chessfeels: conversations about chess, psychology & mental health

Julia and JJ continue their conversation about how anxiety can impact your chess. They talk about how to notice when your thoughts turn from 'observational' to more 'reactive' or 'evaluative,' and how annotating your own (slow) chess games can be a great way to practice these observational skills. JJ mentions the chess dojo training program which is really goodCheck out our recommended courses on chessableBuy our really good merchTell us you love us by following us on twitterShow us you love us by giving us some moneyBook lessons with JJThe Miami Temple Israel would like to remind listeners that they did not condone the message of Drake's music in his 're-bar-mitzvah' music video. 

Julia explains what anxiety really is, and JJ talks about how they see this manifest in several of their students' annotations of their own slow games. You can learn how to, like, do anything about it next week. Check out our recommended courses on chessableBuy our really good merchTell us you love us by following us on twitterShow us you love us by giving us some moneyBook lessons with JJ

Julia and JJ are joined by Chris Callahan, the community organizer for LiChess.org. They discuss what LiChess does, and could do, about the addictiveness of blitz, how to be more accessible, and, about all sorts of cool stuff LiChess already does. Follow Chris on twitter and lichessJoin the lichess discord serverChris mentions the outrageous variants on pychess and visualization training on listudySee this page for the full list of extensions  People are still loving our Free Hans shirts Check out our recommended courses on chessableTell us you love us by following us on twitterShow us you love us by giving us some moneyBook lessons with JJ

Julia and JJ talk about The Cheating Scandal, against their better judgment, breaking down the philosophical questions and psychological implications of The Scandal and make lots of jokes about anal beads in the process. Why does it matter that Magnus did not explicitly accuse Hans of cheating? What counts as evidence of cheating? Would the scandal be a scandal if You People didn't tweet so much? Free Hans shirtFree Magnus shirtI Think Hans Cheated shirtCheck out our recommended courses on chessableTell us you love us by following us on twitterShow us you love us by giving us some moneyBook lessons with JJ

What should we do when our love of chess and our exhaustion with competition come into conflict? Julia and JJ tackle the question of why competitive and amateur chess players alike make such a big deal out of quitting. What does it mean to 'quit chess' if it's still a part of your life? What could 'recreational chess play' look like? Where does the desire to quit, rather than merely take a break, from playing competitive chess come from? Why do people think the options are 'keep improving' or 'quit playing'? Why are we like this?  Check out our recommended courses on chessableBuy our really good merchTell us you love us by following us on twitterShow us you love us by giving us some moneyBook lessons with JJ

After a week where chess twitter imploded under the weight of its users debating the value of giving unsolicited advice to other chess players, Julia and JJ decided to unsolicitedly tell everyone why they're using twitter wrong. They're joined by the legend Omar for a heartfelt discussion about how hard it is to hear the hard truth sometimes (stop playing bl*tz). While we take a break to get ready for season 2 of chessfeels (#2chess2feels), you canrep our merchstudy our fave chessable coursesbook lessons with JJdonate to the pod fund

Julia and JJ run a victory lap on a successful first season of podcasting by thanking their listeners (not you), giving candidates predictions (not Ding), and opening a to-be-continued discussion on neurodivergent learning styles. The pair talk about their experiences in chess and life as two individuals living with ADHD and talk a bit about what neurodivergency is and why it matters from a psychological perspective for all chess players (yes you this time).While we take a break to get ready for season 2 of chessfeels (#2chess2feels), you canrep our merchstudy our fave chessable coursesbook lessons with JJdonate to the pod fund

JJ and Julia are joined by Julia's "name twin" @omgjulia, a podcaster, poet, narrator, writer, and, most importantly, non-chess player who has been mistakenly tagged in twitter posts intended for "Dr. Cool Chess Julia." Hilarity ensues as JJ and DCCJ attempt to talk to somebody who doesn't play chess for what sounds like the first time in either of their lives. Get these secret sneak peak into the bizarre and confounding perception of non-chess players on chess. The trio also dives into how perceptions of nerd culture, as well as nerd culture's attitude towards gender and queerness, have evolved over time. Then, JJ and DCCJ make omgjulia define chess concepts for their amusement. BUY OUR MERCH https://chessfeels-podcast.creator-spring.com/apparelFollow more Julias Rios here: https://twitter.com/omgjuliaListen to This Is Why We're Like This: https://www.juliarios.com/this-is-why-were-like-this/And the OMG Julia pod: https://www.juliarios.com/omg-julia-podcast/Check out our chessable launch page: https://go.chessable.com/chessfeels/And prep for JJ's white repertoire by purchasing @chessexplained's Keep It Simple 1 d4 https://www.chessable.com/keep-it-simple-1-d4/course/23396/ 

You may know him as the guy with the picture of the horse. You may know him as the organizer of the prestigious Mr Dodgy invitational. You may not know he works for Chessable. But you know him! But do you really know him? You will now. Julia and JJ interview the Alireza of twitter trolls: Mr Dodgy. They discuss different types of trolling, and how to be a clown on the internet without getting sucked into the fray or going off the deep-end. He is here to talk about how he uses and misuses the internet for his, and our, amusement. Follow Dodgy on twitter: https://twitter.com/ChessProblemSubscribe to his stack: https://mrdodgy.substack.com/JJ's queue is up to 6,439 moves on chessable. see what they're procrastinating on here: https://go.chessable.com/chessfeels/

In just one episode, Julia and JJ reveals the world's funniest time jokes and solve the problem of time trouble in chess. They pontificate on the phenomenon of time pressure: how stressful it is, how to avoid it, and whether it is possible to avoid being stressed out by it. JJ suggests that 'playing too fast' is an underrated cause of time trouble. Julia talks about how to do work away from the board that can help handle panic and pressure in low-time situations.