EP 399- GM Tiger Hillarp Persson: The 2x Swedish Champion, Author & Go Master Shares a Life's Worth of Wisdom on How to Improve at Complex Games

This week I am honored to be joined by author, trainer, and 2 time Swedish National Champion, GM Tiger Hillarp Persson. Tiger has a unique background for a GM, as at the age of 26, when he was not yet an IM, he decided to pursue chess professionally nonetheless. From there he made rapid progress and has been an active player ever since. But Tiger is equally passionate about another complex game, Go, which he started playing at the age of 40. He has become a master-level player, and has represented his native Sweden in international Go tournaments as well. In our conversation, Tiger discusses the challenges and rewards of improving at both games, and why he thinks substantial improvement is possible at both if one is honest with oneself and works hard. We also discuss Tiger’s fantastic new book, Tiger’s Chaos Theory. The book deconstructs and gives vocabulary to some uncommon and important patterns and situations in chess, and is a pleasure to read. I found this conversation very insightful, and I trust that you will as well. Timestamps of topics discussed are below.

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0:02- GM Tiger Hillarp Persson joins the pod. We begin by discussing why Tiger decided to devote himself fully to chess at age 26, when he was not even an IM at that point.

Mentioned: Karpov-Miles 1980, The Soviet Chess Conveyor by Shereshevsky

18:00- What has pursuing excellence at Go taught Tiger about chess improvement? Mentioned: Check out Tiger’s blog here: https://tiger.bagofcats.net/ Ivanchuk-Van Foreest 2022: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2416368

37:00- Patreon mailbag question: “Does Tiger play unorthodox openings in Go as well? “

42:00- Tiger discusses the study method of trying to imitate the play of a player whose style you admire, as he did for Karpov.

48:00- Patreon mailbag question: “Have computers been a blessing or a curse for chess?”

52:00- Patreon mailbag question: “What is Tiger’s advice for lower rated players for assessing sacrifices?” Mentioned: The Art of Sacrifice by Rudolph Spielman

56:00- Tiger’s other favorite chess books Mentioned: Under the Surface by GM Jan Markos

59:00- What is a hecatomb?

1:00:00- Tiger’s favorite tournament memories Mentioned: GM Jonathan Rowson, GM Peter Heine Nielsen, GM Lembit Oll

1:05:00- Tiger is playing on the Swedish team at the Olympiad. How does he prepare?

1:10:00- Tiger discusses his most famous win, an amazing game against GM Peter Hiene Nielsen https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1434778

1:12:00- Thanks to Tiger for joining me! Here are links to check out his book: https://qualitychess.co.uk/products/improvement/23034/tigers_chaos_theory_by_tiger_hillarp_persson/

Free preview from Quality Chess: https://qualitychess.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Tigers-Chaos-Theory-060-excerpt-1.pdf

Forward Chess: https://forwardchess.com/product/tigers-chaos-theory

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