The Chess Experience
The Chess Experience
WCM Adriana Palao: Pursuing Chess Titles & Movie Magic
106 Adriana is a dynamic titled player, coach, and content creator from Spain. She’s already reached a 2000+ FIDE rating and is working regularly towards her WFM title. This year alone, she’s competed in ten OTB classical tournaments.
Adriana also coaches students ranging from beginner up to 1800.
Outside of chess, she has a degree in film studies and is pursuing a career in film. Recently, she helped distribute an award-winning short film thriller.
As a fun detour, this podcast takes a rare opportunity to chat with Adriana about our favorite movies for a few minutes.
As always, we close with questions about her favorite player of all time, her favorite openings, and what her one “chess wish” would be.
More From Adriana:
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Hey, welcome to the chess experience On this show. It's all about helping adult improvers. I want to make learning chess easier for you to navigate, and I also want you to have a more fun experience along the way. I'm your host, daniel Lona, a fellow chess amateur. Let's get to it.
Adriana:This show is sponsored by chesscom, the world's largest chess amateur. Let's also a great way to have a lesson between a student and a coach, and you can check that out on chesscom slash classroom.
Daniel:Welcome to this week's show.
Adriana:In today's episode we have Women Candidate Master, adriana Palau, currently living in Spain, she's a chess coach and content creator with YouTube and Twitch channels.
Daniel:Her peak rating so far is 2015 FIDE, and Adriana also has a bachelor's degree in film studies and a career in film.
Adriana:In our discussion we talk about Adriana's pursuit of the WFM title, her favorite and least favorite ways to study chess and one of her most recommended resources for her coaching students to study chess and one of our most recommended resources for her coaching students. Plus, given that we both have a common interest in movies, adriana and I take a rare few minutes rare at least for this podcast to chat about our favorite films.
Daniel:Links to all of Adriana's content and social media can be found in the show notes.
Adriana:Here's my interview with Adriana. I hope you enjoy it. Hi Adriana, how are you today?
Daniel:Hi, thank you, I'm good. Thank you for inviting me to your podcast.
Adriana:Yeah, my pleasure. I'm excited to chat with you. So I often talk to people on this show and it's the case that as soon as we record, they've just come back from a tournament. So I know that's true for you. You recently had an OTB tournament. Do you want to talk about that a little bit? How did's true for you? You recently had an OTB tournament. Do you want to talk about that a little bit?
Daniel:How did that go for you so well? I don't want to talk about the organization, but the tournament was like some things. Some unexpected things happened. Basically, we played three classical games in one day.
Adriana:That's a lot.
Daniel:That was insane. I was expecting like two is a lot already, so we played three.
Adriana:um yeah, like the tournament was okay, I didn't lose any rating, I didn't get any, so it was just normal yeah, and I had a good time with my friends, so that's all I can say okay, well, I mean, hey, at least, uh, at least you didn't go down in rating. That's always good, but three games in one day did you expect that?
Daniel:it sounded like you're saying that's a little unexpected, or something no, like entirely unexpected, like actually they didn't even announce it till the round one was about to start really wow.
Adriana:Yeah, um, how long was each? I mean, like, what was the time control for each game?
Daniel:60 plus 30.
Adriana:Okay, yeah, three of those in one day is pretty exhausting. Yeah Well, that's awesome that you're, you know, doing OTB tournaments. So, yeah, tons of stuff I'd like to talk about with you, adriana.
Daniel:And to start, I'd like to just get to know your own chess story, so speak. So how did you get into chess as a kid? So, as a kid, I started playing chess when I was four year old. Um, let's say, like my family used to be a chess family. My dad's, my brother, used to play, so most. My brother, like he, used to compete a lot and travel. He was about to start traveling abroad to Pan-Americans and yeah, so I decided to get into it. I learned at the age of four, very, very young, and that's what made me beginning Awesome.
Adriana:How did that progress for you?
Daniel:Like, when did you start getting serious about chess? So at five I went to my first Pan-American because of my brother, like he was the star. I was just there and, yeah, I was the last in the ranking, so it was awful for me. But after that year I came back to another pan-american. I remember very well I was in argentina and I started the, the competition with four out of four, and everybody was shocked because nobody knew who I was and all the other girls were very well-known in the chess world like underage, and I was only six, so that was pretty impressive for most of the people. But then after that round I lost four rounds in a row. Oh no, I remember that tournament, but it was pretty good, and then it started to get better. I remember that tournament, but it was pretty good, and then it started to get better. I think my best result in Pan Americans before I stopped was fourth, tied to third, so it was pretty good.
