Best Fun Chess Club Podcasts (2026)

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L2C 013: The Magic of Development (in Chess) 44:33

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6d ago44:33

44:33

L2C 013: The Magic of Development (in Chess) Dr Pop Pop and Bill discuss one of the key tenants of good chess: Piece Development. Bill views it as one of the magical principles of chess and tries to convince our good doctor. What did we miss? Did we get something wrong? Let us know at [email protected] If you have any thoughts, topic and/or gues…

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L2C 012: OTB Review – Bill Played a Tournament and Then at the Club 58:42

4d ago58:42

58:42

L2C 012: OTB Review – Bill Played a Tournament and Then at the Club Bill was able to get out and play in a tournament on Friday and then went to the Harrisburg Chess Club for a few friendly games. DrPopPop interrogates Bill with a fairly deep review of how the tournament went on Friday. The good news, Bill lost only 1 Elo rating point. The bad news…

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L2C-11: Nerves In Chess with Dr Pop Pop 29:41

8d ago29:41

29:41

L2C-11: Nerves In Chess with Dr Pop Pop On this episode, we talk about the common issue that many face, nerves in chess. For some reason, we both are more nervous ot play online than over the board/live. Why? No idea. Does it help our games? Definitely not. Are we the only ones? Not by a long shot. How to deal with it? We have some thoughts and ide…

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L2C-10: Time Sucks (to avoid) In Chess Improvement 44:54

15d ago44:54

44:54

L2C-11: Time Sucks (to avoid) In Chess Improvement Dr Pop Pop returns to talk about things that we have learned (the hard way) that do not offer the best nor most time efficient path towards improving our chess games. This is not to say that these items aren't helpful or can't help someone improve their game and knowledge, but these are items that …

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L2C-09: Tournament Recap Part 2 with Dr Pop Pop 1:00:03

20d ago1:00:03

1:00:03

L2C-09: Tournament Recap Part 2 with Dr Pop Pop On this episode, our guest and I review his first live OTB chess tournament in several decades. We played together at the West Virginia Senior Open a few weeks back and I thought it might be a good idea to get a second perspective on the tournament and how it was to play in his first live event this c…

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L2C-08: Tournament - First and Latest - Better Audio 23:35

26d ago23:35

23:35

L2C-08: Tournament - First and Latest Work and then flu impacted the release of this weeks episode. I had several in the queue but held them off for this one and then got hit with some nasty bug and couldn't talk (bad for podcasting, lol). This episode started out with an earlier version where i went through a recap of my first ever OTB tournament,…

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L2C-07: Top Ten Things That Helped Me - The Final Four 17:56

2M ago17:56

17:56

L2C-07: Top Ten Things That Helped Me - The Final Four I wrap up my top ten list of things that helped me get to 1,000 Elo. On this episode, I discuss one of the more hotly contested topics of openings with a somewhat unique take on what worked best for me. Then i cover tournament, rated games, and playing over the board live chess. I then discuss …

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L2C-06: Top Ten Things That Helped Me - Game Annotations, Books, and Long Games 16:38

2M ago16:38

16:38

L2C-06: Top Ten Things That Helped Me - Game Annotations, Books, and Long Games On this episode, I cover three more related areas that have helped me to progress up to around 1,000 Elo. The first topic we cover is annotating your game and also reading annotated games by other players and masters. I have found this to be very helpful in improving my…

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L2C-05: Top Ten Things That Helped Me - YouTube and Podcasts 15:32

2M ago15:32

15:32

L2C-05: Top Ten Things That Helped Me - YouTube and Podcasts On this episode, we go through two more things that have helped me most to this point in getting better at chess, YouTube and Podcasts. I recommend the YouTube channels that I have found to be most helpful to me on my journey to 1000 Elo, as well as several podcasts that I subscribe. One …

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L2C-04: Top Ten Things That Helped Me - The ChessDojo 10:56

2M ago10:56

10:56

L2C-04: Top Ten Things That Helped Me - The ChessDojo Vicki rejoins the podcast to bring everyone up to speed with my chess history prior to 2025. It isn't much, but helps us to establish the starting point for my current chess journey. Welcome to the board. We hope you enjoy the show! For a link to the podcast, please use: https://tinyurl.com/Late…

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L2C-03: Rediscovering Chess 7:50

