GM Mihail Marin has spent his life surrounded by chess in varying professional capacities and has the wealth of wisdom and stories you might expect from such experiences. He is a polyglot, a prolific and award winning author, a top trainer, and a 3 time Romanian national Chess champion. GM Marin is also the friend and frequent collaborator of GM Judit Polgar, and eventually helped Judit write her landmark books after befriending her family in the early 1990s. In our interview, we discuss all of these experiences, as well as Marin’s memorable games against Viktor Korchnoi and Boris Spassky and his new books about GM Bent Larsen and GM Vladimir Simagin. GM Marin had so many fun stories to share and such a rich perspective on so many chess champions. Timestamps and topics discussed can be found below.

0:00- We begin by discussing Mihail’s record of Chess Olimpiad participation and trying to count how many languages he speaks. :)

Mentioned: Olimpbase.org, Magic Mountain

13:00- Mihail discusses how he works with engines.

20:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com. Check out their latest courses here: https://www.chessable.com/courses/all/new/

21:00- What did Mihail think of Tata Steel 2023?

Mentioned: Giri-Carlsen 2023, Carlsen-Abdusattorov 2023

27:00- What does Mihail think of the fact that Carlsen says he will take a break from Classical Chess?

Mentioned: Caruana-Korchnoi 2011

32:00- Mihail discusses his games with Korchnoi, Spassky and Karpov.

Mentioned: LiChess Study with Marin’s games with Korchnoi

52:00- Mihail spent some time with Tal shortly before he died. What was that like?

Mentioned: Tal-Gomez 1992

56:00- 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%.

59:00- Mihail has been the second, friend and co-author with GM Judit Polgar many times over the years, how did his friendship with the Polgar sisters begin?

Mentioned: San Luis 2005 World Championship

1:17:00- We discuss MIhail’s latest book, Learn from Bent Larsen, did Mihail ever meet the legendary Danish GM? (Also available on Forward Chess), including a Patreon mailbag question

1:27:00- Learn from the Legends is a renowned book. Which players does Mihail’s forthcoming sequel cover?

Mentioned: Lajos Portisch, Lev Polugaevsky, Paul Keres

1:40:00- Does Mihail write with a specific audience in mind?

1:43:00- We discuss Mihail’s book Learning Chess With Simagin

Mentioned: Chessbase interview by by Conrad Schormann

1:54:00- Patreon mailbag question: Will Mihail’s series on the English Opening ever be on Chessable?

1:58:00- Mihail discusses some players that played with a “computer like” style, even before chess computers, such as Bobby Fischer. He also discusses the legendary opening preparation of GM Efim Geller.

2:10:00- Thanks to GM Marin for sharing his vast chess knowledge! Here are some ways to keep up with him:

Facebook

Learning Chess With Simagin

Learn from Bent Larsen (Also available on Forward Chess)

If you would like to help support Perpetual Chess, you can do so here:

https://www.patreon.com/perpetualchess

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Eating Elephants and Teaching Syllabication