The Chess Experience
The Chess Experience
Nigerian Star Uses Chess to Improve Others’ Lives & Her Own w/ WFM Perpetual Ogbiyoyo
115 She learned the game at 19. The next year she became a titled player with an 1800+ FIDE rating. Then, several years later, WFM Perpetual Ogbiyoyo founded an organization to spread chess to girls and women throughout Nigeria. Now, she’s expanded her connection to the chess world by moving to New York City. In this episode, we talk about her incredible journey, including:
- How she rose from complete beginner to Woman FIDE Master in one year.
- A window into the culture and community of chess in Nigeria.
- Why she created the organization Promoting Queens and its mission to empower girls everywhere through chess.
- Her aspiration to become the first Nigerian woman Grandmaster.
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More From WFM Perpetual Ogbiyoyo
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. This show is sponsored by chesscom, the world's largest chess amateur let's get to it. Or a club member that you just played, and you can do so interactively on the board, with both of you on video talking to each other. It'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. Help support this podcast. After three years of doing this show, I've observed that quality content is super easy to consume but quite challenging to create, and there's always a lot more that goes into offering a show like this than it seems. So a small donation from you would help finance equipment, software and, most importantly, a ton of time and effort to offer you engaging and helpful chess interviews. Plus, I'll be honest, getting support like that from you is a big motivation boost for me to keep going with this show, knowing that you're a fan and willing to help it thrive. So if you're able to contribute a small amount, please click the link in the show notes about leaving a donation and include with it a little note for me, and I'll write back to you with a personalized message. Alright, on to this week's episode.
Daniel:Today's guest hails from Nigeria and recently moved to New York City. She is a woman fide master and, just so you know, she prefers to keep her anonymity with the name Perpetual Agbiyoyo, or, as she said, I could call her Perps for short. Perps has had an incredible chess journey. She didn't really learn how to play chess until she was 19 years old, but just a little over a year later she earned a FIDE rating in the 1800s, along with the WFM title from her performance at the Chess Olympiad, where she represented Nigeria. Also, about a year and a half ago, perps launched an organization called Promoting Queens. This organization helps bring chess to girls and women throughout Nigeria and, as I mentioned, most recently Perps moved to New York City, where she's now connected to its thriving chess culture.
Daniel:In this interview, perps and I chat about these amazing parts of her chess journey, including her rapid rise as a chess player, her organization and what she envisions for her future chess life. Here's my interview with Perps. I hope you enjoy it. Hi, perps, it's great to have you on the podcast. How are you doing today?
Perps:Yeah, I'm doing great. Thank you for having me on your podcast, Daniel. It's an honor to be here.
Daniel:Yeah, it's my pleasure to chat with you. You have a really awesome journey to talk about. I'm really impressed by it and it's exciting and I can't wait to dive into all of it. Let's start with just where you are right now, because you recently moved from Nigeria to the US, I think about six months ago. How is that going, and what made you want to move here?
Perps:It's been kind of challenging at the same time kind of great and kind of challenging at the same time kind of great, kind of getting used to a new environment. The culture is different. You know, having to go through the trains, it's a lot to deal with, but so far it's been a great experience and I'm loving it here. Concerning my moving to the United States, I first visited here in June. That was during the summer and I got to experience the chess culture here. I saw that chess was taken as a big deal. Ross from the Gifts of Chess actually took me around to some ICN camps they were having and I could see how they were serious about chess and the kids were actually invested in chess. So I really wanted to experience what that felt like here and see if I can make an impact here. So I decided to stay back.
Daniel:Yeah, that's really exciting. So you said you first visited in June. What month did you end up moving here?
Perps:Well, I decided to stay in.
Daniel:December. So that's only a couple of months, and you mentioned to me earlier that there's been a little bit of a culture shock. Is there one thing in particular that stands out to you, that strikes you as different or just a little more challenging to adapt to?
