Premier Chess: Conquer the Game; Master Your Life

In Episode 267, I have the pleasure of conversing with Ranae Bartlett, who became US Chess Executive Director last month. She started at US Chess in September 2023 as Director of Operations. Before joining US Chess, Ranae was an Assistant General Counsel for a Fortune 5 company. She served as a local school board member in Madison, Alabama for ten years and advocated for chess education and funding chess initiatives in her school system. Ranae founded Madison City Chess League, a non-profit chess organization where she served as Executive Director for ten years and conducted over eighty chess tournaments. In 2020, she became the first Education Director at ChessKid.com, and in 2022 she co-chaired the Chess In Education Committee for US Chess.We speak about her current plans for US Chess, The Nationals, the disparity of gender in chess, fundraising, ratings, Tournament Director certifications, the upcoming Saint Louis Chess Conference, the alabama chess scene, title 1 funds, our 2024 Summer Chess and Table Tennis Camp, pickleball, unrated events, the upcoming Chess in Education webinar How Philanthrophy Supports Chess in Education with our 47th Podcast Guest Dewain Barber, "the Dean of Scholastic Chess", John D. Rockefeller V, US Chess Director of Development Geoff Isaak, and Mark Indermaur, moderator, and more.      

In Episode 266, I converse with Rabbi Elie Feder PhD and Rabbi Aaron Zimmer, Hosts of Physics to God. Rabbi Elie Feder earned a PhD in mathematics from the CUNY Graduate Center and received Rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Yisrael Chait. Since 2004, Elie has been a mathematics professor at Kingsborough Community College. He has published many papers and delivered numerous talks in graph theory, which is his field of mathematical research. As a teacher, Elie has a passion for simplifying complex topics for his students. Recently, he authored a book "Gematria Refigured," which presents a rational, nonmystical approach to gematria as a tool of uncovering the significance of quantity and fine tuning in Torah, life, and the universe. Elie resides in Far Rockaway, New York, with his wife and their four children.After earning a physics degree and receiving rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Yisrael Chait, Rabbi Aaron Zimmer considered furthering his education through graduate school. However, his intellectual curiosity extended far beyond the realm of physics, encompassing a diverse array of fields, including philosophy, mathematics, and psychology. Capitalizing on his blend of analytical and philosophical skills, Aaron utilized his personal resources to venture into commodity futures trading. This endeavor involved commodities such as oil, natural gas, cotton, sugar, and coffee. His strategic approach was deeply rooted in the conceptual frameworks of physics and the Brisker Method for Talmudic analysis. After an eleven-year career marked by success in commodity trading, Aaron decided to retire. In his retirement, Aaron channels his intellectual energy into studying various branches of knowledge, including the Talmud and physics. He resides in Lawrence, New York, along with his wife and their five children.We speak about analysis in chess, commodities trading and physics, Talmud,some insights from our 162nd Podcast Guest Rabbi Mark Wildes, Founder of Manhattan Jewish Experience, depth of knowledge, the torah way of life, the interesection of god and science, Richard Feyman's analogy of chess and the laws of physics, chess history, Plunder Chess, the universe and more.Thank you to our 45th Podcast Guest Zev Gotkin, Founder of Zev Media, for recently introducing me to Rabbi Feder and Rabbi Zimmer and allowing this episode to happen. 

In Episode 265, I converse with real estate prodigy Deven Wohlwhend, COO of Clear Sky Realty, Inc. From the time he was born, Deven has been going to investment meetings. He began investing he was only 5 years old. By the time he was 7, he started a company and started purchasing real estate. By the time he was 10 years old, he attained his Ohio Professional Housing Provider Certification (O.P.H.P.) Within 3 years, he had bought 20% of a 60-unit complex. He is constantly growing his real estate team and acquiring more assets. At 11 years old, he published his first book about his successes and setbacks: If I Can Do It, So Can You! How I Started Buying Real Estate at Age 7! By the time he was 12 he started taking classes at Kent State University. Recently he published his second book, The Garage with Mark Victor Hansen. He achieved the #1 best-selling author on Amazon in Children’s Money Books the 2nd day it was available. He has since been interviewed on Larry Goins Podcast.  He has been on expert panels from Florida to Ohio, including at the National Real Estate Summit. At the age of 16, he currently owns over 40 units.We speak about our apperances on Reena Friedman Watts' podcast Better Call Daddy, investing as a child, artificial barriers, real estate strategy, action, fun and more. 

