“Check-mate” is a dream come true. Since 2020 I developed a strong passion and love for this great sport of chess, and since then I have worked non-stop in developing good tactics, strong openings, powerful middle games, and determined end games. Therefore, I created a space for the people that want to start this amazing chess journey or that is interested in getting to know this amazing world of chess. For that reason, I wanted to combine my desire to get to know the audio production field and my love for chess that I created the podcast “CHECK-MATE” and it has been a journey of great deal of knowledge, growth and entertainment. Since I am from Guatemala, I wanted to include people from my community and my personal life and the podcast was recorded in my native language, Spanish.
“CHECK-MATE” consists in two episodes where I tell my story and plenty of details about how I began to love chess and how I decided to see chess not only as a hobby but as something I could practice and take as a professional skill.
The first episode has a very special guest and it is done in an interview format. I talk about my first years playing chess and some of the challenges I have encountered throughout those years.
The second episode has another very special guest and it is done in an interview format as well. I talk about a word of advice to all the amateurs that are at that beginning point where they might feel lost or think that it’s a hard journey to start. The podcast was recorded using the limited resources I had and it was published on one of my favorite music platforms, which is SoundCloud and it can be accessed through this link.
Throughout the creation of this podcast, I encounter some challenges that with the help of my tutor and other people I was able to overcome. One of those was the limitation of resources to create and edit the podcast since I am a beginner in this audio creation world, I had to talk to different people to be able to get access to a great tool in order to record the episodes and other audio announcements.
Following this, the post-production of the podcast was not easy to get done as well since audio editing was something I learned from scratch, but I had the great blessing to be guided by a mentor and other people that know and have experience in audio editing.
The process of the podcast creation was amazing and it was indeed a great learning opportunity to me because I got to develop skills and abilities I did not know I could have.
I started by selecting the special guests and trying to see from my personal net who would be a great fit for what I was looking for. After finding the right person, we had two meetings to write down the script for the episode and select the recording time ideal for both of us. Next, we proceeded to record and get the final audio file to start the editing and visual guide to upload to my SoundCloud channel. Following this, I would sit down and take my time to edit and get the visual cover for the episode.
Along with the planning, completion, and accomplishment of this dream of mine, I was able to learn what the world of audio production looks like. I had the blessing and great opportunity to be guided by the National Master Juan Carlos Brenes, which not only is one chess peers, but he has a communications degree and has a long-time experience with marketing and was the perfect guide for me through the progress of this podcast.
I was able to gather a small chess community through this podcast with 25 participants and through my podcast, I was able to open the very first chess club for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in my hometown (Quetzaltenango, Guatemala).
This podcast was a great learning experience for me and I was able to grow as a professional and as a communicator, some of the takeaways and important insights I gained are:
- Important management skills for the logistics of recording and planning every episode.
- Improvement of my communication skills through the writing of the script.
- Crucial editing abilities for audio and visual production.
- The development of a support base and what it takes to fulfill the needs of an audience through a project.