Perps:Yeah, where I was in Nigeria, I had a lot of people I knew and people I could just go to, or maybe chess clubs I could go to hang out and play chess. Well, it's been kind of different here because, you know, you just have to find a way to strike a balance in between so many things to do and, of course, the food too. Of course, I still get to make Nigerian food, but you might not get as fresh ingredients as you want. I'm loving it so far, though. I'm loving to get the experience of trying out new things too.
Daniel:It sounds like it would take a lot to get used to, but also an exciting adventure. I'm curious about how your experience with the chess scene and chess culture in New York City you are in New York City correct Correct. How has that experience been compared to what you were used to in Nigeria?
Perps:The experience has been, I would say, great. I get to meet some of the kids here and we get to actually Watch them grow and teach them chess, so the experience here has been kind of great. I can see the parents are much more invested in like helping the kids grow on chess and, aside that, a lot of places play chess in New York so they have a lot of chess clubs and I just actually love the city, I love being here, I love the fact that chess is, like very accessible to you.
Daniel:Yeah, that's fantastic. That's really exciting to hear that. So, yeah, going back to the beginning of your chess story now, there's several aspects to it that are pretty awesome and remarkable to me. Aspects to it that are pretty awesome and remarkable to me the first is that you earned the WFM title not long ago, even though you only first learned to play the game at age 19. So how did you get into the game when you were 19?
Perps:Okay, when I was 19,. I was in the university and I kind of stumbled across chess. We had a period in school where there was a strike, so for that period things don't get to happen in school. Most of the students still go home. But I decided to stay back in school then with my brother and someone brought a chess set around and was like, let's play.
Perps:Funny enough, it's crazy how the brain works, because memories never really leave you. You could know something and it's just stuck on one part of your brain and one day you just needed time you automatically bring it out from wherever it was stored. So when I was younger I didn't self-taught myself how to play chess on the computer. My mom got a computer for us then. I didn't get a lot of time to use the computer, but anytime I did, I just found chess on the computer and I started learning how to play because the computer really highlighted the moves for me. But I never really understood how the ninth move. But I never really got to play after then. So it was just for a while and I think after a year the computer got bad and never, never replaced it, so I didn't really have time to play chess.
Perps:So I had the opportunity to play chess. So when I was 19, again, when someone brought the chess sets, I was surprised. I didn't know how to play because my brain actually remembered from when I was younger how to move the pieces. But someone then explained to me the ninth movement was in L shape, so I was able to connect to memory like, oh, so that's what the computer was always telling me jump the 90. I was just jumping it around. So the first person I learned chess with, he told me his brother was one of the best in Nigeria and it was just kind of mind-blowing to me, like people play this game and travel around the world to play it. And he told me some awesome stories. I was like I want to be like this too.
Perps:So with time I just started getting very passionate about the game. So I would play with people around me and I would see what I did wrong Next time. I was just trying to win more games and I slowly started to improve and win people around me. So at some point they no longer wanted to play me. So I had to find some persons to play with. And then I heard we had a school team in university where different people get to represent the school in different spots and they kind of had a hostel where they stay for free. That was amazing to me because the hostel will pay for it and people stay there for free because they get to represent the school. So I went there to just find someone to play chess with and eventually found out there were chess players over there and they were actually good and way better than me. I was just learning. And they were actually good and way better than me. I was just learning. So it kind of challenged me to want to play more and actually do better.
Perps:So there was a girl there I used to play Lord's Treasure. I played it for a long time. She used to win me all the time and I didn't let that stop me. If I could get one win out of 20, I would be happy. But yes, I finally accomplished it. I just kept coming to the hostel. Some days I would sleep over at the hostel playing chess. I would forget I'm supposed to go home. I would keep playing and playing until the night. I would stay over Some days. It would forget I'm supposed to go home. I'd keep playing, and playing and playing to the night and I would stay over some days. It would be two days in the road that I forgot to go to my house because I was playing chess. I just got really passionate about chess. That was how my journey began.
Daniel:That's amazing. So did you finally learn how that night moved when you were 19? Is that when you got it?
Perps:Yeah, when I was 19,. That's when I really understood. I know there was a pattern to the night.
