Blindfold Chess Podcast Cassidy Noble

This week, we are looking at the opera writer and musician who documented chess books and endgames so well we are still using them today. Francois-Andre Danican (Dan-ee-con) Philidor came from a well known musical family. His grandfather was given nickname of Philidor by King Louis XIII of France because his oboe playing reminded him of the Italian oboist Filidor. When he was 6, Philidor joined the royal choir of King Louis XV of France in 1732. The story goes that Louis XV wanted t...

This week, we are looking at one of the most influential names in chess - Yasser Sierawan. Yasser was born in Damascus, Syria to his Syrian father and English mother. At the age of 7, his family immigrated to Seattle, Washington.He didn’t start playing chess until the age of 12 - this was in 1972, right in the thick of the Fischer Boom that was happening in the United States. The next year, at the age of 13, he became the Washington Junior Champion.In 1975, he participated in his first U...

This week, we are looking at the Indian prodigy - Dommaraju Gukesh commonly known as Gukesh D.Born in 2006, Gukesh D learned how to play chess at the age of 7. Two years after he started to play chess, he won the Under 9 Asian School Championships in 2015 with a 1770 rating. He did not stop there, with his rating rapidly climbing - his father gave up his career as an ear, nose, throat surgeon to support his son while his mum continued to be a microbiologist. In March of 2018, G...

With a birthday less than a week ago, this week, we are looking at Spanish-Swedish star Anna Cramling. Anna has a very strong chess background - her father is Grandmaster Juan Manuel Bellon Lopez - the 5 time Spanish Chess Champion and 11 time Spanish Olympiad player. Her mother is - Pia Cramling - the 5th woman to ever to have earned her Grandmaster title, the number 1 woman player in the world in 1984, and she has 9 gold medals between the European Club Cup and Women’s Chess Olympiad.&...

Passing away in late 2023, International Master Jeremy Silman made a lasting impact on our game through his playing, his consulting, his writing, and his coaching. Born in 1954, Silman didn’t start playing chess until he was 12 where he went to his first tournament, ending with a rating of 1068. In high school, Silman expressed to his guidance counselor that he wanted to go to “Moscow University” to study chess from the best players of the Soviet Union. Considering this was in the m...

Fabiano Luigi Caruana, the chess phenom who was the youngest American to earn his Grandmaster title, the youngest to win the Italian Champion, the current top US player, and the number 2 player in the world… - his accomplishments go on for a while, but currently - he is playing in his 5th Candidates tournament aiming for the World Championship. Born in Florida in 1992 to his Italian parents, he moved to Brooklyn when he was 4. He played in an after school chess program when he was 5 when...