Adriana:Awesome. Well, it's good that losing those next four rounds didn't discourage you from doing more chess, because I know that was early in your chess life. So when did you start studying regularly and things like that, or maybe even working with a coach or anything along those lines?
Daniel:On that same time, like I used to have three hours daily of chess class with my coach. Yeah, I had a lot of pressure over my shoulders, especially because I think that we just start very young. Your parents expect a lot from you and everybody is surprised because you're so young, it's so small and you are good or kind of good.
Adriana:so, yeah, yeah, well, it's also the best time, I guess, to do three hours a day of chess.
Adriana:If you're going to do that, right yeah, but one thing that was interesting to me that you mentioned when we talked before doing this interview is that you stopped at least regularly playing chess for a little while at around age 10 and then picked it up again around age 15 or 16, I believe you mentioned so what sparked your interest in chess again, to kind of resume doing a lot of chess around that age of 15 or so.
Daniel:So well, let's say that when I stopped, it wasn't that I stopped to play regularly, I stopped at all, like I didn't even play online in those five years. So when I came back to chess, it was because I was in high school and I was struggling as a high school teenager. So I just decided to get back into something that I can control, maybe, and chess was pretty good and I felt like even after the big gap that I wasn't playing and training and whatever I was still like in a good level. So, yeah, I started because of that.
Adriana:Awesome, I mean eventually you progressed to the point where you earned the WCM title about one or two years ago. So what led to that? Were you working towards earning that title or were you just working on improving your chess generally and it kind of happened yeah.
Daniel:Yeah, I didn't even know how to get the WCM. When I was about to get it. Somebody just told me when I was near to 2000 that I could get it by reaching 2000. But that wasn't in my radar. Actually. I wasn't like aiming to be WCM, but then I was very close to 2000, as I told you, like maybe 1970, which is close, but not that close when you are K20, because you don't get that much when you beat a person. That is your rating. So I remember that I was playing the Valencian League and I was playing against the 2200, and the game was so equal, the whole game it's supposed to be a draw. Actually he didn't want to do threefold and I checkmated him and after that game I realized that I was like 2001 and in that same night I called the arbiter to get my my certificate to say that I crossed 2,000. So that was how I got it.
Adriana:That's awesome, so I love that it happened on a game that had your opponent play better would have been a draw, but you got the win anyhow. That's awesome. Something interesting that you mentioned that you weren't even fully aware that you were right on the cusp of getting the WCM title until someone mentioned it to you.
Daniel:Yeah, actually I didn't even think that I would have ever been able to get a title, because I never did chess provisionally when I was smaller. After, when I was a kid, when I stopped, I didn't do much to get it. I don't know to be somebody titled Because I always was so focused on school and other parts of my life, so for me it was a lot to get a title.
Adriana:So yeah, yeah, I mean that 2,000 number, though it's just a nice number to aim for, even if there wasn't a title attached to it. It's always kind of like, I don't know. It seems like a major threshold just to get to 2000. Were you pretty excited about that when that happened, when you were told you got to 2001?
Daniel:Yeah, I was excited because I never expect to see a title next to my name that's the first and then also because on that game I didn't even prepare the game, I didn't even know which opening I was going to play and I just played what I taught to my student the same week. So it was so random. It's a nice story.
Adriana:That's great. So yeah, speaking of titles, you said you weren't really expecting to ever have a title attached to your name. Now you do and it seems like it got you interested in pursuing more. So you have an interest in getting the WFM title. Not everyone listening. Some people listening will know what the requirements are for that, but for those who don't, can you explain what the requirement is for the WFM title?
Daniel:For our regular women you have to reach 2100, but you also can so many girls have gotten it on pan-americans or europeans or these kind of tournaments that I think that gives you when you get a medal oh, interesting.
Adriana:So if you place high enough in certain tournaments, you can also get the title that way?
Daniel:yeah, in like under 18. When you're under 18, you can also get the title that way yeah, in like under 18, when you're under 18, you can play and get it.
Adriana:Yeah, okay, okay. So roughly a hundred points away for you, is that right?
Daniel:A little bit more now.
Adriana:A little more Right. So, what do you think you need to work on? Because this, you know, my podcast is always about or not always, but often about improvement and people listening are, you know, trying trying to improve themselves. They're always interested in and that subject and you know what someone needs to do at any stage in their chess life to get to that next level. So, for you, what do you think you need to improve on to reach 2100?
