L2C 056: Visualization and Mental Processing with Aiden Rayner

All chess players can agree that thinking is a large of our game and a key component in our success at the board. What if there was a way to optimize not only what we think but how we think? Do you think that your game would improve? Would the game be even more fun? While our guest for this episode cannot guarantee that your Elo will go up, it is fairly logical that if your thinking process can improve so will your game.

Aiden Raynor is the host of one of our favorite podcasts called "Chess Visualization" and it is one of the few that Bill doesn't listen to at 3x, lol, Aiden has seemingly dedicated his life towards understanding how our brains have been wired to think and what we can do to optimize our thinking processes to most efficiently play chess.

During this episode we try to cover a bunch of the main aspects related to this area and even address a few issues that Bill has encountered in the past almost two years of playing. In the future we hope to have Aiden back on the podcast, probably a few times, to get more deeply into several of the areas.

The goal for this episode was to provide a broad overview of the area and we hope we answered a few questions you may have had and maybe a few you had not realized yet.

For more information or to contact Aiden: https://dontmoveuntilyousee.it/ or subscribe to his podcast wherever you listen to this one.

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

Also, if you have any thoughts, topics and/or guest ideas, or potential suggestions and/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/BigBrainChessP1

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

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L2C 055: Welcome Back - To The Doctor and OTB Chess for Bill

Summer is rapidly coming to a close and The Doctor has returned to the podcast from his sabbatical, lol. In addition, we cover an OTB tournament after a long layoff for Bill. What has The Doctor been up to and how has his game been progressing? How did the tournament go and did any of the recent work payoff?

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

Also, if you have any thoughts, topics and/or guest ideas, or potential suggestions and/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/WelcomeBackDoctor

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

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L2C 054: How to Annotate and Analyze Your Game (101) with Claude Fried

It is often said that in chess one of the best ways to improve is to study your games, often annotating them is the method suggested. But what exactly does that mean exactly. Claude Fried returns to help Bill walk through a recent game and help him to annotate and analyze the game. While we made every effort to make this useful as an audio only podcast, this episode may be better when viewed on our YouTube channel as the discussion is fairly visual. Going into this episode, Bill felt he was almost competent at annotating a game and what he was thinking during and after reviewing the game. However, his analysis skills are still lacking. Even with that expectation, Claude was able to identify several key areas where Bill can improve his process going forward. Additionally, Claude also suggested several areas for homework and future game analysis and annotations for a potential part 2.

Here is a link to the full PGN file after being updated during and after this episode. afdvv

Please let us know if you would like a part 2, or more, in this potential series and especially please let us know if we did not cover a related area that may be puzzling you at this point in your chess career.

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

Also, if you have any thoughts, topics and/or guest ideas, or potential suggestions and/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/ChessAnnoation

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

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L2C 053: Bill on the Sofa - State of the Union Update as of July 2026

Bill reviews what he has been up to and how his chess game and study have been progressing over the past few months. Has his Elo gone up? Has it gone down? What has he been spending his time doing? Studying vs playing. Plus a fun idea for another contest that involves you, our esteemed audience, if the Doctor approves.

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

Also, if you have any thoughts, topics and/or guest ideas, or potential suggestions and/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/BillOnTheSofa2

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

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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/

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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

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/

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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