The Story of Perpetual Chess

Hi, 👋 Ben Johnson here- Thanks for checking out the Perpetual Chess website- Here’s the story of the pod…

I launched the Perpetual Chess Podcast in December of 2016, in order to help address what I saw as a shortage of quality chess podcasts. I am a huge fan of the podcast medium, and I love chess.   The lack of audio-only chess content frustrated me and made it hard for me, as a busy working parent, to consume chess content.

 I also felt that although there was an abundance of quality educational chess content and excellent live event coverage on sites like chess.com  and chess24.com, there was not as much information as I wanted about the chess personalities playing in the events and presenting the material.  I wanted chess players, educators, authors and promoters to have a place to tell us their life stories, promote their books and reveal the secrets of chess mastery (and grand mastery).

I am gratified by the kind words and generous reception that the podcast has received from the chess community! As of this writing in February 2020, Perpetual Chess episodes have now been downloaded/streamed over 1,200,000 times in over 100 different countries! This speaks to the global reach of the royal game, and to the limitless search of chess fans for information about chess (a thirst that I share 😀 ).

Due to the generous support of the chess community. I am able to continue to find the time to produce Perpetual Chess on a weekly basis. I am amazed and deeply appreciative that many listeners voluntarily contribute a bit of money to help pay for the entertainment and information that I and my guests provide with chess talk. Perpetual Chess now has over 250 regular contributors to the show, and in 2020, I am grateful to have the support of Chessable.com, an amazing chess-learning site. This support enables me to devote an increasing amount of time to my “dream job.” For example, late in 2019, with the help of some friendly co-hosts from the online chess community,  I launched an additional monthly podcast devoted to chess books. I have ambitions to improve and expand Perpetual Chess even more as the audience and support for the show continues to grow.

If you would like to see the complete list of Perpetual Chess guests (somewhat casually sorted by category), click here.

As for me, I am a decent but flawed chess player (FIDE 2150ish). I am one of those people who fell in love with the game as a teen and became obsessed with it. At the age of 18, I earned the title of USCF Master, but my chess skills pretty much peaked there and I have lost or “lent out” some rating points in subsequent years (for now at least 😉). As of this writing, February 2020, I am not competing actively, but I aim to get back into the ring some day for sure.

I grew up in Philadelphia, and I now live in Princeton, New Jersey with my wife and 2 kids. My work, aside from the podcast, entails running after-school chess programs and doing a few “curriculum classes” and private chess lessons. I enjoy sharing my enthusiasm for chess with the next generation, and I always love to see students with a passion for the game.  My availability is usually limited to non-existent, but if you are interested in after school chess programs around Central New Jersey check out my teaching page here for more info.

Aside from my many years of working as a chess teacher, I have also been a professional poker player for seven years, I traded stocks independently for a while, and just after graduating from Pomona College, I even worked in an office job for two years.

I am always happy to hear from listeners, so feel free to drop me a line via email, holler at me on twitter  (my favorite social media site),  hear Perpetual Chess audio clips on Instagram (that page is not run by me), or join our Facebook group to discuss interviews and sometimes interact with the guests of the show.

And thus concludes my life story so far!  Thanks for your interest, and I hope you are enjoying the podcast- Ben