Daniel:that's a good question actually, um, on on sunday, like two days ago on my on my last tournament in mallorca, I was speaking to my friend about this after the tournament and I was talking to her that too many things that have happened on my games, like maybe if I would have been aware on the positions that I get after the theoretical part, like after the opening, because I've played these openings like maybe 100 times in my life but if I do the next step, which is like to study that, those positions and to get ideas and to put myself in different scenarios before those scenarios happen, and I spend like 20 minutes thinking on the game, um, that'd be, like, I think, a very good thing for me to reach that next level that I want to get. And that requires time and work and, of course, discipline and effort.
Adriana:And then just kind of more broadly on improvement what's your favorite thing to do to improve your chess Like? What's your favorite study activity or that kind of thing.
Daniel:My favorite study activity alone or when I'm like with my coach.
Adriana:Oh well, let's do both, let's start with, alone, alone.
Daniel:So alone, like, immediately after the game, I love to check on the engine, to check on my accuracy, and then like to improve any small detail and just to figure, like, what's better. Like to analyze my games is something that I enjoy oh okay, that's great.
Adriana:Yeah, I mean, that's a, that's a strength, because a lot of people have to kind of push themselves to analyze their games no, I, I love it and I'm very tough on myself when I analyze.
Daniel:Actually that's good, okay.
Adriana:So then, what's your? What's your favorite activity to do to improve with your coach?
Daniel:so with my coach. Well, when I used to do more regular chess lessons for myself, I I used to do like these puzzles, but not about like tactics or combinations itself more like this stuff, or on position not playing or decisions making depending on I don't know the color, bishops or the point structure, or like deeper things. You know when maybe the position is equal, but you need to create a plan from nothing. So those, because he's, of course, a grandmaster, he knows way more than me, and then he explains it and that makes a lot of sense and I feel like I improve.
Adriana:I see so more positional type of study with your coach. Does he kind of press you to figure out the answer on your own, or does he just kind of explain exactly what's happening when?
Daniel:I was. I was young. He used to all the time like putting pressure on me till I find the answer. But now that we have a very limited time per week when we, of course, he usually like told me the answer, because usually I don't get it because it's too hard- right, right.
Adriana:So let me ask the opposite question do you have like a least favorite study activity, something? That you have to push yourself to do even though you know it's important of course, openings, opening and and games gotcha any particular reason for opening, so that's usually like um, you know that's.
Adriana:You're sort of the opposite of how I like the common trend, which is which is probably a strength because you're you're doing like the stuff that matters more. Like you said, you're more interested in analyzing games than doing openings, which would probably serve you better if you had to choose between the two. But most people you know that I talk to are are like they have to tell themselves not to spend too much time on openings. So what is it for you about openings? That's a little less interesting um, it's not.
Daniel:That's less interesting. I think that I learned most of my repertoire when I was very, very young, so I could say that I'm prepared to play against. Anything like you can't surprise me only because of conceptual chess. I could just manage to get to a good position, like my friend's. Feedback is that I'm very good in openings and theory, but what I hate now is that to go to this next level, I need to learn new openings, like entirely new. Like you might need to switch from D4 to E4 or vice versa, or for a person that used to play Sicilian to learn suddenly E5.
Daniel:Or I am hating this stage when I have to learn that whole thing because it's like learning chess again right, and for me it's been very tough to just get into the into it when I don't know nothing and I don't understand the positions and it's like so stressing is your coach pressing you to learn new openings? Well, yeah, but he has a point like I've gotten good results with these openings. The thing is that I only study them one hour before the game, when I know my opponent is supposed to do it at my house when I have time.
Adriana:Yeah, and the other part of your improvement journey that I'm curious about is how many OTB tournaments you do. Like some people have a goal, like, okay, I'm going to do at at least whatever, like five tournaments this year or more, or something like that. Are you regimented in your approach to tournaments or is it just you know, like whenever you can make it happen, you you do a tournament?
Daniel:well as content creators sometimes, I guess, do tournaments because of the content creation, not not because not to create content, but because I'm invited. And then well, well, it's such a good opportunity on my content creation part. So I've done way more tournaments than I expected this year and I've been invited to two more tournaments, like one next week and one on December. So I'm expecting to play one classical tournament this year and I think I've played already 10.
Daniel:I'm expecting to play one classical tournament this year and I think I've played already 10. So yeah, I don't have a specific goal on amount of tournaments, but I have specific goals on the results. I want to get on them, so yeah.
Adriana:Yeah, Well, that's awesome that you get invited to so many. That's very cool. And as far as content goes I know you said you get invited in part because you're a content creator Do you typically use those tournaments as opportunities to also create content? Do you film yourself at these events?
Daniel:Yeah, I broadcast like the live. Oh nice, that's awesome.
Adriana:Awesome. Do you broadcast those on YouTube or Twitch or both?
