Philemon Thomas is an Albany, NY native who has been playing competitive chess for 14 years. During this period, Philemon has endured ups and downs, but his evident passion for the game has always kept him coming back to the board. In March of 2020, all of his hard work culminated with Philemon earning the title of USCF Master! This places him in the 98.8 percentile of US Chess’ tournament players, and he also is the first African-American chess master who is based in the Albany area. To hear the study tips and advice that Philemon has picked along this journey, please tune in to the interview. More details and timestamps can be found below. Mentioned: Townsend Park in Albany NY, Franklin-Mercantile Chess Club in Philadelphia, Washington Square Park in New York City, Union Square in NYCMentioned: My System by Nimzowitch, The Art of Attack , IM Jeremy Silman, IM Mark Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual , Darryl Perkins, Bobby Rotter, Aanarian Stevens, Smyslov Endgame Virtuoso, Dave Finneman https://www.chessable.com/the-art-of-attack-in-chess/course/24575/Mentioned: The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal, Mentioned: CT-Art, The Magic of Chess Tactics by GM Karsten Muller Mentioned: Think Like a Grandmaster by Alexander Kotov, Chess Books Recaptured: Podcast talking Think Like a Grandmaster with NM Christopher Chabris https://www.facebook.com/philemon.thomas.94If you would like to help support Perpetual Chess, you can do here:https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices