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1. Hi David. I’m wondering if you’d be interested in having your Scandinavian book on Chessable. I have made a custom Chessable course for my own learning. I have your book comments in it, etc. It was hundreds of hours of work, and with polish could be a product ready to deliver. If you have interest in this, please let me know. Thanks.

2. Hi, David, I started playing chess not long ago and, during holidays, I read your book on the Scandinavian, i have to say that i have loved it; I read somewhere that you were considering doing a Chessable course on that book, is that still a possibility? I’d love to have it.

   Also, do you still think that against the annoying Nf3, Bb5+, h3 sequence is still good to play the lines you recommend on that book? Or do you prefer more traditional lines with 3…Qxd5 (followed maybe with Qh5?! or the well-known Qa5) or 3…Nxd5 (followed by g6 or Bg4), even if these approaches don’t quite fit the portuguese mindset?

   Aside from that, have you ever considered the dubious line in the Icelandic Gambit with 3. c4 e6 4. dxe6 Nf6?!. It may be just a cheap line to trick unexperienced opponents, but maybe you can find something interesting in there. I tried it against an 1650 in an online rapid game and won in 10 moves, so it looks like an intermediate-friendly gamble.

   Thank you for your time and your work, I find it very inspiring and interesting. 🙂

3. Hi David,

   Not sure how to get a hold of you. I purchased your Swindler course and have a fairly epic amateur Rampant Rook game to share with you.

4. Hello David,
   Over a year ago you wrote that you would likely release your Scandinavian repertoire as a chessable course. Could we get any update on this, is it in the works?

   Thanks

5. Hi David,
   I was leafing through the most recent issue of ACM when I came across the 5×5 Q&A. I wouldn’t have thought much of it if I had not finished reading the description ending in “…Ph.D. in Economics”. As I am a masters student currently studying economics in Alberta, Canada I was slightly taken aback. I thought this must be a significantly rare occurrence: That a grandmaster in chess takes significant interest in economics to pursue a Ph.D., or the opposite that a Ph.D. economist is so skilled at chess to be a grandmaster. This piqued my interest and I thought I had recognized the name David Smerdon. Indeed I had, as I had previously seen stellar recommendations for “the complete chess swindler” that I had not fancied reading yet as I m still catching up in my opening repertoire. Happening upon this discovery I looked into your work to discover that one of your central fields of interest is behavioural economics. As a masters student I have not been able to conduct in depth research, but given my trajectory towards a Ph.D. it has been one of my central focuses as of late. I was also somewhat interested in your paper on female chess stereotypes and how women play more computer accurate moves against each other than against men. I have a hypothesis that this may be due to the opening choice where perhaps it is plausible that women choose openings that lead to positions where it is easier to find the computer move for themselves and for their opponent. If this is the case it could imply selection bias, but this is a mere conjecture and I don’t know if this could even be quantitatively measured. I also enjoyed browsing your papers on social norms that I found to be an interesting behavioural topic. Altogether, my to greatest loves at the moment are chess and economics. When I am not studying or playing chess, I am working on my school as I do have to submit my deliverables despite being completely fascinated with the world of chess. I do however find this intersection of fields to be rather unique. I believe that chess viewed through an economist’s lens is not only underrated, but also not well understood or well represented. The most obvious application of economics to chess is game theory which may be somewhat respected, but most people stop there without considering other avenues. For example, I view chess as the ultimate tradeoff. By playing one move you forego playing any other move. Of course there are transpositions, and the likelihood of one may give some marginal benefit and this can complicate the tradeoff consideration. However, this is not even the tip of the iceberg as the dynamic chess studying process is an optimization problem in itself. Allocating time to studying the opening implies less time studying tactics or the endgame. Furthermore, when choosing the opening and style of play there is tradeoff between theoretical legitimacy and practicality. Not to mention in an actual game, the players both have to tradeoff the amount of time they expect to use on future moves against the quality of their current move. So this discount factor plays an important role, and what is very interesting is that many players have different approaches to these varied optimization problems just like actual consumers in economic markets. One of the ideas that I am most tantalized by is that economic intuition is an extremely useful lens by which to view chess. Even when optimizing an attack, one might consider the marginal benefit of bringing one piece into the attack now vs bringing a knight from the back row closer to the center to contribute a higher benefit 5 moves later. Of course this is all very abstract and chess is a very concrete game, but this is exactly why I believe the economist’s perspective to be a useful one. I’m not sure about the reverse direction, how success in chess affects economic intuition but I would love to hear your thoughts. All in all I am ecstatic that I have come across your website and now I am only wondering what took me so long.