Daniel:So you said to me when we spoke earlier that it was only about two years after learning how to play when you were 19, as you described, that you earned the WFM title. So why do you feel you improved so quickly? Because that's a pretty fast period to be able to do that.
Perps:Well, one thing I feel that made me improve very quickly was I was always open to learning. I wanted to play anyone and everybody. Anyway, I saw anyone playing chess. I wanted to watch the game. I wanted to make sure I learned from the game. I wanted to always just get a chance to make sure I learned from the game. I wanted to always just get a chance anybody. I say I get anybody, I get a chance to play. I just tried to play them, no matter what it was. And also I kind of read some books. That helped me improve too.
Perps:And I had a coach, my first coach. That actually was, uh, I would say, a very big, uh, a very big part of my journey when I was about to go for my first Olympiad, because I had an initial rating of 18, I think 18.30 when it came out and I got a slot to go for the Olympiad because my rating came out as one of the highest female in the country. So I had little or no experience, would say, going into the event and I had a lot of turns to prove because at that point nobody knew me and it was kind of a battle of who is this representing nigeria? We have all the other players that we know that have been doing well. Why are they bringing this, this space? That we don't know. So I just wanted to just make sure I went there and did my best.
Perps:So I got a coach, coach Ben. I traveled over from where I was staying to his state. That was like I would say how many miles. That was like a three, three hour drive or so, and I stayed there for about two weeks. We coach me and taught me how to play it, taught me the Grand Prix opening. Then I see one of my I still have the open entity so he just gave me ideas and told me we did some flat things, gave me some ideas on porn structures, give me a whole lot of ideas on how to play games. And when I got to the olympiad, I actually outdid myself because every game I mean I treated every game like I was playing the best person in the world and I gave it all my best. So, so at that event, I scored six out of seven games and that was how I got my Women's FIDE Master's title at the Olympics in 2018.
Daniel:Wow, that's incredible. Wait, I mean, it didn't sound like you've been playing many tournaments before then, were you, or did you?
Perps:No, I played two tournaments before then previously where my initial rating just came out. So that was an initial rate and I took to the Olympiad. I was very fresh out the books.
Daniel:That's incredible, and I mean, since you had resumed playing the game, I mean I feel like when you were 19 is like when you really started to, you know play for real and study for real. You went to the Olympiad after like what? Maybe just a year or so of doing that. Yeah, after a year I said yeah, wow, that's amazing. And just at your third rated event, you got the WFM title.
Perps:Exactly that's so impressive yeah.
Daniel:That's so impressive I mean I know it's been some years now. Do you feel like you fully appreciated at the time what an accomplishment that was? Because I mean, I know you were new to the chess competitive scene, at least at that point. But like now, looking back on it, that's pretty amazing yeah, I don't.
Perps:I didn't. I don't think I fully appreciated it then because I was always challenging myself to do more, like when I achieve something I feel like I can do better than this. I don't need. I need to do more than I've done. So I didn't really understand the accomplishments later on in life.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, it's really impressive, and so you attribute a lot of that to working with your coach and playing all the time basically yeah yeah. Did you have other resources that you used to help you improve, like books or courses or things like that? Yeah, I read some books. Other resources that you use to help you improve, like books or courses or things like that.
Perps:Yeah, I read some books. Um, they're mostly books, because then I don't think I really had a lot of access to the internet, so it's mostly books. I read just calculations by jacob agard. That was a really good book. I would recommend my System by Elon Nimzovich and some other books. Yeah, some other books on middle game strategy.
Daniel:Yeah, I'm curious about the chess scene, chess culture in Nigeria. I imagine most of my listeners don't really know what it's like there in terms of what the chess culture experience is. I guess there's a lot of different ways you could describe it, but maybe on a couple of ways to just think about. It is like do many people play? Did many of your friends play? Family play? I'll just start with that.
Perps:Okay, so I'll say the chess in Nigeria. It's really good. We have people that supports chess players and try to help them grow. We have tournaments all around. We have the Southwest, we have regional tournaments for each regions. We have Southwest, we have the North, we have tournaments like that and then we have the two cool tournaments, mostly organized as tournaments for juniors and encourages junior players, and we have tournaments happening mostly all around the state.