Daniel:I broadcast on Twitch and I submit my recaps on YouTube, which is something that people enjoy a lot. I always get comments when they say I love when you explain the way you think and your emotions or the reason behind your decisions. I think people like that.
Adriana:Yeah, that's awesome. I wonder if maybe this is a good time now to talk about your YouTube channel. Can you share a bit about it? When did you begin? What kind of content do you offer on that channel?
Daniel:the enigma. Like we played the game. He wasn't recorded recording, but I didn't know he was recording. So then he uploaded our game on his channel and I got a lot of followers with an empty channel, so I knew that it was time for more, for creating some content. Yeah, so I think I uploaded my game against him because we played again in another time. I've played a few. Oh, I played my coach. I used to post my games, like blitz games and, and then I started posting, like maybe reviews or analysis from my own games and, recently, recaps, which is something that I enjoy a lot to do as well awesome.
Adriana:So how many years ago was that that you started your YouTube channel?
Daniel:Maybe 2021, but to do it constantly this year.
Adriana:Let's talk a little bit about your coaching. I know you've been coaching for several years. Who is your typical student Meaning? What rating range do you coach to, and are they adults or kids?
Daniel:The age doesn't matter, they are both and the level is, since they are learning to move the pieces. The strongest I've coached has been 1800. But with him it was most on playing and maybe he used to make me play the openings he needed to face. Or, you know, like he, he liked to play somebody stronger and maybe I can explain him, I think, that to properly teach somebody up to 17 or 18, because now, with this increasing of rating, they are like weaker than they used to be. So, yeah, yeah, this is my coaching.
Adriana:Right, right, so it sounds like you have a pretty broad range of levels that you coach at, from absolute beginner, like you said, to just learning how pieces move to, all the way up to 1,700, 1,800 in that range, but I'm thinking maybe more for the intermediate player. What are one or two resources that you typically would recommend to that player? It could be a book, a course or anything along those lines.
Daniel:So the book I'd recommend is John Noon's chess puzzle book. It's about tactics and visualization, but in different situations, like can be positional, or it can be combinations or or end games or whatever. The thing is that each puzzle gives you a hint if you need it, and then it gives you another, and then it gives you another. It doesn't give you the solution if you don't find it. So that's pretty cool. You can also pick, like the, the level you want to go into, the, the topics and and everything. And for my very like not beginners, but, uh, maybe the students that just got their theater rating or they are starting competing I recommend the wood becker, which is like I think I would that so many people have done so, yeah, I'd like to talk a little bit about a part of your life that isn't chess, that is your career in film.
Adriana:You have a degree in film studies. Can you share how you got into that? What made you passionate about film?
Daniel:I've been passionate about film since I was very young. I remember that when I was like six or seven, my mother used to bring me to the movies to to watch maybe plus 16 uh movies if you didn't care about it. And I remember that when I was like shocked about the movies, I remembered the whole story and I used to go to the school and tell my friends that whole movie, like I used to remember any single detail. The thing thing is that my parents never took it as something special, which it was, because usually people just think that when you're good at math it is special, or science or more typical things, but they didn't take this artistic part or cinematographic part as something special. So I think that I've always been into movies, but I never knew that it was into me because nobody said anything. So I started to to do economics when I started university in my first year, I think. After the first week I I realized that I didn't want it and then I switched to communications okay, and then?
Adriana:when did communications become film?
Daniel:Well, in Peru it used to be communications and then I moved to Spain. In Spain they didn't have communications as the general thing. I needed to pick between journalism, I think, like marketing or advertisement or something like that, and audiovisual communication, which is how it is called in Spain. So that and audiovisual communication, which is how it is called in spain. So I pick audiovisual communication, um, and then it just started, and then when I moved to ireland it was film studies and digital media, which was pretty cool as well, but more into the cinema and stuff, and in spain it was more about also companies, production behind scenes and like more this yeah, that's awesome that you ultimately landed on film as your, as your major and your career.
Adriana:What are you doing um in your film career right now?
Daniel:right now, we've been in the distribution of our final degree project, which was a short film. Um, we did it in 2022 before before I moved to ireland. We did it in the beginning of the year and it was a pretty, pretty good short film was a thriller about, uh, about some of the things like somebody died and too many nice stuff. It was pretty cool, um, and yeah, we've been like distributing the film throughout the world. So we've gotten a lot of nominations, a lot of um, like prizes and awards and, well, the director, I was part of distribution, crowdfunding and script supervisor okay, what are a few of your favorite films?
Daniel:my favorite films. Yeah, um, oh my god, that's a pretty tough question yeah, that's why, see, I changed it from like.
