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PODCAST

The Chess Experience

Chess improvement as an adult is harder than it should be. Plus, the journey can sometimes feel too stressful and serious. This show aims to fix that by 1) interviewing experts who can offer clarity on the best ways to improve; and 2) giving you a heap of fun with “chess entertainment” shows that discuss chess culture, events, movies, etc. Most episodes feature a guest, but sometimes I"ll do a solo show on a topic. This is all brought to you by me, Daniel Lona. I’m a dedicated chess amateur and the

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All Episodes

0:41

Pod Update: Brief Break

The Chess Experience ·

2025/04/29

The podcast is taking a short break for the month of May 2025. It will return in early to mid-June. We'll be back soon! If you want to contact me in the meantime about an episode or anything chess-related, you can do so here.

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68:28

CM Can Kabadayi: How to Prevent Blunders and Why He’s...

The Chess Experience ·

2025/04/23

123 He went from beginner to 2150 FIDE in just four years. And that’s without receiving any coaching! Later, he became one of Chessable’s most popular course creators, recently winning Author of the Year in 2024. CM Can Kabadayi is a rare and impressive chess talent: he excels both as a player and a coach. In this episode, we chat about his journey from a Ph.D in cognitive science to becoming an in-demand course creator and popular chess YouTuber. Can also offers some great insights for chess...

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55:16

Are There Too Many Drawbacks to OTB Tournaments? A...

The Chess Experience ·

2025/04/08

122 You hear the positives of competing in OTB classical events all the time (including from me on this podcast). And their improvement benefits are undeniable. However, they have some serious downsides: money, time, and energy, just to name a few. To the point where I’ve become uncertain whether they’re worth it. And so has my guest, FM Nate Solon. In this episode, we discuss: The many challenges of OTB classical events, like creating difficult situations for proper eating, sleeping, and rec...

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65:40

GM Arturs Neiksans: From Late-Blooming GM Who Reached...

The Chess Experience ·

2025/04/01

121 Latvian GM Arturs Neiksans earned his Grandmaster title relatively late. At age 28. But that didn’t stop him from becoming a force in the chess world.Not only did he climb to an impressive 2631 FIDE rating… But even outside of competition, Arturs developed a dynamic career as a coach to top youths, a premier Chessable course creator, and a YouTuber with awesome chess content. In our interview, we discuss: How he helped promising young talent become GMs while working as head coach at the h...

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53:51

Bishops, Bullet, and Bobby Fischer: Daniel Lona...

The Chess Experience ·

2025/03/25

120 Daniel Lona is interviewed by guest host Omar Mills, fellow club player, in the second part of a special episode celebrating The Chess Experience podcast's third anniversary. Three years ago, Daniel Lona launched The Chess Experience with a simple yet unique mission: to create chess content by and for adult improvers - a rare thing in the chess world at that time. In this episode, he discusses: What makes chess "real"? Is a 3-minute blitz game fundamentally the same as a 5-hour clas...

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0:43

Schedule Update: Sick Delay, Part II of Anniversary...

The Chess Experience ·

2025/03/20

A quick schedule update. Alas, no episode this week due to being very sick :( But we'll return on Tues, March 25th with the second part of me being interviewed by Omar Mills for the 3rd anniversary of this show. Then on April 1st, I'll have GM Arturs Neiksans as a guest! Finally, I do these quick updates so that you never wonder "Hey, what happened to the show?" Lol. See you soon. And thank you for your patience.

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55:05

Behind the Mic: Daniel Lona Interviewed By Omar Mills...

The Chess Experience ·

2025/03/11

119 Daniel Lona celebrates the third anniversary of hosting The Chess Experience by sitting in the guest chair, interviewed by previous guest and adult club player Omar Mills. Three years ago, Daniel Lona launched The Chess Experience with a simple yet unique mission: to create chess content by and for adult improvers - a rare thing in the chess world at that time. Now, with over 100 episodes and countless insights from his guests shared, Daniel talks about the journey, philosophy, and future...

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59:43

GM Susan Polgar: A Chess Legend on How She Broke...

The Chess Experience ·

2025/03/04

118 GM Susan Polgar is a once-in-a-lifetime talent. She became the first-ever woman to earn the GM title by rating and norms. By age 15, she became the highest-rated female chess player on the planet. In 1996, she became the Women’s World Champion and the first-ever player to earn the Triple Crown: holding the world title in all formats: blitz, rapid, and classical. Not only that…But she did so against relentless obstacles from sexist chess federations who did not want a woman to succeed the ...

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2:13

Updates: Susan Polgar, Submit Qs for Her, Video Pod...

The Chess Experience ·

2025/02/25

News updates for this week: 1) GM Susan Polgar is coming to the show very soon! 2) You can submit a question for Susan by joining my Patreon membership (deadline to submit Q is 2/27 at 1pm CT.) 3) Because I’m prepping so much for that interview, there won't be a show this week. 4) Videos of my pod interviews will be coming soon on my new YouTube channel. See you all soon!

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69:57

How to Build Attacking Intuition w/ WGM Thalia...

The Chess Experience ·

2025/02/19

117 Hailing from Cuba, and now one of the top American women players, WGM Thalia Cervantes is a chess powerhouse. For the past four years, she’s been invited to and played at the elite US Women’s Chess Championship. And her competitive pursuits are nowhere near finished. Thalia is working diligently with a coach to earn her IM title, with one norm already achieved. She’s also just released her first Chessable course, called, “Building an Attacking Intuition in Chess,” a subject we explore at ...