Perps:But I feel we're still trying to bring more awareness to chess in Nigeria because it's not like in New York where almost everyone knows what chess is and everyone plays chess and we don't do a lot of chess in schools not in most schools. I feel we can put chess in the public schools and really get to those kids that really don't have access to chess or really know what chess is about. And my family I would say, yeah, they do know how to play. Maybe they don't know how the pieces move. Well, I've never really played with them, maybe once or twice. You know you win anyways. So there's no points. But I was the only one that really just took chess very seriously in my family. But chess is still widespread in Nigeria. I feel like over the years it's going to really get better and chess is going to be really big.
Daniel:Did you have friends that you knew when you were 19, who were already playing chess?
Perps:Yeah, when I was 19, most of my friends didn't play chess, and they actually found some that did, and now I'd say 90% of my friends play chess. Right, yeah, exactly.
Daniel:That's what I was thinking after being into it for so long. For you personally, what was the access like for you to be able to go to rated over-the-board tournaments? Was it something that was a challenge to get to, or was it pretty easy to register for those?
Perps:It's easy to register for but it requires you to travel down sometimes to play some tournaments, so I didn't really get to play lots of events, but the ones around me did try to like play some of the events. I normally go to the club every weekend and anybody and everyone I saw I played anybody any chance was so we had a chess club that was close to me so I was always going there to play chess.
Perps:So I think that was something that something that actually helped me improve to get into play people all the time. But I did get an opportunity to play tournaments. I would say on an average I played about three to four tournaments in a year. I won't say that's a lot. I mean in New York you can play up to. I can say I can play up to 10 events a month if I want to, if I have the time, but it's not a lot of tournaments in Nigeria like here.
Daniel:Sure sure and your first. I was just thinking based on what you said. I was thinking about your first Chess Olympiad that you said you went to. Where was that Like? What country was that it was in?
Perps:Batumi Georgia. I think that was the 44th or 43rd Chess Olympiad.
Daniel:So I'm curious about just kind of like the timeline of your accomplishments. I know you're a two-time winner of the Nigerian Women's Chess Championship. What years did you win those events?
Perps:Yeah, I won those events in 2021 and 2022.
Daniel:And how long after you started. You know, getting into chess that second time in your life when you were 19? How long after that did you win those championships?
Perps:So, okay, I got into chess in I would say I was 19, so 2016. And I got to represent at the Olympiad in 2010. I did play my first championship in 2020 and I came second place. So I wasn't happy with myself and I told myself I was going to get first place next time, which I did the following year and the year after that I didn't really play after the second year. The third year, I kind of took a step back and I was just trying to evaluate a lot of things outside chess.
Daniel:Well, that brings up a question I wanted to ask you. As we were talking I'm just thinking of it as we were talking you had this rapid rise in your progress in the game, like we talked about, you know, getting the WFM title just two years or no, actually, really just a little little over one year after you began, you know. Then you're winning the national championships for women's chess championship. Is there a point, like along the way in your chess journey, because you're accomplishing so much in chess that you started thinking about, like, how could I, you know, make this a career? How could I make this something I do all the time?
Perps:Yeah, of course, at that point chess was a career for me because chess was all I did At 19,. I started playing chess Almost about a year later. I lost my dad and it turns out it was actually kind of difficult before that because he was sick for a very long time. So at some point I had to step up to be an adult. So I had to pay my school fees myself. I had to worry about what I'm gonna eat. So everything I said I'd do in revolver and chess. So the first time actually represented the school in Nigerian Investor Games. We have Nigerian Investor Games where all the universities in Nigeria come around to compete. I won some medals for the school and I got paid and that was how I paid my school fees for the semester. So I started earning from tournaments. Money I used from tournaments is what I used to take care of myself. I would sometimes send to my mom.
