GM Ben Finegold is back to share his thoughts on all of the recent crazy chess news. The popular commentator, YouTuber, and Chessable author and I discuss the controversies and highlights of the US Championships, as well as the most recent cheating accusations leveled by GM Vladimir Kramnik. Do these accusations have more merit than other recent ones? We also discuss OTB cheating, as Ben draws some comparisions to cheating episodes in the game of Bridge. Lastly, we discuss why the Nimzo-Indian is a favorite opening of Ben’s and Ben shares a few of his favorite stories related to chess and gambling. As always, timestamps of topics discussed are below. Thanks to our sponsors, Chessable.com. Check out Ben’s course, Starting Out: Nimzo-Indian. If you sign up for Chessable Pro, please use the following link to help support Perpetual Chess: https://www.chessable.com/pro/?utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=benjohnson&utm_campaign=pro

Mentioned: GMs Daniel Naroditsky and Vladimir Kramnik on the Levitov channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFwfC6Y1SAQ Danya on C-Squared https://youtu.be/RGiDosCed48?si=94GZd6Dx2TiD3wal

19:00- The Shevchenko story and OTB cheating.

23:00- How does cheating in bridge compare to chess? Is it easier to improve at bridge than chess?

27:00- Patreon mailbag question- What is worse, OTB cheating or the fear of OTB cheating?

30:45- We discuss the GM Christopher Yoo story and the stress of OTB chess.

39:00- Ben discusses the Nimzo-Indian and other favorite openings from childhood

Mentioned: Starting out: The Nimzo Indian https://www.chessable.com/starting-out-nimzo-indian-defense/course/258506/

Tal-Botvinnik 1960

47:00- Patreon mailbag question: How you can acquire skills rather than knowledge from watching videos?

49:00- Ben shares a few stories about gambling on blitz and bullet chess. Mentioned: GM Kirill Georgiev

58:00- Ben’s World Championship thoughts

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