Author: Misha Tenenbaum

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with GM Jesse Kraai. We discussed his chess career, starting at 12 and not making GM until well into adulthood. We spoke a lot about the challenges of improving as an older adult and the joy of senior tournaments. We discussed Jesse’s method of analyzing one’s own games.…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Jesse. He’s an avid adult improver who plays at the same club as me. We talked a lot about his rapid improvement journey from 1400 to nearly 1700. His journey included many bumps and rating drops. We talked about the books that had the most impact including…

This week on Chess Journeys, I am joined by GM Noel Studer. Noel examined my last 30 games and we discussed the state of my game. I think this is a great episode for anyone wondering how to examine their own game, especially in times of rating loss and turmoil. With Noel’s help we were…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Joe Bruin. He’s a prolific streamer that I’ve run into at the last two OTB tournaments that I attended. We talked a lot about playing chess for fun without expressly trying to improve. Joe has seen massive rating gains at points in his life without studying. He…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with the one and only GM Jacob Aagaard. We discussed a wide range of topics such as his chess career, coaching, and adult improvement. Most importantly I asked him if a 40 year old adult could achieve the NM title. We also talked about how adults should go…

This week, I spoke with Dawn. She’s a new chess player who picked up the game in her 60’s. We talked a lot about the challenges of having a low rating while still being excited to talk about chess. Dawn suggested a few books such as Everyone’s First Chess Workbook and Susan Polgar’s Learn Chess…

This week on Chess Journeys, I talked to Michael, better known as Noseknowsall. He’s had a steady climb over 8 years of chess. We talked primarily about the books that helped him climb, the Chess Dojo, and other areas that helped his improvement. Michael credits much of his success to Jeremy Silman’s Reassess Your Chess.…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Elaynah. She’s a new but dedicated chess improver. She’s made rapid progress from about 400 – 1600 Chesscom rapid in around a year. She spoke about her journey including focusing on not blundering, endgames, tactics, and master games. We explored with detail her first tournament, the National…

This week on Chess Journeys, the focus is on my year in chess and a recap of the National Open. Guest of the show Jay Garrison joined me and shared his wisdom on many of the subjects. We focused on tournament prep, tournament performance, who I met at the tournament, ratings dips, what I worked…

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Hannah. She started chess with the Queen’s Gambit in 2021. Since then she’s been able to raise her rating at least 500 points, mainly by playing a lot of chess. Hannah found a club early in her journey and has been able to play mostly unrated OTB…