Episodes

  • L2C 052: Claude Fried Returns to Answer (Some) of Bill's Dumb Questions
    Jul 7 2026

    L2C 052: Claude Fried Returns to Answer (Some) of Bill's Dumb Questions

    Many/Most/All(?) chess players seem to be obsessed over chess openings. In an effort to help, Claude Fried returns to offer some very good advice to us about what to do when looking to start a new to you opening. In addition, Bill can't help but ask some more of his ridiculous questions. Claude is way too good of a player to put up with Bill's dumb questions but he indulges him once again.

    We did cover several topics that may be of interest to you and also help your game, including:

    - Returning to tournament play OTB after an absence, including how he is preparing to return to OTB

    - Various resources he uses for tactical training

    - How to study openings, especially early on in your chess improvement path, and how to develop an opening repertoire, even for the first time, including how to organize and study the opening.

    - What is the goal of learning an opening and how to know when to stop and what are reasonable expectations for the time spent studying an opening or a repertoire.

    - A good way to "pick" your opening that meets your goals, interests, strengths, and playing style.

    - How to decide if you want to play e4 or d4 as your first move and why you may prefer one over the other.

    - How to choose your study resources and what is a reasonable composition for a starting repertoire.

    - Study tips and goals for openings

    - Resources that he finds most helpful to his game and studying efforts

    - Studying Mate in One's and Mate in Two's and some of the issues that Bill is currently encountering in this area

    Did we miss something or get anything wrong? Were we remiss in not asking a question or discuss an area you are interested in?

    Let us know at Late2Chess@gmail.com If you have any thoughts, topics and/or guest ideas, or solutions, please let us know.

    Welcome to the board.

    We hope you enjoy the show! For a link to the podcast, please use:

    https://tinyurl.com/ChessOpeningStudy

    Want some Late 2 Chess swag? Our store is open at: https://late-2-chess.myspreadshop.com/

    #chess #chesstournament #chesstournaments #TaoofChess #mostExcellentRoadTo1500 #OurBumpyRoad #roadto1500Elo #roadtoDecentChess #DCP #decentChessPlayer #chessInstruction #adultimprover #adultimprovers #chessClub #clubChess #chessiverse #tournamentChess #learnchess #learningchess #chesslearner #TheDoctorOnTheSofa #BillOnTheSofa #fantasyChess

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    1 hr and 17 mins
  • L2C 051: Space: Our Tao of Chess Book Series Continues
    Jun 30 2026

    L2C 051: Space: Our Tao of Chess Book Series Continues

    Our Tao of Chess series continues with this episode focused on the importance of space when playing chess. Don't worry, this is not the final frontier of the series. We have a long way to go.

    Did we miss something or get anything wrong? Were we remiss in not asking a question or discuss and area you are interested in?

    Let us know at Late2Chess@gmail.com

    If you have any thoughts, topics and/or guest ideas, or solutions, please let us know. Welcome to the board. We hope you enjoy the show!

    For a link to the podcast, please use:

    https://tinyurl.com/ChessOpeningStudy

    Want some Late 2 Chess swag? Our store is open at: https://late-2-chess.myspreadshop.com/

    #chess #chesstournament #chesstournaments #TaoofChess #mostExcellentRoadTo1500 #OurBumpyRoad #roadto1500Elo #roadtoDecentChess #DCP #decentChessPlayer #chessInstruction #adultimprover #adultimprovers #chessClub #clubChess #chessiverse #tournamentChess #learnchess #learningchess #chesslearner #TheDoctorOnTheSofa #BillOnTheSofa #fantasyChess

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    41 mins
  • L2C 050: Non-Chess Factors to Improve Your Game
    Jun 23 2026

    L2C 050: Non-Chess Factors to Improve Your Game

    We started off with a simple listener question: What do you think are things that are not directly related to chess playing and studying that could help your chess game, especially for a tournament. Bill thought it was a 5 minute pre-episode discussion. The Doctor had other ideas. As usual, the Doctor was correct.

