EP 280- GM Ben Finegold on The FIDE Candidates, Recent Declines in Chess Twitch Viewership, and Why He Thinks he Doesn't Play as Well as he Used to.

Perpetual Chess Podcast

Perpetual Chess LLC

Sports, Leisure, Hobbies

4.8 • 678 Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2022

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week we are re-joined by the popular and amusing Twitch streamer, YouTube presenter and commentator, GM Ben Finegold. Lots has changed since our last interview! For one thing, there has been lots of discussion recently about a decline in the popularity of chess?. Does Ben think chess is losing popularity? Is he seeing a decline in his viewership on Twitch? What about on his YouTube channel? Other recent developments which we discussed include: Why Ben and his wife Karen sold their chess center in Atlanta, the state of Ben’s OTB chess game in the wake of some recent tourneys, plus some discussion of the Candidates, recent elite tournaments, and a few stories about Ben’s earlier days in the chess world, including Ben Finegold, “the college years.” Its always fun to catch up with Ben, lots more details and links in the show notes below. Prior Finegold appearances on Perpetual Chess- 2017- Episode 9 https://open.spotify.com/episode/2o91dlqfOFf2Lwl9hfbrGF?si=b01f64b4f4fe4f8a 2018- Episode 52 https://open.spotify.com/episode/4f3W9CS9Q9nC5JUOYib5cn?si=e97663b0a8eb4879 2021- Episode 228 https://open.spotify.com/episode/2ONlsNPYykFsH3sqM28LWL?si=5c1710b4b2514f79 0:00- Are Ben’s Twitch viewers down? Is the popularity of chess declining? Mentioned: Martin Justesen’s post “Is the Chess (Twitch) Boom Over?, IM Levy Rozman’s Tweet, GM David Smerdon’s post 13:00- With the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Atlanta having been sold, will Ben still be doing his popular chess history lectures? Mentioned: Kid Chess Atlanta, IM Carlos Perdomo 23:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Aimchess.com. Aimchess’ algorithm reviews your games and gives you actionable advice of how to improve your game. Check it out for free and if you choose to subscribe you can use the code Perpetual30 to save 30%. 24:00- Ben has been competing regularly OTB recently, he wonders “was I always this bad at chess?” Mentioned: Charlotte Chess Center ALTO tournament, Foxwoods Open, GM Alex Shabalov 40:00- Patreon mailbag question: How does Ben define a blunder at different rating levels? Mentioned: GM Gregory Kaidanov, 2022 Continental Chess Championships in El Salvador 48:00- Which young players impress Ben? What does it take to reach and stay at the top? Mentioned: GM Sarin, GM Praggnanandhaa, GM Christopher Yoo, GM Hans Niemann, Episode 271 with GM Hans Niemann 56:00- Are there any chess talents that Ben has been surprised to see not to reach their potential? Mentioned: GM Baadur Jobava, GM Wei Yi, GM Etienne Bacrot, GM David Navara, GM Jeffrey Xiong, GM Sam Shankland 1:02:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you by Chessable.com. Check out their latest offerings here: New Chess Courses Online - For All Levels - Chessable.com 1:03:00- Who does Ben expect to win the 2022 FIDE Candidates tournament? 1:06:00- Did Ben ever meet the recently passed legendary GM Yuri Averbakh? 1:08:00- How does Ben prepare for his chess history lectures? 1:11:00- What was it like for Ben to attend university in his 20s? Mentioned: Chess Life Magazine Article by Ben Finegold The 40 Year Old GM: https://t.co/3CozXi7lbC 1:16:00- Ben’s upcoming Twitch and tournament plans! Here are the links to keep up with Ben. Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/gmbenjaminfinegold YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6EnFbK-P5q0zeaqI5yobKg Twitter: https://twitter.com/ben_finegold?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm here for the interview. Ah, now, this would be the pre-pre-interview.
0:04.7	I'm sorry? You see, we need to make sure we have the right candidates to take part in the next stages.
0:09.1	Oh, how many stages? Well, there's the pre-interview, working chemistry, the actual interview,
0:13.9	and then, of course, the bleep test. For the part-time barista job? That's right, yeah. What a load of malarkey. Smarty keeps things simple, like 80 gigabytes
0:23.1	for 10 pounds a month with no annual price rises. Less malarkey, more Smarty. Search Smarty Mobile.
0:33.7	Hello everyone. I am Ben Johnson and this is the perpetual chessual Chess Podcast. Perpetual Chess is a weekly
0:39.2	interview show where top chess players, authors, content creators, and accomplished amateurs discuss
0:44.7	their careers and share stories and chess improvement tips. Perpetual Chess is a part of the
0:49.5	Blue Wire Podcast Network and we'd like to give special thanks to our presenting chess education sponsor,
0:55.1	Chescible.com. For more information about the show, you can go to perpetual chesspod.com,
1:00.3	but without further ado, let's get to the show.
1:05.7	Hello, everyone, and welcome back to perpetual chess. It is raining bends. We are joined by a return guest, the popular commentator, Twitch streamer, and chess YouTube
1:14.3	with over 100,000 followers on both platforms.
1:17.9	He was the co-champion of the 1994 and 2007 U.S. opens as well as the 2002 World Open,
1:25.9	co-founder of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Atlanta,
1:29.4	may it rest in peace, sort of. We'll discuss that. But let's welcome him back to the show.
1:35.3	Four-time guests, friend of the pod, always entertaining, no pressure, Ben. Grandmaster Ben Feingold.
1:40.8	How are you? Hooray, it's the Ben's. I'm doing great, Ben. How are you doing?
1:45.4	And well, I stole your, it's raining Ben's from your little Twitch commercial. That was hilarious.
1:51.7	So, Ben, appreciative as always, of you taking the time and catching us up on what's new with you.
1:57.4	We've got a lot to go over. You've been playing tournaments.
2:01.3	You know, your chess center has closed. But've got a lot to go over. You've been playing tournaments. You know,
	...

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