Perps:So chess, chess became like a lifesaver for me at some point because I just kind of held on to it and it was something that kept me going, sometimes both financially. I made the career out of it. I was able to use it to help myself and not only help myself just on the board. Financially, too, and in life itself, I was able to make better decisions and sit down and tell myself that, okay, if something happens, it's it's no longer. Um, I don't think of things as this didn't happen because of my situation. I actually think of them as there's something I could have done better. So what can I actually do to make it better, instead of sitting and thinking down about my life?
Perps:So chess actually taught me that, and chess actually made me grow. He grew, made me grow as a person. So chess helped me, both financially and mentally, to help me, you know, help me think of situations as as not um, not thinking of um situation around you, but having to having to think things out and having to, like, bring up a solution for everything. You know that, okay, if something goes wrong, I must have done something wrong, or what can I do to make it better. So chess helped me grow. Mentally, too, chess was a lifesaver for me.
Daniel:That's amazing. I love hearing that. I love hearing how much it helped you and, um, kind of, you know, help shape you as a person. That's that's uh, that's wonderful to hear. So, uh, kind of along those lines. I'm talking about, like chess, you becoming your career and your life. I guess it wasn't many years into that journey that you launched the organization Promoting Queens. Can you talk a little bit about how that came about for you?
Perps:Okay. So when Promoting Queens came about that was almost two years now After winning the second championship I didn't kind of feel some sense of fulfillment. I started thinking about a lot of things and I didn't want to just be that person, that person that plays chess and just win championships I wanted to be able to do more.
Perps:So I started thinking about the impact chess had had on my life and what it could actually do for young girls out there or other ladies like me. I mean, I was a teenager and chess actually helped me find the purpose in life, and I think chess can actually help people find their purpose. It doesn't mean they might have to be professional chess players or make sure they focus on only chess, but there are so many lessons you can learn from chess that can actually help shape a person. So I wanted to see more girls like me, or young girls, rise up to the occasion and I wanted to just impact young girls out there. So that's when Promoting Coins came about, and when I talked about it, I spoke to for few friends about it and it thought it was a great idea and I didn't waste no time. I just studied it immediately. I didn't waste any time to think about it. So that was how promoting coins came about. That's amazing, and what would you say is the mission or the goal of Promoting Queens? Something that could actually, for those who want to be professionals such as I could be a courier such as something that could actually help them grow in life and help them in various fields and whatever it is they decide to be in life. Yeah, that's incredible. I love that.
Perps:And how do you go about doing that? Through Promoting Queens? What are the ways that you try to accomplish that? So the one of the ways we try to accomplish that is we reach out to. Sometimes we go to all girls spaces or schools and those that have no idea about chess. We we motivate them. We organize um events where we get to teach them chess for like a short period sometimes because we might not have the funding to do like a very long project, sometimes two weeks. We have a project where we teach them how to play chess and afterwards we try to help them in their education with whatever funds we can raise and try to set up a chess club there and establish a playing chess culture in the school and we just keep doing that and hope that we actually made an impact and go back to check on their progress from time to time.
Daniel:That's fantastic. So mostly you focus on building chess clubs in schools in Nigeria. Yeah, is there one school in particular that you're proud of, maybe because of what it's accomplished, or just any other project that you've done through Promoting Queens, something you'd like to highlight?
Perps:Yeah, so last year we had a project in Joss. We had three girls that actually stood out in the event and so afterwards they had a summer camp in Joss and you won't believe it these three girls actually went to that chess camp and they had a tournament there. So actually they did excellently well, they came out with medals on the event and I was so happy to see that. I'm happy to see that the girls were actually growing, but not just in chest. They're actually calmer, they're actually thinkers, and I believe that we're able to make more impact that way. That's incredible.
Daniel:In regards to where Promoting Queens operates, I know you're working in Nigeria. That's where it began. Do you work in places beyond that, or is it mostly just focused on Nigeria?
Perps:The focus. When I started promoting Queens, I was in Nigeria so I could only reach those around me. But now I'm in the United States, I have more access to people. I actually inspire the girls I work with. I tell them about my story. I try to tell them about the benefits of chess not just seeing chess as moving your pieces around and I believe we can actually get chess girls all over the world, not just in Nigeria. So the goal has changed now. The goal has changed. I want to see girls all over the world play chess not just play chess as a game, but get the impact you really need to get from chess.