In Episode 264, I have the pleasure of interviewing Carol Ann Caronia, Author of Strategic Moves: Mind-Building Chess Exercises For Kids. Carol Ann Caronia was born and raised in Brooklyn. A graduate of St. John’s University, she has pursued a vigorous independent course of study in physics, anthropology, archaeology, and history.Carol's career began in business writing, transitioned to business research, then to financial and management roles in nonprofits, and finally to chess, where she spent most of her adult life teaching chess to young children privately and in afterschool enrichment programs, community education centers, and in the classroom.We speak about our mutual friendship with our 109th Podcast Guest National Master Bruce Pandolfini, the founding of Chess in The Schools, market driven teaching, expectations, critical thinking skills and more. 

In Episode 264, I converse with Gary Morgenstein, who is the critically acclaimed author of The Dark Depths series (A Mound Over Hell, A Fastball for Freedom, A Dugout to Peace).As an award-winning playwright, his work includes A Black and White Cookie, A Tomato Can’t Grow in the Bronx,  Dancing on Glass, and Walking Charlie.Morgenstein’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Parade Magazine, the New York Post, Sports Illustrated, Fox News Radio, and NPR. He enjoys sports, yoga, and taking care of his beloved pug. Gary lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife.We speak about writing novels versus plays, unity, Jewish pride, community , push vs. pull, parallels between chess, theater and writing, resiliency, fundraisers, and more.   Thank you to our 228th Podcast Guest Rachel Kovacs, Author, and Presenter at City University of New York for recently introducing me to Gary and allowing this episode to happen. 

In Episode 262, I converse with Rabbi Yisroel Bernath, the spiritual director at Chabad of NDG and the Jewish Chaplain at Concordia University. He received his BA and Rabbinical Ordination from the Central Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim in Brooklyn, NY, and his MA in Hebrew Letters from the Yeshiva Gedolah Rabbinical College of Greater Miami. He has extensive experience working in Adult Education and Special Education as well as coaching hundreds of young adults and couples.In 2010, he was Canada's only finalist for the Jewish Community Hero Award. Known as “The Love Rabbi,” he exudes warmth and has an air of non-judgmental approachability. It’s no wonder he’s one of Canada's most popular under-40 rabbis! Rabbi Bernath lives in Montreal's trendy Monkland Village with his beloved wife Sara and adorable children Chaya, Zalmy, Leiba, Hena, and Yair.We speak about the Montreal Jewish community, dating, settling down versus up, inspiration from the Lubavticher Rebbe, strategy, parallels of chess and judaism, co-officiating my wife Stacey and I's wedding with our two-time podcast guest Rabbi Levi Welton, and more. 

In Episode 261, I converse with Phil Copulsky CFA, Director - Private Capital at Westmount Realty Capital, LLC. The private capital team is responsible for raising equity capital for Westmount's commercial real estate investments across industrial, multifamily, and office. Investors include institutional equity partners, RIAs, fee only financial planners, family offices, and high net worth individuals.Phil has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and an MBA from University of Texas at Austin. In addition to a successful career in real estate, Phil has played college basketball and countless chess tournaments, since we were Churchill School chess teammates. We speak about traveling to the Nationals, parallels between chess and basketball, real estate investments, discipline, notation, constructive criticism, time management, the art of sacrifice, business plans and more.  

In Episode 260, I have the pleasure of conversing with Paige Arnof-Fenn, Founder & CEO at Mavens & Moguls. Paige loves building great brands! She was the first VP Marketing/CMO at Zipcar (now Avis), VP of Marketing at Inc.com (sold to Bertelsmann) and the first SVP of Marketing at Launch Media (went public & later sold to Yahoo).  She is a popular keynote speaker and panelist at venues including  Harvard Business School and  MIT Enterprise Forum. Maven & Monguls is a Marketing, Branding, PR, Market Research & Communications firm based in Cambridge, MA, with clients globally. They help organizations who want to increase their visibility, profile and awareness. Their clients range from early stage startups to Fortune 500 firms like Virgin and Microsoft.We speak about marketing versus sales, the art of post-mortems, strategic planning, extracurriculars, commodities versus brands, website audits and more.   

