In 1993 IM Stuart Rachels was one of the top young chess players in the United States. He was the winner of  the U.S. Junior Championship in 1988, was United States co-champion in 1989-1990, and had played casual and tournament games with the likes of GM Garry Kasparov, GM Viswanathan Anand, GM Boris Spassky, and many others. So why did he decide to hang up the chessboard when he pursued a doctorate in philosophy? Stu answers this question in our interview, as well as discussing a few of the highlights from his great new book The Best I Saw in Chess. In the book, he tells some amazing stories and provides high level analysis of his many memorable chess skirmishes. In our conversation, we talk about how this 8 year project came to be, as well as Stu's future plans related to the chess world.  Please keep reading for more details, links and timestamps.  IM Stuart Rachels   Mentioned: FM Dave Gertler, NM Kyle Therrell, GM Garry Kasparov  Mentioned: American Gambit (Some videos have been removed, so you have to jump around YouTube to different excerpts to watch the whole thing, but here is part 1- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh3zlmAG8x4 ) GM Alex Fishbein, GM Patick Wolff, Kudrin-Rachels 1989, GM Andy Soltis, GM John Nunn, FM Dave Gertler, My Great Predecessors, GM Yasser Seirawan   Mentioned: IM John Donaldson, GM Samuel Reshevsky, GM Robert Byrne, GM Alexander Kotov, GM Miguel Najdorf, GM Boris Spassky, GM Tony Miles, GM Anatoly Karpov, Karpov-Miles 1980 Mentioned: Howard Stern, NM Dan Heisman, IM Vivek Rao, IM Jim Rizzitano, GM Patrick Wolff  https://www.chessable.com/my-great-predecessors-part-5/course/34892/ Mentioned: IM Vivek Rao, FM Mike Klein, GM Tal Shaked, IM Boris Kogan, GM Gata Kamsky, GM Viswanathan Anand, GM Ben Finegold, GM Larry Christiansen, Alexey Troitsky, Genrikh Kasparyan, Francois Labelle, GM Jonathan Rowson, Andrew Metrick, Joel Friedman, GM Maxim Dlugy  Mentioned: Allen Kaufman , GM Vassily Smyslov Tal, Petrosian, Spassky and Korchnoi by GM Andy Soltis, The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal, Secrets of Practical Chess by GM John Nunn  Mentioned: GM Ben Finegold, Adam Lief, Andrew Metrick, GM Joel Benjamin   You can read an excerpt of his book from New in Chess Publishing: https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/9097.pdf You can buy the book from Amazon or New in Chess or Forward Chess:https://www.amazon.com/Best-Saw-Chess-Instruction-Champion/dp/9056918818/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=stuart+rachels&qid=1594673740&s=books&sr=1-1 https://www.newinchess.com/en_US/the-best-i-saw-in-chess-paperback-interactive-ebook  https://forwardchess.com/product/the-best-i-saw-in-chess?sscid=91k3_fazxaLastly, you can email IM  Rachels at StuartRachels at hotmail.com  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices