EP 332- GM Vinay Bhat: A Former Child Prodigy Turned Data Scientist Shares Lessons Learned and Memorable Stories from his Chess Career

This week’s guest is Author and Data Scientist, GM Vinay Bhat. Vinay was one of the top chess prodigies in modern US History. He amassed many scholastic titles and held the record of the youngest ever US National Master before Hikaru Nakamura broke his record. Despite Vinay’s extraordinary chess success, he always maintained many interests and put a particular emphasis on his school work, and then his career. Now 38 years of age, Vinay has written an excellent new book with Quality Chess, How I Became a Chess Grandmaster. Part memoir, part chess manual, in the book, Vinay reflects on his career, annotates memorable games, and takes a big picture look at the study choices and decisions he made over the years, including the tough decision to walk away from chess as a profession. Vinay places a particular emphasis on the few steep plateaus he faced in his development. In our conversation, Vinay reflects on his career and shares plenty of chess lessons and memorable anecdotes. A Bay Area native and resident, Vinay has gotten to know many people who will be familiar to Perpetual Chess listeners. Please read on for timestamps of topics discussed. 

0:00- My Recommended Chessable Courses:

https://go.chessable.com/perpetual-chess-podcast/

Check out ChessDojo’s 1.e4 Repertoire for White here:

https://www.chessable.com/chessdojos-1e4-repertoire-for-white/course/150049/

0:02- As Vinay reflects on his chess career, how does he reflect on his first real plateau, which occurred around 2200. 

Mentioned: The Best I Saw in Chess by IM Stuart Rachels, GM Gregory Kaidanov, Episode 295 with GM Gregory Kaidanov 

13:45- What is Vinay’s advice for when an opening change might be in order?

Mentioned: Vinay’s Chessbase India interview with IM Sagar Shah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4IIiYe5Vb8

20:00- What conclusions does Vinay draw from reflecting on his whole chess career?

Mentioned: Savely Polovets 

24:00- How did Vinay utilize one page writeups in his opening prep?

28:00- Vinay shares his thoughts on various players he knows and has met, including GM Sam Shankland, GM Daniel Naroditsky, GM Magnus Carlsen, GM Eduard Gufeld, the RZA from Wutang Clan, 

Mentioned: Joe Lonsdale Jr., Peter Thiel, The GZA, Josh Waitzkin 

45:00- What were Vinay’s first impressions of Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana?

47:00- What was it like to live in the “chess house” with IM David Pruess and GM Jesse Kraai?

49:00- Vinay is an avid reader and discusses some of his favorites. 

Mentioned: ChessDoJo video- The Best Chess Books , New York 1924, Life and Games of Mikhail Tal, How Not to Play Chess, The Books of Irving Chernev 

57:00- What have Vinay’s interactions with GM Viswanathan Anand been like? What about Spassky, Kasparov and Karpov?

1:01:00- Patreon Mailbag Question: As a data scientist has Vinay discovered any useful statistical patterns in his play?

1:05:00- What does Vinay think of the acceleration of Chat GBT and similar products? Could it have a further impact on the chess world?

1:10:00- Vinay reflects on the difficult decision he made not to pursue professional chess. 

1:15:00- Is there anything Vinay wishes he could have done differently?

1:18:00- Thanks so much to Vinay for joining the show! Here are the links for his excellent book:

Check out the book here:

Quality Chess

https://www.qualitychess.co.uk/products/2/436/how_i_became_a_chess_grandmaster_by_vinay_bhat/

Free Excerpt of the Books:

https://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/HowIbecameaChessGrandmaster-Excerpt.pdf

Forward Chess

https://forwardchess.com/product/how-i-became-a-chess-grandmaster?section=

Vsbhat02 at gmail

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