In Episode 259, I converse with Scott Lask, Founder of Scott Lask Wealth Management Group LLC. Scott began working in financial services as a financial consultant in 1983 at Shearson American Express. Prior to starting the Scott Lask Wealth Management Group in 2004, Scott was a financial advisor for several different companies. Scott is a member of The Hudson Valley Estate Planning Council.He holds certification from the Dorsey Wright & Associates Broker Institute and Advanced Broker Institute for successful completion of training in advanced point and figure methodology. Scott’s specialties are Risk Management, Retirement Income Solutions, Portfolio Construction, Family Wealth Advisory services, setting client goals.  He is a frequent speaker for groups and organizations and continuing education seminars.We speak about In This Together Roundtable, the weekly networking group where we met, financial setbacks, classic rock, jamming with our 9th Podcast Guest Mike Papapavlou, CEO of Guitar Guide Guru, mitigating risk in chess and finance, his new book Let Wall Street Work for You, personal finance tips for milennials and more. 

In Episode 258, I converse with Life Master Eugene Salomon, Author of "Sweet Memories: Family, Friends, Chess, and Sugar”. Eugene is a 95 years-young, successful businessman, who has been playing chess for 80 years! He was born in Spain in 1928 and has been married to Bea, his Brooklyn angel, for sixty-two years. He was among the best chess players in Spain and Cuba in the late 1940s and early 1950s. After many years away from chess, he earned the U.S Chess Federation rating as a Life Master at age 70. He also received a Silver Life Master Certificate from the American Contract Bridge League at age 93. Gene earned degrees in Sugar Technology and Agricultural Engineering at Havana University. He is known as one of the foremost experts in the world on the subject of edible molasses and has traveled extensively in his work. Gene's resumé includes significant contributions to the sugar industry, and he has been nominated for the Dyer Award, the "Sugar Man of the Year." He is still working as a consultant in new business development in the food industry. We speak about his 50-year-long friendship with Dr. Richard Lewis, our Westchester Instructor and 180th podcast guest, encounters with former World Champions Alexander Alekhine and Garry Kasparov, wins against Grandmasters Arthur Bisguier and Robert Byrne, José Raúl Capablanca's legacy, the Annual US Amateur Team East Championship, parallels with our 200th Podcast Guest FIDE Master Asa Hoffmann and more. 

In Episode 257, I have the pleasure and honor of conversing with Grandmaster Jesse Kraai, Co-Founder of ChessDojo. GM Kraai has been playing and teaching chess since before you were born. Playing in seven US championships helped him elevate his game to GM in 2007. He won the Denker tournament of High School Champions in 1989 and 1990 and the Irwin tournament of Senior Champions in 2023. He is currently using the Dojo Training Program with the dream of winning the US Senior Closed in 2024.We speak about his recent win at the 2023 Irwin tournament, the return on investment of playing in tournaments, rating deflation, chess hunger, enjoyment, The Chess House, community, online vs. over-the-board play, general tips for adult improvers, deep thinking, his fiction book Lisa: a Chess Novel, training and more.   

In Episode 256, I converse with my long-term friend National Master Todd Bryant, Software Engineer at Chess.com, who I first met at the 2006 Eastern Open in Washington, DC. In addition to programming at Chess.com, Todd enjoys playing lots of speed chess, studying openings, continuously improving, staying in shape through CrossFit and spending time with Lisa Cunningham, his wife, who happens to be our 26th Podcast Guest, and their three kids- Jack, Chloe and Max. We speak about Chess.com's corporate culture, the art of opening preparation, the juggling of responsibilities, the importance of exercise for chess players, tips for improvement, ways to attract more woman to play in chess, his role as a chess dad and more.  

In Episode 255, I have the pleasure of conversing with Women Candidate Master Alexandra Prado, who has been playing chess since she was a little girl in Bolivia, and competed on their National Team. She now lives in France and travels around the world, making chess content while she goes!We speak about the chess scene in Bolivia, her move to France, home of our 230th Podcast Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, World Blitz Champion and Seventh-Highest Rated Player in History, inspiration from Queen's Gambit,  streaming, meeting Magnus Carlsen, Tiktok videos, chess PR, her representation by Dulcedo and more. 

In Episode 254, I have the pleasure of conversing with my cousin Dr. Jake Rabinowitz, Founder of Smart Eats. Dr. Jake Rabinowitz has PhD in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University (2020). He is the founder of Smart Eats, which offers solutions built upon decades of developing and delivering nutrition-based therapies. It's team of doctors brings expertise in nutrition, food science, engineering, and microbiology. We speak about the importance of diet, the shortage of baby formula, iron deficiency, critical thinking, upcoming events, runners, entrepreneurship and more. 