Daniel:And if someone wanted to help or volunteer with Promoting Queens, how could they do that, or what are some of the best ways to do that?
Perps:Well, we have a website. You could just head over to our website and go to the volunteer session and fill out a volunteer form and join us.
Daniel:Perfect. Yeah, we'll have a link in the show notes for your site there so people can check that out, and I hope they do. It's great work that you're doing with Promoting Queens. I love hearing about it.
Perps:Thank you very much.
Daniel:Yeah, I know you're also collaborating, I think, in some ways, with the Gift of Chess. Is that just you and the Gift of Chess?
Perps:Or are you just like your organization promoting queens working with the gift of chess? Yeah, promoting queens, the gift of chess has been like a big supporter of our projects too. They help the gift of chess. What they do is they help get chess sets all over the world and some of those chess sets have reached us too and we've been able to like use them for the project and use them to establish chess clubs and various schools. So the gift of chess has been, has been, a very important part of of promoting queens. I mean, we're giving this while giving these girls the gift of chess, which is chess as a gift, and we get to get chess sets for free, which are from the gift of chess. So they've actually helped us.
Perps:I met ross here and ross has been of great help. He took me around to the schools, he showed me around and he actually gave me this book of recent. I've been reading. It has been. It has been a really great journey so far. So the Gifts of Chess has been great. The Gifts of Chess is an organization that actually helps us with a lot of projects in Nigeria yeah, it sounds like a perfect collaboration, so that's great.
Daniel:I want to go back a little bit to your own chess journey and what you're doing competitively your own skills in chess the video interview that you recently posted on Twitter. So I noticed in that video that it flashed a news headline or news page from the publication Pointer Women and the headline from that article said that you have plans to become the first Nigerian Grandmaster. Can you talk a little bit about that plan?
Perps:that you have plans to become the first Nigerian grandmaster. Can you talk a little bit about that plan? Yeah, so I plan to become the first Nigerian woman grandmaster. But at some point I really took a step back and I just didn't want to be any grandmaster. You know, we have so many grandmasters in the world. I just didn't want to be just a grandmaster. Actually not helped anybody but myself, because it felt kind of selfish. So I I've had to, like take a step back with so many responsibilities and just think about okay, I'm still planning to become the first main grandmaster, I'm still working with my chest, but I've been trying to kind of strike a balance of like it's been overwhelming, but one day I'll get there.
Daniel:Yeah, sure, now you're focused more on promoting Queens right now. Right, yeah, so that makes sense. Yeah, and the other thing that you're focused on that you told me is that you spend a lot of time coaching students. I'd love to hear a little bit about that. Like, do you typically coach in terms of their rating range or age?
Perps:I coach a lot of kids. I coach kids from a range of, I would say, maybe 1,000 to 1,005 or 1,006. These kids, it's really awesome working with them because it kind of challenges me to want to do better every day and you have to learn how to learn how to be able to break things down. Sometimes you could be a good chess player, but you might not be a really good coach if you don't really know how to pass on information to the next person. So it's kind of challenged me to learn from see through the eyes of these kids and know what it is they know, see through their lens and make me think like a kid, so make me be able to talk to them in a way kids will understand.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, do you still coach a lot of the same students that you were coaching in Nigeria just online now, or are you coaching new people?
Perps:now that you're here in the US, I coach new people now, but I still coach some of the persons where it's been really challenging because with the time zone it has been crazy. Yeah, different time zones, so it's been really challenging because with the time zone it has been crazy.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah different time zones, so it's very difficult. Sure are you coaching people in person, because I know you have access to a lot of the schools now they're in in new york yeah, I get to meet people in person, yeah that's great.
