This week I am joined by two accomplished players, trainers, and co-authors, Grandmaster Eugene Perelshteyn, and FM Nate Solon. Together, Nathan and Eugene have written the forthcoming book, Evaluate like a Grandmaster. As highly-accomplished players and trainers, Nate and Eugene noticed that there wasn’t a lot of chess literature helping players improve their ability to evaluate positions. They have written a great book to help address this problem. In our conversation, they highlight some of the lessons from the book, including an important discussion of the perils of relying too heavily on numerical engine evaluations. We also discuss some of the standout points and anecdotes from Nate and Eugene’s other work. Nate is a data scientist who writes a great, free chess newsletter called Zwischenzug, and Eugene is a respected opening theoretician who has recently released his first Chessable course, The Grand Prix Attack Reloaded. As always, you can find more details, relevant links, and timestamps below.
Prior Appearances by Eugene and Nate :
Episode 31 with GM Eugene Perelshteyn
Book Recap #17- Zurich 1953 with FM Nate Solon and GM Andy Soltis
02:00- Why write a book on evaluating positions?
09:00- Where do they find the puzzles? For what rating level is the book best suited?
12:00- Why does Nate think that the “centipawn” evaluation system is flawed?
20:30- Patreon mailbag question: “When calculating, how can we know when to shift from crunching potential moves to evaluating a position?”
25:00 What did GM Romani Dzindzichashvilli teach Eugene about evaluating positions?
27:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com. You can find the free “Endgame Strategy” Lesson from GM Sam Shankland here:
https://www.chessable.com/course/115673
28:00- Nate’s takes! What does Nate consider the “bare essential” chess improvement checklist to hold oneself accountable?
38:00 How well do club level players really know their openings?
52:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Aimchess.com. Aimchess’ algorithm reviews your games and gives you actionable advice on 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%.
Or use this link for the same discount:
https://aimchess.com/try?ref=benjohnson12
53:00- Eugene tells the story of playing Magnus OTB at Isle of Man Masters in 2017.
1:00:00- What can we learn from Magnus’ approach to a recent Titled Tuesday?
1:07:00- How did Eugene find an unexplored move on move 5 in his Chessable Course, The Grand Prix Attack Reloaded?
1:12:00- Eugene shares a few stories about legendary, deceased Grandmaster, Alex Wojtkiewicz
1:17:00- Nate is an accomplished adult improver, he discusses how his background in poker helped his mental game in chess.
1:20:00- Parting book recommendations!
Mentioned: Zurich 1953, Perfect Your Chess, The Questions of Modern Chess Theory, Positional Decision Making in Chess, Dan Heismans books, GM Jacob Aagaard’s books, IM Kostya Kavutskity’s Chessable Course: Endgame Studies 101
Thanks to Nate and Eugene for joining us! Here are the key links to keep up with them:
Evaluate like a GM website
Nate’s Newsletter: Zwishenzug
Eugene’s Chessable Course: The Grand Prix Attack Reloaded
Nate’s Twitter
Eugene’s Twitter
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