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63:30

GM Boris Avrukh: How to Play Better Defense, Coaching...

The Chess Experience ·

2025/02/11

116 What a chess career! GM Boris Avrukh cracked the World Top 50 in 2005 and achieved a peak rating of 2668. He has coached the world’s best players like Fabiano Caruana, Vladimir Kramnik, and Wesley So. And he even got to be the last person to ever play the legendary Mikhail Tal. Of course, Boris has had an exemplary competitive career representing Israel in six chess Olympiads and winning the World U12 Championship in 1990. In addition to years of coaching the world’s best and club p...

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39:20

Nigerian Star Uses Chess to Improve Others’ Lives &...

The Chess Experience ·

2025/02/04

115 She learned the game at 19. The next year she became a titled player with an 1800+ FIDE rating. Then, several years later, WFM Perpetual Ogbiyoyo founded an organization to spread chess to girls and women throughout Nigeria. Now, she’s expanded her connection to the chess world by moving to New York City. In this episode, we talk about her incredible journey, including: How she rose from complete beginner to Woman FIDE Master in one year.A window into the culture and community...

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62:48

Adult Improver Pod: Nicholas Sloan - A 400+ Rating...

The Chess Experience ·

2025/01/28

114 Leaping 400 rating points in classical, rated chess as an adult in just two years? That requires a huge effort and rare dedication. Two qualities that describe well this week’s guest, fellow adult club player, Nicholas Sloan. Specifically, in a relatively brief period, Nick went from 1400 USCF to 1849 USCF.And it’s all part of his plan to earn the National Master title - something that he wants to prove is possible for us adults.But exciting progress doesn’t come easy. Nick advocates cons...

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51:28

113 GM Josh Friedel - Common Middlegame Mistakes &...

The Chess Experience ·

2025/01/21

113 Rarely do grandmasters focus on helping club players and beginners. But when they do it’s rare and exciting. Their extra skill and understanding of the game deliver insights that even other titled players may not possess. That’s what GM Josh Friedel offers as a course creator and coach. And it can be heard throughout this interview.Of course, Josh has had an impressive chess career. Competitively, he tied for 6th place at the US Chess Championship in 2009 and competed at the World Cup.He ...

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60:52

Adult Improver Pod: Sydney Strauss - Moving to NYC to...

The Chess Experience ·

2025/01/14

112 Would you move to a new city for chess? Few have that level of commitment to the game. But our guest this week did exactly that. Adult improver Sydney Strauss moved to New York City this past year to pursue her relatively new passion for chess.After learning the game just two years ago, she fell in love with it and began studying and playing every day. The following year, Sydney knew she wanted to take her pursuit to the next level and be fully immersed in chess through clubs, tourn...

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42:11

WIM Svitlana Demchenko - Insights on Imbalances and...

The Chess Experience ·

2025/01/08

111 She does it all. WIM Svitlana Demchenko is a course creator, coach, streamer, and high-level chess competitor. Born in Ukraine and a long-time Canadian citizen, Svitlana proved herself early in chess, becoming a five-time Canadian girls champion. In more recent years, she’s competed in the Chess Olympiad three times as part of the Canadian women’s team.She’s also published several fantastic opening and strategy courses for ChessBase. And, each week, she streams chess on Twitch.Finally, ro...

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43:16

WGM Maria Gevorgyan - 5x-Armenian National Champion &...

The Chess Experience ·

2024/12/18

110 Today’s guest is the inspiring and talented WGM Maria Gevorgyan. Few have managed to become a national chess champion, let alone do it five times. But Maria has! In addition to becoming the women’s chess champion of Armenia multiple times…Maria is now taking all that she’s learned from her competitive career and helping her students as a chess coach.These days, she is the head coach at the Abu Dhabi Chess Academy for women and girls.In this interview, we discuss:Is blitz a helpful tool fo...

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1:21

Schedule Update for December '24

The Chess Experience ·

2024/12/04

A quick update on this month's (12/24) release schedule. The holidays make it a little more difficult to schedule guests, so I'll be only releasing two episodes this month. The next will be on Tuesday, December 17th. The other will be on the 31st. But if you'd like to hear me share a little more detail (and a fun teaser at the end) play the 90-second update :) We'll be back to the normal, weekly episodes starting the first week of January. Thank you SO much for your support of the podcast!

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64:33

Ding vs. Gukesh - World Championship Preview w/ FM...

The Chess Experience ·

2024/11/22

109 The upcoming World Championship should be a fascinating one! GM Ding Liren is the reigning world champ. While he’s an extraordinary talent, his rating and performance have backslid this past year. And, sadly, Ding has been struggling with psychological issues...Meanwhile, India’s brightest chess talent and Ding's opponent, GM Gukesh Dommaraju, will be the youngest player to ever compete in the World Championship at 18 years old.Gukesh, though he’s been stellar in his recent competitive pe...

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50:42

Aggressive Openings & Innovative Strategies for Club...

The Chess Experience ·

2024/11/19

Our guest this week is a self-taught FIDE Master, coach, and popular course creator hailing from the Netherlands: Midas Ratmas.Midas has built his chess career around helping club players and beginners.As such, he’s developed a special talent for teaching chess to players at this level.Midas has already published over a dozen Chessable courses covering areas like the opening, tactics, and strategy - with many more on the horizon.In this episode, we talk about:The 3 ways he makes opening cours...

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