    Did we miss something or get anything wrong? Were we remiss in not asking a question or discuss and area you are interested in?

    Let us know at Late2Chess@gmail.com

    If you have any thoughts, topics and/or guest ideas, or solutions, please let us know. Welcome to the board. We hope you enjoy the show!

    For a link to the podcast, please use: https://tinyurl.com/NonChessChessImprovements

    Want some Late 2 Chess swag? Our store is open at: https://late-2-chess.myspreadshop.com/

    #chess #chesstournament #chesstournaments #TaoofChess #mostExcellentRoadTo1500 #OurBumpyRoad #roadto1500Elo #roadtoDecentChess #DCP #decentChessPlayer #chessInstruction #adultimprover #adultimprovers #chessClub #clubChess #chessiverse #tournamentChess #learnchess #learningchess #chesslearner #TheDoctorOnTheSofa #BillOnTheSofa #fantasyChess

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    41 mins
  • L2C 049: Speed Runs / Slow Runs
    Jun 16 2026

    L2C 049: Speed Runs / Slow Runs

    One of Bill's favorite soft learning activities is to watch slow runs/speed runs and we go into several that he has found to be most helpful and how he tries to get the most value from them. The Doctor then goes through a similar process that he uses to actually simulate a speedrun for himself. Then we talk about a few ways that we may add these to our podcast's YouTube channel. Let us know if you'd be interested.

    Did we miss something or get anything wrong? Were we remiss in not asking a question or discuss and area you are interested in?

    Let us know at Late2Chess@gmail.com

    If you have any thoughts, topics and/or guest ideas, or solutions, please let us know. Welcome to the board. We hope you enjoy the show!

    For a link to the podcast, please use: https://tinyurl.com/SpeedAndSlowRuns

    Want some Late 2 Chess swag? Our store is open at: https://late-2-chess.myspreadshop.com/

    #chess #chesstournament #chesstournaments #TaoofChess #mostExcellentRoadTo1500 #OurBumpyRoad #roadto1500Elo #roadtoDecentChess #DCP #decentChessPlayer #chessInstruction #adultimprover #adultimprovers #chessClub #clubChess #chessiverse #tournamentChess #learnchess #learningchess #chesslearner #TheDoctorOnTheSofa #BillOnTheSofa #fantasyChess

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    43 mins
  • L2C 048: Hanging Pawns
    Jun 9 2026

    L2C 048: Hanging Pawns

    An awesome conversation with Stjepan Tomic about a ton of topics including his chess progress and what he has found to be the best ways to improve as a player. He is was further down the road to above and beyond being a DCP, but shares our pain in the journey. Hopefully this episode will be part 1 of many with Stjepan.

    Hanging Pawns on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HangingPawns

    Hanging Pawns Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/hangingpawns

    The two youtube posts we discussed most closely are:

    Most Common training mistakes: https://tinyurl.com/ChessTrainingMistakes

    Best training methods: https://tinyurl.com/12BestTrainingMethods

    Did we miss something or get anything wrong? Were we remiss in not asking a question or discuss and area you are interested in?

    Let us know at Late2Chess@gmail.com

    If you have any thoughts, topics and/or guest ideas, or solutions, please let us know. Welcome to the board. We hope you enjoy the show!

    For a link to the podcast, please use: https://tinyurl.com/HangingPawnsPod

    Want some Late 2 Chess swag? Our store is open at: https://late-2-chess.myspreadshop.com/

    #chess #chesstournament #chesstournaments #TaoofChess #mostExcellentRoadTo1500 #OurBumpyRoad #roadto1500Elo #roadtoDecentChess #DCP #decentChessPlayer #chessInstruction #adultimprover #adultimprovers #chessClub #clubChess #chessiverse #tournamentChess #learnchess #learningchess #chesslearner #TheDoctorOnTheSofa #BillOnTheSofa #fantasyChess

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    1 hr and 23 mins
  • L2C 047: The Tao of Chess - Pawn Structures
    Jun 2 2026

    L2C 047: The Tao of Chess - Pawn Structures

    This week, we discuss various aspects of the pawn structure and how we perceive this area to apply to our games at our current level of play. This is an area that will likely need to be revisited as we progress.

