EP 399- GM Tiger Hillarp Persson: The 2x Swedish Champion, Author & Go Master Shares a Life's Worth of Wisdom on How to Improve at Complex Games

Perpetual Chess Podcast

Perpetual Chess LLC

Sports, Leisure, Hobbies

4.8 • 678 Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2024

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week I am honored to be joined by author, trainer, and 2 time Swedish National Champion, GM Tiger Hillarp Persson. Tiger has a unique background for a GM, as at the age of 26, when he was not yet an IM, he decided to pursue chess professionally nonetheless. From there he made rapid progress and has been an active player ever since. But Tiger is equally passionate about another complex game, Go, which he started playing at the age of 40. He has become a master-level player, and has represented his native Sweden in international Go tournaments as well. In our conversation, Tiger discusses the challenges and rewards of improving at both games, and why he thinks substantial improvement is possible at both if one is honest with oneself and works hard. We also discuss Tiger’s fantastic new book, Tiger’s Chaos Theory. The book deconstructs and gives vocabulary to some uncommon and important patterns and situations in chess, and is a pleasure to read. I found this conversation very insightful, and I trust that you will as well. Timestamps of topics discussed are below. Thanks to our sponsors: Check out new Chessable courses by me, GM Nils Grandelius, and GM Sam Shankland- if you sign up for Chessable Pro, be sure to use this link: https://www.chessable.com/pro/?utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=benjohnson&utm_campaign=pro Check out the app of our new sponsors Chess Universe in your app store. https://chess-universe.sng.link/Dqw52/kbhh 0:02- GM Tiger Hillarp Persson joins the pod. We begin by discussing why Tiger decided to devote himself fully to chess at age 26, when he was not even an IM at that point. Mentioned: Karpov-Miles 1980, The Soviet Chess Conveyor by Shereshevsky 18:00- What has pursuing excellence at Go taught Tiger about chess improvement? Mentioned: Check out Tiger’s blog here: https://tiger.bagofcats.net/ Ivanchuk-Van Foreest 2022: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2416368 37:00- Patreon mailbag question: “Does Tiger play unorthodox openings in Go as well? “ 42:00- Tiger discusses the study method of trying to imitate the play of a player whose style you admire, as he did for Karpov. 48:00- Patreon mailbag question: “Have computers been a blessing or a curse for chess?” 52:00- Patreon mailbag question: “What is Tiger’s advice for lower rated players for assessing sacrifices?” Mentioned: The Art of Sacrifice by Rudolph Spielman 56:00- Tiger’s other favorite chess books Mentioned: Under the Surface by GM Jan Markos 59:00- What is a hecatomb? 1:00:00- Tiger’s favorite tournament memories Mentioned: GM Jonathan Rowson, GM Peter Heine Nielsen, GM Lembit Oll 1:05:00- Tiger is playing on the Swedish team at the Olympiad. How does he prepare? 1:10:00- Tiger discusses his most famous win, an amazing game against GM Peter Hiene Nielsen https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1434778 1:12:00- Thanks to Tiger for joining me! Here are links to check out his book: https://qualitychess.co.uk/products/improvement/23034/tigers_chaos_theory_by_tiger_hillarp_persson/ Free preview from Quality Chess: https://qualitychess.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Tigers-Chaos-Theory-060-excerpt-1.pdf Forward Chess: https://forwardchess.com/product/tigers-chaos-theory Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, everyone, and welcome back to perpetual chess.
0:07.5	Listeners, we got a fascinating interview coming your way with the author of the excellent
0:11.8	new book, Tiger's Chaos Theory that's with Grandmaster Tiger Halar Person.
0:16.4	We'll get you to that in a minute.
0:17.6	First, I wanted to thank our sponsors, Chessable.com.
0:20.6	Tiger's fellow Swedish national team member, Grandmaster Niels Grandelius, top player and trainer,
0:27.5	has a new book out on dynamic compensation and how to evaluate sacrifices and important skill
0:34.3	that a lot of us, adult chess players, need to work on.
0:38.1	Also, of course, my course, still available.
0:40.9	You can still get your copy of identifying critical moments in chess.
0:43.9	Her great feedback on it so far, which has been really gratifying.
0:47.9	And, of course, if you sign up for Chessable Pro, be sure to use the link in the description.
0:51.9	So as for this interview, I mean, it's really fascinating because Tiger, everything he has to say about chess is fascinating in its own right.
0:59.5	And this book has some beautiful creative games and sort of lays out a philosophical framework, as we'll discuss.
1:07.0	But he's also become an incredibly strong go player.
1:10.3	He started playing competitive go at the age of 40. He's now in his mid-50s. And he's also become an incredibly strong go player. He started playing competitive go at the age of 40.
1:12.6	He's now in his mid-50s.
1:14.6	And he's at the master level and still pushing higher.
1:17.6	So Tiger has a lot of fascinating insights about why we might struggle to get better at complex games as adults
1:25.6	and why he's still getting better at go and still continues to get better at go.
1:31.2	So really a fascinating conversation that I think I'll really enjoy. And we'll get you to it in a minute.
1:36.6	But I also wanted to thank our new sponsors, Chess Universe. So Chess Universe is an app that you can get on your iPhone or in the Google Play Store, and it's free
	...

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