Adriana:At first I thought I was gonna ask you, like, what's your favorite movie. Like that's too hard to pick one, so you can name a few I can name a few.
Daniel:Okay, there's one that I saw a few days ago uh, black swan oh yeah that's, I think, my favorite. Well, maybe not my favorite, but that's top five 100%.
Adriana:That's amazing. So you just saw it a few days ago and it's already in your top five.
Daniel:That's impressive no, no, no. I saw it again, like I've seen it a lot.
Adriana:Oh, you saw it again. Okay, yeah, yeah like I think the first time I was seven or okay, and I got a trauma after that, yeah I was gonna say it's an intense film to see when you're seven years old, uh, but yeah, I love that movie.
Daniel:Okay, so name one or two more um one or two more uh reserve or dogs tarantinos yes, huge fan of tarantino, so, yeah, I love that movie me too, like I'm a huge fan of tarantino, but that movie is, I think, amazing. I think it's the best he's done yeah, I love that one more movies um one more one more. Oh my god, people are gonna think that I'm the worst film specialist because I don't remember any movie, right?
Adriana:now it's just hard to choose. That's the issue. It's just it's just hard to pick from so many yeah.
Daniel:What's yours? Maybe you give me some ideas.
Adriana:Okay, so we'll see. I'm a huge music fan, so that influences my top pick, which is Almost Famous Cameron Crowe movie from 2000 or 2001. But I mean Tarantino, I'll go with you on that one too. It's too obvious to pick Pulp Fiction, but it's probably my favorite.
Daniel:It's very good. That makes me think of favorites yeah, yeah, yeah.
Adriana:Yeah, I'm a huge film fan in general too Not as big as you, but still. Okay.
Daniel:Yeah.
Adriana:Well, it'd probably be really easy to just keep going with a bunch of movies that we love. I'll leave it at that, just since We'll save that for the film podcast interview. Yeah, what I have remaining is just a handful of questions. I've closed all of my interviews with about eight to ten questions. That are just a series of fun questions. They're a little quicker, shorter questions to answer All chess, and so, okay, let me start with the first question for you on this Knights or bishops?
Daniel:Oh, those kind of questions Knights or bishops? Oh kind of questions knights or bishops? Oh my god, uh, knight and what's your favorite time control the one that I enjoy the most is blitz three plus two, but the one that I'm the best is classical nice, who is your favorite player of all time. Fischer.
Adriana:Awesome, same here. If you could play any of the top players in the world right now, who would it be?
Daniel:Oh any, I'd play Magnus.
Adriana:If you could hang out with any chess celebrity for an evening, who would it be?
Daniel:Susan Boligar.
Adriana:Awesome. What is your favorite opening as white?
Daniel:My favorite opening as white oh my God, scotch Gambit.
Adriana:What's your favorite opening as black?
Daniel:A black fielder defense.
Adriana:Do you have a I'll call it a chess vice, meaning something that you enjoy doing with chess, but maybe you shouldn't do as much of it? The common things can be like playing too much bullet or, you know, watching too many YouTube videos instead of studying. Do you have anything along those lines?
Daniel:doing puzzles as they are not puzzles, you know when you just do it randomly, because you do them as a game and not as something serious.
Adriana:Okay, kind of like maybe Puzzle Rush or something like that.
Daniel:Yeah, or when you do a puzzle and you just make the move because you think it's going to be the answer, but you don't really think about it.
Adriana:Yeah, yeah, I hear you. That's definitely one for sure, sure, okay. So this is my big last question for you. This is a fun one. If a chess genie existed and can grant you any one chess wish, what would you wish for?
Daniel:like whatever anything.
Adriana:It could be something related to your skill. It could be meeting a chess hero. It could be Anything under the sun. That's chess.
Daniel:I think it'd be related to my skills like to have more resistance during a long tournament.
Adriana:I like that. That's good. That's a really good answer. Well, adriana, those were all the questions I had for you for our chat today. I was really excited to chat with you. We've connected on Twitter for a while. Today, I was really excited to chat with you. I've connected on Twitter for a while, so I'm always excited to chat live with someone who I've known on Twitter for a while and love what you're doing with chess, love the YouTube channel and the fact that you're going to all these tournaments and regularly working to get better. That's awesome. And, yeah, it was a pleasure to finally meet you and chat with you and I just want to say thank you for being on the show.
Daniel:Thank you for inviting me.
Daniel:Thanks for listening. This has been a production of my business, adult Chess Academy, and that has a website with the same name. If you want to look for it, you can also find me being way too active on Twitter by searching my username Lona underscore chess.
Adriana:See you next week.