    Did we miss something or get anything wrong? Were we remiss in not asking a question or discuss and area you are interested in?

    Let us know at Late2Chess@gmail.com

    If you have any thoughts, topics and/or guest ideas, or solutions, please let us know. Welcome to the board. We hope you enjoy the show!

    For a link to the podcast, please use: https://tinyurl.com/PawnStructures

    Want some Late 2 Chess swag? Our store is open at: https://late-2-chess.myspreadshop.com/

    #chess #chesstournament #chesstournaments #TaoofChess #mostExcellentRoadTo1500 #OurBumpyRoad #roadto1500Elo #roadtoDecentChess #DCP #decentChessPlayer #chessInstruction #adultimprover #adultimprovers #chessClub #clubChess #chessiverse #tournamentChess #learnchess #learningchess #chesslearner #TheDoctorOnTheSofa #BillOnTheSofa #fantasyChess

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    37 mins
  • L2C 046: Freestyle Chess, Fischer Random, and Chess 960 - part 1
    May 26 2026

    L2C 046: Freestyle Chess, Fischer Random, and Chess 960

    Is Freestyle chess good for beginner and intermediate players? Does it help you improve your chess game? Do we know how to play this? do we know how to play game this well? The answers vary and that is the topic for this week's podcast. Plus another contest.

    Did we miss something or get anything wrong? Were we remiss in not asking a question or discuss and area you are interested in?

    Let us know at Late2Chess@gmail.com

    If you have any thoughts, topics and/or guest ideas, or solutions, please let us know. Welcome to the board. We hope you enjoy the show!

    For a link to the podcast, please use: https://tinyurl.com/FreeStyleChessAndFischerRandom

    Want some Late 2 Chess swag? Our store is open at: https://late-2-chess.myspreadshop.com/

    #chess #chesstournament #chesstournaments #TaoofChess #mostExcellentRoadTo1500 #OurBumpyRoad #roadto1500Elo #roadtoDecentChess #DCP #decentChessPlayer #chessInstruction #adultimprover #adultimprovers #chessClub #clubChess #chessiverse #tournamentChess #learnchess #learningchess #chesslearner #TheDoctorOnTheSofa #BillOnTheSofa #fantasyChess #fantasyCandidatesTournament

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    22 mins
  • L2C 045: Blitz and Bullet for Chess improvement
    May 19 2026

    L2C 045: Blitz and Bullet for Chess improvement

    One of the hot topics on the internet seems to be whether or not to play blitz and bullet early in your chess improvement cycle. In this episode, we share our thoughts and a few details to help make bullet and blitz (really more blitz but also for bullet) helpful to you chess training and improvement. Lets the arguments begin. Or more appropriately, since Mortal Kombat 2 is out in the theaters "FIGHT". Did we miss something or get anything wrong? Were we remiss in not asking a question or discuss and area you are interested in? Let us know at Late2Chess@gmail.com If you have any thoughts, topics and/or guest ideas, or solutions, please let us know. Welcome to the board. We hope you enjoy the show! For a link to the podcast, please use: https://tinyurl.com/BlitzAndBullet Want a discount on your ChessNoteR: Enter "GHiTLikes" to get XXXXxyf % off of the cost of your unit. Want some Late 2 Chess swag? Our store is open at: https://late-2-chess.myspreadshop.com/ #chess #chesstournament #chesstournaments #TaoofChess #mostExcellentRoadTo1500 #OurBumpyRoad #roadto1500Elo #roadtoDecentChess #DCP #decentChessPlayer #chessInstruction #adultimprover #adultimprovers #chessClub #clubChess #chessiverse #tournamentChess #learnchess #learningchess #chesslearner #TheDoctorOnTheSofa #BillOnTheSofa #fantasyChess #fantasyCandidatesTournament

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    40 mins