About this episode

Kirsten shares her journey of improving from a 400 to 1400 chess rating and discusses challenges and resources for chess improvement.

This week on Chess Journeys, I spoke with Kirsten. We spoke about her love of chess and trying to find the time for improvement. Kirsten went from 400-1400 in two years, but recently has hit a plateau. She provided several resources suggestions including books and videos. We discussed finding OTB opportunities, and we spoke a bit about the LA and Santa Monica chess scene. Kirsten discussed teaching her child chess. We discussed chess history. A big takeaway from this episode is that even when Kirsten doesn’t have time for dedicated chess improvement, she is staying connected to the game she loves. Chessbook: chessbook.com/?ref=kevin Chessiverse Code: DrSCULL20 Check out my new Substack: https://substack.com/@drscull My Chessable Course! https://www.chessable.com/chess-journeys-tactics-workbook-turning-knowledge-into-skill/course/268850/ Chessnut Link/Code: Code - KEVINSCULL https://www.chessnutech.com?sca_ref=7643464.HueBIKWTYE Get 20% off GM Noël Studer's courses with Coupon chessjourneys20 The Simplified Chess Improvement System: https://courses.nextlevelchess.blog/courses/simplified-chess-improvement-system?ref=04f5d8 My Road to 2200 Youtube series…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Kevin Scull

Guest: Kirsten

Topics covered

• chess improvement
• personal journey
• resources for chess
• teaching chess
• chess community
• chess history

Keywords

• chess
• improvement
• resources
• teaching
• community
• history

Sponsors

Chessbook, Chessiverse, Chessable, Next Level Chess

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: chessbook.com, Chessiverse, Chessable, Chessnut, GM Noël Studer, Next Level Chess, YouTube, Twitch

More episodes of Chess Journeys: Tales of Adult Improvement

• Ep. 281 Diego (1700 USCF) · July 16, 2026 · 1h 22m
• Ep. 280 Bonus Episode: Pacific Southwest Open Tournament Recap · July 13, 2026 · 27 min
• Ep. 279 Luca Returns (2000 USCF) · July 9, 2026 · 1h 7m
• Ep. 278 Flashback: IM Tatev Abrahmamyan Ep. 41 · July 6, 2026 · 25 min
• Ep. 276 Bonus Episode: Senior Open 2026 Tournament Recap · June 29, 2026 · 28 min
• Ep. 275 Gene (1800 USCF) · June 25, 2026 · 1h 4m

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