2M ago7:50

7:50

L2C-03: Rediscovering Chess Sorry for the delay, we had some technical difficulties getting the podcast feed setup, but we should be good to go now. On this episode, I go into the trials and tribulations that I went through as I began my chess journey. What went well, what went poorly, and some of the challenges of learning this game on my own. Wel…

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L2C-02: Bill's Chess History - Pre-2025 10:31

4M ago10:31

10:31

L2C-02: Bill's Chess History - Pre-2025 Vicki rejoins the podcast to bring everyone up to speed with my chess history prior to 2025. It isn't much, but helps us to establish the starting point for my current chess journey. Welcome to the board. We hope you enjoy the show! For a link to the podcast, please use: https://tinyurl.com/Late2Chess02 Also,…

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L2C-01: Why Does This Podcast Exist 9:22

4M ago9:22

9:22

L2C-01: Why Does This Podcast Exist Welcome to the Late 2 Chess Podcast. On this first episode, we go into why this podcast exists and what the goals are going forward. One of the frustrations that I see is the near constant r=refrain that if you did not start playing chess at "X years old" you can never be good at the game. While it is true that i…

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The FIDE & Fischer Random Podcast #10 - We discover who the Indian #1 is 1:00:25

2y ago1:00:25

1:00:25

This week we praised the new Indian #1, whoever he may be, looked back at Magnus's victory at the chess 960 GOAT challenge and finally returned to some more cheating talk, as a treat.By Jan Gustafsson, Laurent Fressinet & Peter Heine Nielsen

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The FIDE & Golf podcast #9 - Cheating, Hans vs St Louis & 960 1:04:24

2y ago1:04:24

1:04:24

More cheating blah blah, more Hans shenanigans, Peter is excited for 960 in Germany!By Jan Gustafsson, Laurent Fressinet & Peter Heine Nielsen

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FIDE Segment #8 - Guest Ali Mortazavi, Cheating & Women's Chess 1:25:24

2y ago1:25:24

1:25:24

This week we were joined by English IM Ali Mortazavi and even though everyone has moved on, we talked about women's tournaments & titles, along with more cheating stuff. This episode was recorded before the latest Hans & Nepo shenanigans.By Jan Gustafsson, Laurent Fressinet & Peter Heine Nielsen

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FIDE #7 - Candidates, Knights Dance, Dress codes 57:37

2y ago57:37

57:37

This week we talked about Alireza's unstoppable race to the Candidates, the World Rapid & Blitz controversies and important upcoming travel plans.By Jan Gustafsson, Laurent Fressinet & Peter Heine Nielsen

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FIDE Time #6 - Dvorkovic can stay for life, the Candidates is a fun disaster 1:14:18

2y ago1:14:18

1:14:18

A busy week for FIDE & the very exciting Candidates circus. Note: This episode was recorded before the end of the Chennai Grandmasters & when Firouzja had only won 2 games in Chartres. For #transparency!By Jan Gustafsson, Laurent Fressinet & Peter Heine Nielsen

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Interview with GM RB Ramesh 1:04:31

2y ago1:04:31

1:04:31

Super coach GM Ramesh joins us to share his some of his teaching philosophies & more!By Jan Gustafsson, Laurent Fressinet & Peter Heine Nielsen

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It's FIDE time! #4 - Candidates Chaos 1:14:04

2y ago1:14:04

1:14:04

This week we talked even more about cheating (because enough has not been said) and tried to figure out ways to game the final candidates spots. Enjoy!By Jan Gustafsson, Laurent Fressinet & Peter Heine Nielsen

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FIDE Segment #3 - Interview with Pavel Eljanov 1:06:43

2y ago1:06:43

1:06:43

This week we were joined by Ukrainian #1, GM Pavel Eljanov. Pavel is one of the many chess players whose life has been turned upside down by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.By Jan Gustafsson, Laurent Fressinet & Peter Heine Nielsen

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FIDE Segment #2 - Cheating in chess 1:14:44

2y ago1:14:44

1:14:44

This episode was recorded earlier in the week (before the latest allegations about Hans Niemann and many, many Kramnik blogs).By Jan Gustafsson, Laurent Fressinet & Peter Heine Nielsen

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FIDE Segment #1 - Women in chess! 1:16:17

2y ago1:16:17

1:16:17

As a compensation (punishment?) for the lack of CCC episodes recently, we present Peter's new bonus podcast, the FIDE Segment. This week we were joined by Emilia Castelao from the Women in Chess Foundation. If we can find any of Peter's enemies that are willing to speak to him, we'll have regular guests. Enjoy!…