Daniel:I love all that you're doing for it's. It's fantastic. I mean, you have such an incredible journey so far. I from your rapid rise as a player yourself to launching your organization, promoting Queens and now being here in the US and kind of expanding who you connect with in chess. It's really all very exciting. It's an amazing story. You know we're doing this interview and I'm chatting with you now at this point in your journey, but it still feels like it's early, like we were just in the first couple of chapters of this big book of your chess journey, and I feel like we'll probably need like an update in a couple of years of all that you've been doing since then. Does it feel that way to you? Do you feel like everything's just sort of beginning now, or do you feel like this has just been?
Perps:I feel like this is just the beginning. Actually, A lot of my experience so far has been preparing me for what is yet to come.
Daniel:Right For as much as it may feel like the beginning and of course, it is still early in this whole journey with chess, I mean, you've done so much already. I'd be happy if I do half of what you've accomplished in 20 years Earning the WFM title and launching an organization connecting with new people across the globe. It's really impressive. So I'm very excited to see what the next coming years have for you.
Perps:Thank you very much, Daniel. I'm excited to see what's next?
Daniel:Yeah, absolutely. Well, I want to finish my interview with you in our chat with a series of questions that I close all my interviews with. They're designed to just be fun, rapid questions. Rapid meaning like I'll ask them quick, like they're short questions, but you can take however long you want to answer them. Your answers don't have to be rapid, okay. So first question knights or bishops?
Perps:Knights? Definitely I like the idea of the knights because they can just sneak up on you.
Daniel:Right, well, I love that as an answer. Knowing how this all began. For you, the knights was like the last piece you knew how it moved. And now one of your favorites. So what's your favorite? Time control.
Perps:I would say one minute. Yeah, sometimes, and I would like you know, just play fast game when I'm in the commute, so when I'm just doing something. So I play one minute a lot just to pass time.
Daniel:But what's your favorite opening to play as white?
Perps:yeah, the grand prix. I told you the story about the Grand Prix. It's one of my favorite openings.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah. I lose to it often, so I understand why it'd be your favorite. What's your favorite opening as Black? I?
Perps:love the Queen's Indian, queen's Indian. Yeah, I love the way. I love openings that help me just kind of have a setup to attack, even though I'm playing as black.
Daniel:Yeah, I like that answer. I often well like. It's not the most common answer, but it's one of the more popular ones. To say King's Indian. So I haven't had someone say Queen's Indian yet, so I like that. What's one word you would use to describe your playing style?
Perps:I'd say I'm more of an aggressive chess player. I like tactical games. I like games that just kind of open up. I love games that are just being so fun to chess.
Daniel:Who is your favorite player of all time?
Perps:Still Miketel.
Daniel:Awesome If you could play any of the top players in the world right now. Who would it be? Judith Polder, Great answer. What's one book or course that you would recommend to help people improve?
Perps:I would recommend Calculations in Chess by Jacob Agard.
Daniel:What's your favorite way to study the game Meaning like? What aspect of the game do you enjoy most to study?
Perps:Oh, I enjoy a lot of tactics. Mostly I enjoy a lot of tactics. Mostly I enjoy a lot of tactics. And I'll say, the favorite way to study a chess game for me would be reading some books, books that have a lot of puzzles in them.
Daniel:And my final question if a chess genie existed and could grant you any one chess wish, what would you wish for?
Perps:I would wish for every woman or every girl in the world to know how to play chess.
Daniel:Oh, that's fantastic. I love that Perfect answer. So yeah, purps, it's been fantastic chatting with you. I really enjoyed our conversation and I'm honored to have you on the show. Like I said, I feel like this is just the first couple of chapters of your chess journey that we're discussing and, given how much you've accomplished already in that time, I look forward to hearing about all that you'll accomplish in the coming years. So, thank you for being on the show and I hope to have you again in the future.
Perps:Yeah, thank you, daniel. I hope to be on your show again when you know I'm getting to the later parts of the book. Right, exactly.
Daniel:Exactly. I'll definitely invite you on when we get to that point. I'm sure there'll be a lot of new things to discuss and exciting things that you'll have accomplished. So yeah, thank you so much and I just wish you all the best with promoting Queens and your coaching and, you know, any other endeavor you you go forward with with chess. So, thank you.
Perps:Thank you very much, Daniel. Have a great day.
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 See you next week.
