EP 259- Ben Johnson

On this holiday week, with The Perpetual Chess Podcast having recently turned 5 years old, it seemed like an appropriate time to feature myself as “the guest” on Perpetual Chess. In order to help out, I brought in longtime listener of the pod, chess journalist, and improver, Chris Wainscott to perform hosting duties. Chris and I covered lots of ground, as he asked me questions relating to the origins of Perpetual Chess, its growth over the years, my approach to interviewing people, favorite interview types and “dream guests” and to  my own chess origins and improvement efforts. Although I do prefer being the interviewer rather than interviewed, it was fun to play the other role and to answer so many good listener questions. Details and show notes are below.  0:00- My chess background, and when did chess initially captivate me? 15:00-  There are always great new courses from Chessable including FM Kamil Plichta’s Lifetime Repertoires: Accelerated Dragon. Check out what else is new here: https://www.chessable.com/courses/all/new/ 16:00- Patreon mailbag question: When will GM Yasser Seirawan be on the show?  Mentioned: EP 134 with Megan Chen 19:00- Patreon mailbag question: How did Perpetual Chess come to be?  23:00- Patreon mailbag question: To what do I attribute the podcast’s success? 25:00- Patreon mailbag question: What do I wish I’d known at the beginning? Any regrets? 26:00- Patreon mailbag question: How has my interviewing style/approach evolved?  31:00- Patreon mailbag question: What do I consider to be the highlights of the show?  35:00- Twitter question: Which handful of episodes are most representative of Perpetual Chess?  Mentioned: Ep. 193 Tom Murphy, EP 250- FM Asa Hoffmann, EP. 76 Andrez Kryzdwa, GM Jan Timman, EP 15 GM Alex Yermolinksky plus I forgot to mention my favorite episode, a World Championship prep oral history with GM Peter Heine Nielsen 40:00- Twitter question: When will I do a Chessable course?  42:00- Twitter question: What are the most challenging types of interviews? What are my fav