The Chess Cognition Podcast

About The Chess Cognition Podcast

A deep dive into the world of chess through the lenses of cognitive science, psychology, and teaching. Join the leading players, coaches, and scholars as they explore the intricacies of chess and the mental processes that drive success on and off the board.

Publisher

Can Kabadayi

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

30 Aug 2024

Latest episode

15 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

43 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   15 Sept 2026

   How to Study Master Games: A Guide for Post-Beginners

   00:00 Intro01:19 The Recognition Trap02:29 The PER Method: Preview, Explain, Retrieve02:48 How to Choose the Right Master Games04:18 Step 1: Preview the Game05:43 Previewing Tal–Larsen 196507:49 Step 2: Explain the Master’s Move (Only if it is Annotated)09:15 Tal’s Famous Nd5 Sacrifice12:21 Compare Your Explanation With Tal’s14:40 Your Blind Spots Are the Lesson16:43 Another Example: Explain Qf419:04 Step 3: Retrieve21:11 The One-Sentence Game Summary22:23 Why This Method Works24:23 Using the Method With Chessable CoursesMost chess players are told to study master games, but simply clicking through the moves and reading annotations can create the illusion of learning. You recognize good chess when you see it, but that does not mean you can reproduce those ideas in your own games. In this video, I introduce the PER Method — Preview, Explain, Retrieve — a practical way to turn master games from passive entertainment into active chess training without overwhelming yourself by trying to guess every single move.Using the famous Tal–Larsen game as an example, I show how to first preview a game to reduce novelty, then explain the master's important decisions before reading the annotations, and finally return a few days later to retrieve the critical moves and ideas from memory. The method combines active generation, feedback, reduced cognitive load, spaced retrieval, and carefully selected model games to help you actually transfer what you learn from great players into your own chess.

2. 

   1 Sept 2026

   Why Your Chess Knowledge Disappears During Games

   0:00 You Understand It But Can’t Apply It0:43 The Real Problem: Retrieval1:03 The Encoding Specificity Principle2:02 Why Chess Study and Real Games Feel Different3:39 Recognition Is Not Retrieval5:17 How to Make Chess Knowledge Transfer5:33 Guess the Move Training6:27 Mixed Practice and Interleaving7:00 Train Under Game-Like Conditions7:32 Botvinnik Method8:17 Solve Puzzles Like You Play Games8:44 Why Active Retrieval Matters9:36 The Key to Applying What You LearnHave you ever watched a chess lesson, understood everything perfectly, and then completely failed to use the idea in your own games? The problem may not be your chess knowledge at all. It may be a retrieval problem. In this video, I explain how the encoding specificity principle, recognition vs. retrieval, and context-dependent memory can help us understand why chess concepts often seem obvious during study but disappear when the clock is ticking.More importantly, I show how to make your chess training transfer better to real games. We look at guess-the-move training, mixed practice and interleaving, game-like training conditions, active retrieval, and spaced retrieval. If you want to improve your chess decision-making and actually apply what you study over the board, your training needs to involve more than simply watching videos and recognizing familiar ideas.Godden, D. R., & Baddeley, A. D. (1975). Context-dependent memory in two natural environments: On land and underwater. British Journal of Psychology, 66(3), 325–331.Tulving, E., & Thomson, D. M. (1973). Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory. Psychological Review, 80(5), 352–373.

3. 

   25 Aug 2026

   How Strong Chess Players Make the Board Feel Smaller

   0:00 Why Chess Overloads Your Brain1:09 The Intelligence Illusion1:59 Your Working Memory Has a Problem3:10 Why Obvious Blunders Happen4:02 How Strong Players Make Chess Simpler4:37 Schemas: The Secret of Chess Expertise6:10 What Masters See That Beginners Don’t6:38 Why Random Chess Training Often Fails7:20 How to Build Chess Patterns Properly8:08 Why Beginners Need Worked Examples8:44 Gradually Increase the Complexity9:16 How to Reduce Cognitive Load During Games9:59 Build Your Chess Pattern Vocabulary10:36 How to Study for Transfer11:37 Why Memorable Analogies Help12:06 The Real Meaning of Chess Mastery13:05 How I Apply This to Chess TrainingWhy does chess feel so overwhelming, and why do strong players seem to understand a position almost instantly? In this video, I explain how **working memory, cognitive load, schemas, and pattern recognition** influence chess improvement. The real limitation is often not intelligence or calculation ability, but the amount of information your brain is trying to process at once. Strong chess players overcome this by compressing complicated positions into meaningful patterns or “chunks.”You’ll learn why simply calculating more can sometimes make things worse, how masters reduce cognitive load through chess patterns, and how to structure your training so that important ideas actually stick. I also explain how clean examples, worked examples, gradual increases in difficulty, and a strong chess vocabulary can help you recognize patterns faster, avoid blunders, improve chess vision, and make better decisions during your games.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

1,650,984

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

9 ratings

Spotify

4.8 / 5

16 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 41 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

24

Social presence

0

YouTube

93

Engagement

51

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