6. Hi Lea. It sounds like you are doing everything right so far. The most important thing when taking up chess for a second time is to make sure you keep enjoying it. I would invest in a premium account for one of the big chess sites, like chess.com, to take advantage of all of their training features. These days, they are also designed to make training more enjoyable, which will help to keep motivation levels high. Good luck!

7. Hi David
   Just recently watch season 2 of checkmate and your approach to chess as inspired to study more. I’ve recently started back up again at 42yrs old. I stoped at 17 as a strong country player but just lost interest now tho taking the study of it more seriously. I would love to get a master title and I believe it can be accomplished I have a lot to catch up and learn. Just bought your book on swindler great read.
   With you doing chess part time. I’m not using the term as an amateur because I feel your more then that, any key suggestions you can advice me on to progress.

   Regards
   Lea

8. Hi William,
   I don’t believe the pgn’s are still available (this was organised by a third party). I will probably record a Scandinavian course for Chessable in the future, which will contain the lines as well as interactive options for your study. I hope this will help.

9. Hi David,
   I love the Scandinavian Book which I am studying religiously but still mixing up lines!!
   I watched your lecture on Youtube but I am unable to download PGN’s which were said to be available. Are these available any where else please please?? Should make my study that much easier.

   MAny thanks

10. Please disregard previous post — someone on a lichess forum helped me to figure out why top of p. 10 results in stalemate. I have persisted with your book and it is making sense — greatly enjoying your work, thank you.

11. Hello GM Smerdon,

    I am a fairly beginning chess player and have just begun reading your Complete Chess Swindler. I am having trouble understanding the very first example — Furman v. Smejkal — and before I give up would like to see if you can clarify for me. I gather that Furman is playing black here and resigns after Smejkal moves Ne4+ buse this leaves Furman without his bishop and the pawn at A3 will be captured by Smejkal’s knight immediately upon promotion. What I don’t understand is, in the Tal variation that you play out at bottom of p. 9 right hand side, after the pawn promotes to knight instead of rook or queen per Smekjal’s theory, why is it considered an excellent move for white to play Nc1-b3? In that event, the black knight captures the white knight and game is over for white.

    I may be in over my head with your book, which seems most interesting and admirable.

    Thanks for writing it.

    sincerely,

    Malick Ghachem

12. Hi Rick. I recently came across the Jerome Gambit on YouTube. It’s….quite something!

13. Hello David, I am running the first randomised controlled trial on chess improvement. Peter Doggers suggested I get in contact with you as you may be interested in collaborating on the project.

    Let me know if you would like to discuss the project. Naturally for someone like yourself if you were to be involved earlier on in the project you would be able to use the media attention that it will inevitably gather let alone the prestige of being associated with the only empirically tested chess improvement project to date.

    Let me know if you want to spare 5-10mins to chat and see if it my be a fit for you.

    Kind regards,
    Dr Mathew Hobbs
    Rolleston Medical Centre
    Senior clinical lecturer Otago University
    FRNZGP, MBChB, BSc (Neuroscience)

14. GM Smerdon,

    I am working my way through your fascinating The Complete Chess Swindler, a topic that greatly appeals to me, from both a psychological perspective and as a matter of survival: I have been researching and playing the worst chess opening ever, the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), for a couple of decades, and have come to realize that any success whatsoever has been due to swindles. (I immediately apologize to the ghost of Frank Marshall and other masters, living and dead.)
    Many thanks for your hard work.

15. I’m a big fan of Chess for Tigers, which I read with great enthusiasm when I was young. It was one of the few books I owned that focussed on practical tips for juniors.

16. Hello,

    I have just read the excerpt on NewInChess.com of your new fascinating book on swindling. Your concept of “Window-Ledging” reminds me of “Chapter 6: How to trap Heffalumps” from Simon Webbs book “Chess for tigers”?

    Greetings,
    Max Gebhardt

17. That’s a fantastic idea, Peter! I will send you an email separately to put you in touch with Githinji.

18. Enjoyed your article on chess in Kenya. But this sentence got my attention. “….unable to afford a computer let alone chess books or lessons,….” I am downsizing again and wondering what to do about my surplus
    chess books and a few ChessBase engines and databases. All in good condition
    and the DVDs all work. The DVDs would still work well on an older computer.
    There are 24 chess books in good condition and 7 DVDs. I would be willing to donate them plus the cost of shipping them from Canada to Africa.

19. Hello. I just wanted to first say that I love your Scandinavian book. I’m just making my way through it but have enjoyed it quite a bit. Anyplace online that you may have posted updates that you’ve discovered?

    Thanks,
    Jeff Davis