EP 274- Paul Hedrick (Adult Improver Series) with guest co-host Han Schut

The Perpetual Chess Adult Improver Series is back, but this time with a twist. We feature a senior guest who is “more interested in sustainment than improvement”, and we feature a guest co-host joining the conversation! Our guest, Paul Hedrick is a 56 year old literature and history teacher based in New Mexico. Paul enjoys listening to Perpetual Chess, but felt that older, less ambitious chess lovers like himself were underrepresented on the podcast. To help guide the conversation, I enlisted the help of Han Schut. Han is a Chess Steps trainer and Chessable Author and a frequent contributor to New in Chess magazine. In our conversation, we try to sort out questions such as: Why does Paul study chess daily if his goal is not to improve? How can one know if they should shift their goals from “Adult Improver” to “Senior Sustainer?” How should one supplement the curriculum of the Chess Steps method? Both Paul and Han offered great perspectives on the different roles chess study can play in ones life, so I hope you all enjoy the conversation as I did. More details below.  0:00- Interested in appearing or suggesting an adult Improver guest for Perpetual Chess? Please use this form so that I can potentially refer back to it later : Potential Adult Improver Guest  Han Schut’s Prior Appearance- (Episode 142, 2019) Book Review #25- Review and Discussion of the Mammoth Book of the World’s Greatest Chess Games  06:00- Why did Paul volunteer to come on the show?  Mentioned: Episode 272- Positional Puzzle Book Championship with Neal Bruce  11:00- What is Paul’s “why” for playing chess?  19:00- Paul discusses his chess routine Mentioned: Second Piatgorsky Cup 1966, Ken Smith,  30:00- Patreon mailbag question- Was there a moment where Paul decided to switch from “improver” to “sustainer” mode?  33:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Aimchess.com. Aimchess collects and analyzes your games and gives you actionable tips based on the data it gathers. If you choose to subscribe to Aimchess, please use the code Pe