Chess culture, patiently taken apart.
Perpetual Chess Podcast is a long-running interview show for people who follow chess beyond the moves on the board. Recent episodes move from FIDE Candidates analysis and rating-system research to chess books, AI tools, viral videos, and difficult chess-world disputes.
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Perpetual Chess Podcast is a chess conversation show with deep roots in the game’s current culture. It is not only about elite moves. It is about the people, systems, arguments, books, tools, and habits that shape how chess is played and followed. Recent episodes spend time on the FIDE Candidates, including Sinderov’s hot start, Anish Giri’s chances, preparation camps, seconds, and the strange shelf life of real-time tournament analysis. The show also looks at chess as a profession and media ecosystem, with conversations about chess.com reporting, YouTube, Twitch, Chessable, and viral chess videos. It has a practical improvement streak. Guests discuss nerves, rating pressure, adult progress, community play, critical moments, and the difference between knowing chess and performing under time pressure. That gives the show a useful middle ground: serious enough for tournament followers, relaxed enough for ambitious amateurs. The interviews often begin with a long setup, then let the guest fill in the lived detail. That patience matters. A data-heavy episode on the FIDE rating system can sit comfortably beside a book recap about Jeremy Selman’s Chess Odyssey. A conversation about LLMs and chess tools can turn into a broader question about work, craft, and staying useful as AI changes what people can build. The show also takes on less comfortable chess-world material, including cheating, settlements, and the Hans Nieman and Magnus documentary conversation. It tends to approach those topics through careful questioning rather than theatrical outrage. The result is an unusually durable chess show: part news desk, part training room, part community archive. Sponsor reads and housekeeping are part of the rhythm, but once the interview settles in, the value is in the chess-world specificity. Perpetual Chess Podcast rewards listeners who enjoy knowing why a topic matters, not just what happened.
Made for: For chess players and followers who want more than game recaps: tournament context, improvement talk, chess media gossip, books, ratings, and technology. It especially suits adult improvers and fans who already enjoy the names, arguments, and routines of the chess world.
What sets it apart: The show pairs insider chess fluency with a relaxed interview pace, letting guests explain the background behind tournaments, controversies, training habits, and tools. It is broad without becoming generic: FIDE events, club nerves, Chessable courses, AI coding, and chess books all feel native to the same conversation.
Perpetual Chess features weekly conversations with the chess world's best players, trainers and accomplished amateurs about their careers, current projects, best practices and the latest in chess news. Learn more at PerpetualChessPod.com
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It makes chess legible as a culture where study, competition and changing technology continually reshape one another.
Perpetual Chess Podcast treats chess as both a game to study and a social world to inhabit. The host lets experienced players and committed amateurs reason through improvement in practical terms, from managing tournament nerves to reviewing games with an engine.
Chess anxiety, engine surprises, and grandmaster prep become the conversation you wish followed every blunder.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A steady Candidates preview that stays clear, measured, and chess-first.
Jan Gustafsson gives the Candidates preview a steady, informed shape. He keeps the talk grounded in odds, styles, and the practical habits that matter when top players prepare for high-stakes events.
A quiet chess conversation about nerves, community, and how repetition can make the game feel less like a test.
This piece stays with a familiar pressure: the way nerves can take over even after a strong position. It moves from self judgment to the steadier comfort of playing enough games with other people, and that is where it feels most grounded. The pub chess stretch is the best part.
A grounded chess conversation about adult improvement, useful craft, and keeping up with what LLMs can do.
Perpetual Chess frames chess improvement through a broader, timely question: what changes when a longtime adult learner starts building with LLMs.
A focused London System episode where course-building meets engines, databases, and chess boxing.
London anchors the episode as the host brings back a Canadian grandmaster fresh from commentating on the Speed Chess Championship. That trip folds naturally into the guest's new London System course, with the conversation focusing on how engine work and database trends can…
A former chess player reflects on tournament life, leaving the game, and entering male-dominated rooms afterward.
Katie's return to chess is framed less as a ratings story than as a life shaped by the game and then carried beyond it. Introduced as an author, realtor, tech worker, mother, and former player, she reflects on having been one of the country's top young female players and among…
A chessboard becomes a memory device when openings are understood as stories rather than disconnected moves.
The episode is strongest when it treats chess memory as a matter of structure, not raw recall. A memory palace can help with disconnected material, but openings already come with their own internal logic: one move invites the next, and the line becomes easier to hold when it…
A grandmaster dream meets the practical discipline of playing and reviewing games.
Donny Ariel's grandmaster ambition gives this episode its shape, but the real appeal is how quickly the talk comes back down to earth. His joke about discussing the finished product before doing the work sets a loose, funny tone, while Jan Gustafsson and the host keep steering…
Ira Glass frames weekly theme-driven segments spanning family secrets to Portland's protest conflict.
Shankar Vedantam unpacks the psychology behind relationships, careers, and money through researcher interviews.
David McRaney interviews researchers on cognitive bias, motivated reasoning, and why minds change.
Ryan Holiday pairs daily Stoic lessons with long-form guest conversations at his Texas bookstore.
NHPR's Jason Moon investigates the Bear Brook barrel murders and a New Hampshire wrongful-conviction case.
Russ Roberts interviews authors and economists on ideas from classical liberalism to AI.
Host Ben Johnson interviews two-time U.S.
FM Donny Ariel, a 46-year-old father and legal recruiter with a 2359 FIDE rating, announces his quest to become a Grandmaster despite a 20-year hiatus from serious chess.
This episode is a replay of a 2020 interview with Grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky, shared as a tribute following his recent passing, highlighting his talent, kindness, and impact on the chess community.
This episode revives the Chess Books Recaptured series on Perpetual Chess, featuring a discussion with Kevin Scull about the book '100 Tactical Patterns You Must Know' and its adaptation into a chessable course.
This episode features an interview with Grandmaster Andy Soltis, discussing his chess career, recent books, and experiences with chess legends.
This episode features an interview with Grandmaster Ben Finegold discussing the FIDE candidates tournament, the Hans Nieman Netflix documentary, and TakeTakeTake's business move in the chess world.
This episode features an interview with Jennifer Shahade discussing her new book on thinking strategies, cheating in chess, AI, and recent legal settlements in the chess world.
This bonus podcast episode features an interview with award-winning journalist and chess commentator Mike Klein, discussing his coverage of the FIDE Candidates tournament in Cyprus and providing behind-the-scenes insights into the chess world.
This episode features an interview with Vlad Ghita discussing his data-driven research on the effectiveness of recent FIDE rating system changes, including demographic variations and potential improvements.
This episode of Perpetual Chess features a book recap of Jeremy Selman's 'Chess Odyssey' with stories from his former student Gaurav Datta, discussing the book's structure and chess instructional content.
Jan Gustafsson joins Perpetual Chess to look over the Candidates field.
A guest talks with the host about keeping chess fun.
Han returns to Perpetual Chess.
Perpetual Chess, on the Sports Social Podcast Network, talks with Amon Hambleton about his London trip, his ChessBra work, and a new London System course.
Perpetual Chess talks with Katie Kormanik about Adventures of a Chess Girl, a memoir built around a 1.5-year slice of her life when she was a former top-100 U.S.
Chess grandmaster Johan Hellsten discusses why defending in chess is difficult and explores specific openings like the Austrian defense and Scarahenny gambit.
This episode features an interview with chess player and trainer Alex Ostrovskiy discussing opening preparation, tournament experiences, and core chess improvement advice.