between the ongoing chess candidates and the COVID-19 virus ravaging the world, unfortunately,

1:30.5

who knows what will have transpired by the time this comes out, listeners,

1:36.3

I hope you all are doing okay and taking care of yourselves.

1:40.5

But we are going to only touch on the candidates and try not to talk about anything that will be obsolete in two weeks time.

1:49.0

But I think we can handle that.

1:50.7

But Andy, one thing that I found of interest was you were one of the first travel plan changes I came across in that we were originally planning on doing this interview a little bit later.

...

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