EP 371- GM Josh Friedel- Common Beginner & Intermediate Mistakes, Freestyle Chess, and Advice for Goal-Setting

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Feb 27, 2024

GM Josh Friedel covers common beginner and intermediate mistakes in chess, discusses Freestyle Chess, and gives advice on goal-setting. He shares insights from his Chessable course and talks about his OTB career, hobbies like cooking, tennis, and guitar.

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ADVICE

Simplify Moves To Two Clear Choices

Teach beginners by simplifying choices: present only two reasonable options per move.
Train students to ask: "Does this move stop a threat or win material?"

ADVICE

Build Board Awareness Habitually

Build board awareness by habitually checking what is attacked and what attacks your pieces.
Practice slow positions to make that checking automatic during real games.

ADVICE

Consider All Candidate Moves Early

When calculating, always list and check all plausible candidate moves instead of one line.
Force yourself to consider alternatives on move two to avoid early, decisive errors.

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GM Josh Friedel is the 2013 US Open Champion and is a state champion of 3 different states! Josh has also been teaching chess for decades, and he always presents chess in a clear and instructive fashion. Here in 2024, Josh has released his first Chessable course, Beginner Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. In addition to sharing some key advice from this course, Josh also discusses common errors he sees at the intermediate level. It has been more than 5 years since my first interview with Josh, so we also catch up on his OTB career, goal-setting, and on what he learns about chess improvement from working to improve at cooking, tennis, and his newest hobby, guitar.

0:00- Thanks to our presenting chess education sponsor, Chessable.com. In addition to GM Friedel’s course, GM Jan Gustafsson is out with a brand new course on 1. E4! If you use the link below to sign up for Perpetual Chess, it helps to support the pod!

https://www.chessable.com/pro/?utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=benjohnson&utm_campaign=pro

0:01- What gave Josh the idea to cover the topic of Beginner Mistakes. What are some common beginner mistakes?

0:11- Josh covers some of the most common intermediate-level (1600-2100) mistakes he sees.

Mentioned; GM Josh Friedel’s YouTube channel

https://www.youtube.com/user/joshfriedel

0:22- Josh shares his thoughts on Chess960 aka Freestyle Chess

0:27- Patreon mailbag question: What is Josh’s advice for how chess players should go about setting goals?

29- Josh’s plans for an OTB comeback

36:00- Patreon mailbag question: What has Josh learned from working with coaches like GM Kaidanov, GM Goldin, NM Hal Terrie, and GM Larry Christiansen?

Mentioned; GM Daniel Naroditsky, Lev Psakhis, Viktor Mikhalevski, Vinay Bhat

45:00- Are Josh’s abilities in his other interests, such as tennis and cooking, also progressing?

Mentioned: GM Ray Robson, IM Eric Rosen, IM Marc Esserman

48:00- What is the topic of the chess book Josh is working on?

Thanks to Josh for joining the pod! You can reach him via the LiChess coaches page, and be sure to check out his Chessable course!

https://www.chessable.com/beginner-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them-the-opening/course/204684/

You can contact him via his LiChess coaches page:

https://lichess.org/coach/JFriedel

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

https://www.patreon.com/perpetualchess

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