EP 415- GM-Elect Mark Heimann on his Unexpected Road From OTB-retired FM to 31 year-old GM in 3 years!

Perpetual Chess Podcast

Perpetual Chess LLC

Sports, Leisure, Hobbies

4.8 • 678 Ratings

🗓️ 31 December 2024

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

31-year-old GM-elect Mark Heimann is an accomplished research scientist by day, and avid powerlifter, who has recently been making headlines in the U.S. chess scene during his work vacation time. In late 2024, Mark went on a stunning run where he earned GM norms in back-to-back tournaments in order to clinch the GM-title, less than 3 years removed from being an inactive FM. These experiences were highlighted by playing on the top boards in Charlotte and St. Louis, playing GM Fabiano Caruana twice, and even hearing his game dissected by GM Caruana on the C-Squared podcast. Mark joined me to explain what he thinks has led to this incredible chess breakthrough, and to answer a question that GM Anish Giri recently tweeted- “Who is Mark A. Heimann?” Thanks to our sponsors Chessable.com! Their entire catalog is on sale through the end of the year! https://www.chessable.com/courses/ Thanks to our sponsor, Chessable.com! Be sure to check out their new offerings here: https://www.chessable.com/courses/all/new/ And if you sign up for Chessable Pro in order to unlock discounts and additional features, be sure to use the following link: https://www.chessable.com/pro/?utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=benjohnson&utm_campaign=pro 0:02: GM-elect Mark Heimann joins the show! What spurred his chess comeback in 2022? Mentioned: Chess Reddit posts by Mark: https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/1h92nh4/mark_heimann_becomes_gm_after_earning_3rd_gm_norm/ https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/1bzcmgf/my_first_grandmaster_norm_age_31/ 0:08- Does Mark think there are any similarities between his recent surge, and Hikaru’s continued success in recent years? 0:17- Mark on navigating the nerves, and the chess, of clashes with top players like Ivanchuk and Caruana. Mentioned: Heimann-Caruana, Charlotte 2024 https://www.chess.com/events/2024-us-masters/09/Heimann_Mark-Caruana_Fabiano 0:24- Mark recalls an early game with Caruana from when they were both top scholastic players. 26:00- Why did Mark put chess on the backburner at age 18? 34:00- What is Mark’s study routine like? 45:00- Mark discusses his passion for musical instruments and weight-lifting. 52:00- What is next for Mark, chess-wise? 56:00- Mark discusses his A.I. research, including some discussion of chess ratings. 1:05- Mark’s favorite chess books. Mentioned: Chess for Zebras, Excelling at Technical Chess, Small Steps to Giant Improvement 1:11:00- Thanks to Mark for sharing his inspiring story, you can follow him on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/lastgoodcaesar/ If you like to help support Perpetual Chess via Patreon, you can do so here: https://www.patreon.com/c/perpetualchess Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, everyone, and welcome back to perpetual chess. We have a much-requested rising star,
0:08.7	rising middle-aged, 31-year-old Jim Bro, joining us while I'll introduce in one second. First,
0:13.3	as always wanted to thank our sponsors, chess,bill.com. This interview will be out on New Year's Eve,
0:18.7	so happy New Year's, first of all, whenever you're listening to this, even if it's
0:21.7	years down the line.
0:23.1	And if you do catch this shortly after it's released, Chesa Bowl has their entire
0:26.7	catalog on sale.
0:27.8	So good time to check out what they have to offer.
0:30.1	And of course, if we decide to sign up for Chespo Pro, as always, use the link in the
0:33.6	description. As for our guest this week, so he's become a chess Reddit star recently,
0:38.0	putting on amazing results. He's got like Anish Geary tweeting about him, Fabiano Caruana,
0:43.5	talking about him on C squared, but he's got even more accomplishments away from the chessboard.
0:48.1	So he has a PhD from the University of Michigan with a focus on machine learning.
0:52.9	He's an accomplished research scientist with over
0:55.2	1,800 citations. He's also an accomplished power lifter, as those of you watching on video
1:00.3	can ascertain. He's described himself as an NM-level power lifter. I think he might be
1:05.3	underwriting himself, but we'll get to that eventually. So I'm excited to welcome to the program.
1:10.2	GM-elect recently earned the
1:11.7	GM title, Markheim. And welcome, Mark. Thank you so much. Really glad to be here, Ben.
1:16.6	What an amazing story, Mark. So I'm just going to give a bit of context for listeners. Because one thing is,
1:23.1	when I interview people like yourself who achieve the unusual as adults, people like to pick apart the
1:29.2	cases, which I get, you know, so we're not saying Mark started chess as an adult and became a
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Perpetual Chess LLC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Perpetual Chess LLC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.