Is There a World Championship Cycle?

This week on Perpetual Chess we are joined by award winning chess author and renowned trainer, GM Jacob Aagaard. It has been more than 2 years since our last long-form interview, and we had tons of topics to cover. We discussed topics including the rise of the top young talents in the chess world, potential World Championship format chances, and chess business news. There was also plenty of talk about chess training and improvement. Our talk about improvement was particularly focused on endgames, because Jacob has recently released an ambitious and highly informative new book, A Matter of Endgame Technique. This book is nearly 900 pages in length and is packed with practical tips and illustrations of moments at which Grandmasters have gone wrong in endgames. Although Perpetual Chess is an audio only format, we tried to extract a few lessons that listeners can apply to their own games. GM Aagaard is never hesitant to share his opinions, and I always learn a lot from speaking with him. You can find timestamps of the topics discussed, as well as links for topics referenced below. 

0:01- 

Perpetual Chess Link Fest Sign Up-

https://benjohnson.substack.com/

GM Jacob Aagaard Blog post about his experience working with GM Hans Niemann 

https://forum.killerchesstraining.com/t/paranoia-and-insanity-by-jacob-aagaard/856

0:02- Jacob discusses the “tidal wave” of young chess talents emerging from India and elsewhere. In 10 years, how many of the top 20 players in the world does he predict will be from India?

13:00- Which young players does Aagaard consider most likely to someday be World Champions?

Mentioned: Gukesh-Abdussatorov 2022, IM Levy Rozman Gukesh Interview 

21:00- What in particular precipitates Jacob’s suggestion that IM Vaishali R may someday be Woman’s World Champion?

24:00- 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%.

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25:00- What was Jacob’s reaction to the news that Chess.com is acquiring The Play Magnus Group? 

35:00- Patreon Mailbag Question- “What does Jacob think of potential changes to the World Championship Format?” 

51:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com. You can check out all of their latest offerings here: 

https://www.chessable.com/courses/all/new/

53:00- What chess lessons can we learn from Jacob’s great new book A Matter of Endgame Technique? 

Mentioned: Think Like a Super GM, Under the Surface, Chess Tactics from Scratch, Positional Decision Making in Chess, Thinking Inside the Box 

1:05:00- What is “The Steinitz Rule”?

1:11:00- What is “The Shankland Rule”?

1:16:00- Patreon Mailbag Question- “What books similar to Thinking Inside the Box does Jacob recommend? 

Mentioned: Chess Structures, GM Johan Hellsten, The Seven Deadly Chess Sins, The Road to Chess Improvement 

1:20:00- What does Jacob think of GM Firouzja’s game?

1:24:00- Patreon Mailbag Question- “Does Jacob think it is important for trainers to occasionally play?” 

Mentioned: Charlotte Chess Center, IM Kassa Korley 

1:30:00- Jacob discusses his pending emigration back to his native country, Denmark 

1:33:00- What is the structure of Jacob’s training academy, Killer Chess Training? 

Mentioned: GM RB Ramesh

1:41:00- Thanks to GM Aagaard for joining us! Links below:

Book- A Matter of Endgame Technique

Quality Chess- http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/

Killer Chess Training Facebook- 365 Chess Academy / Killer Chess Training | Facebook

GM Jacob Aagaard’s Twitter- https://twitter.com/GMJacobAagaard?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

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