In Podcast Episode 253, I have the pleasure of conversing with National Expert Steve Hrop, Executive Coach. Steve has his Ph.D. in Industrial & Organizational Psychology from The University of Akron. For many years, he has trained executives at Fortune 500 companies, including Prudential Financial, ADP and Asbury Automative Group, and smaller companies. He wrote the book Defending Under Pressure: Managing Emotions at the Chess Board, in which he uses critical moments from his own tournament games (most of them against players rated above 2200) to describe the difficulties of thinking straight when the enemy is at the gates, and then outlines methods and techniques to clear your head, evaluate the position, and find your way to the best move. We speak about the influence of the 1972 Fischer- Spassky match, discipline, the reasons he has never played an online game, the danger of addiction in chess, teambuilding, emotional self management, prophylactic thinking, consistency against lower rated players, peak performance and more. 

In Episode 252, I have the pleaure of conversing with National Expert Pranav Shankar and his father Shankar Iyer, Client Partner at Citigroup. I met Pranav last month when he spoke on an Autism Awareness Month panel at the Marshall Chess Club.  I was inspired by his perserverance, becoming a strong expert and likely future master, despite his challenges growing up with autism. We speak about book recommendations, philosophy of ratings, positional understanding, logic vs. emotion, confidence, chess therapy for autism, over the board chess, lessons from our 75th Podcast Guest Grandmaster Alex Lenderman and more. 

In Podcast Episode 251 , I have the pleasure of convsersing with Aiden Rayner, Founder of Don't Move Until You See it, who hails from Melbourne, Australia.  Don't Move Until You See It is a revolutionary new way to train chess, used by players from beginner up to master level! The core of Don't Move is "Training visualization FIRST makes everything else in Chess 100x easier to learn." Learn more about the tool in this blog post.  Get a complimentary 5-day visualization course here. We speak about the art of learning, PogChamps, The Queen's Gambit, blindfold chess, whys, teamwork, his love for our 230th Podcast Episode with Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, World Blitz Champion and Seventh-Highest Rated Player in History, seconds and more.   

In our milestone 250th Episode, I have the pleasure of conversing with GM Vinay Bhat, VP, Data at Fuzzy Pet Health. Before completing a Graduate Certificate in Data Mining and Applications, Statistics at Stanford University and starting a career in data science, he was a prodigy. At 10 years and 176 days old, Bhat became the youngest national master at the time. At the age of 15 years and 10 months, Bhat became an International Master, at the time the youngest ever in U.S. history. In 2008, the same year he became a Samford Fellow, he made grandmaster. We speak about chess growth vs. career, confidence, imrpovement tips, gambits, opening repertoire, draw offers, philosophy of ratings, problem solving in chess and data science, coaching Grandmaster Sam Shankland,  advice from Grandmaster Bill Lombardy, his new book How I Became a Grandmaster and more. Check out book on Foward Chess here. 

In Episode 249, I have the pleasure of conversing with Gary Ryan, who teaches chess, does copywriting, acts as a chaplain, etc. He has a Masters of Divinity in Pratical Theology from Wesley Biblical Seminary, a Masters of Arts in Philosophy and Religious Studies from University of Mississippi and a Master of Theology from Harvard Divinity School.We speak about insights on Passover and Easter, The Holy Grail, masters at the Chess Forum, guidance from the late Grandmaster Bill Lombardy, working with Fabiano Caruana as a kindergartener, book recommendations, game analysis, the full stack approach to chess improvement, the lack of PR for the upcoming Nepomniachtchi- Ding World Championship match and more.  

In Episode 248, I have the pleasure of conversing with Jon Edwards, the 32nd World Correspondence Chess Champion. Jon started playing correspondence chess via the International Correspondence Chess Federation in 1995, and became an ICCF Grandmaster in 2022. In over-the-board play, he is a National Expert. Outside of the chess board, Jon has an exentsive background in academia and Information Technology.  He has an AB in History from Princeton University and a PhD in African Economic History from Michigan State University. He worked for many years, assisting in the management of a $25M budget and a staff of 260 as the Coordinator of Institutional Communication and Outreach at Princeton University. He also served as the Mayor of Hopewell Township, NJ in 2002.We speak about a comparison of correspondence chess and over-the board play, inspiration for more women to play chess, the Niemann-Carlsen drama, solving chess, opening preparation, reverse engineering and more.