Learn Chess and Become a Better Developer with Ihechikara Abba (ELO rating of 2285) [Podcast #189]

On this week's freeCodeCamp podcast we're talking with software engineer Ihechikara Abba, who has a chess ELO rating of 2285, putting him among top competitive chess players. We just published his freeCodeCamp course on chess end games, and an accompanying handbook.

We talk about:

how learning chess can make you a better developer

tips for getting into embedded systems development with Arduino

how contributing to open source can serve as an alternative to building up a social media presence

Links from our discussion:

Ihechikara's checkmate patterns handbook: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/checkmate-patterns-in-chess-for-beginners/

Ihechikara's Arduino embedded systems handbook: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/the-arduino-handbook/

Links from community news segment at the beginning:

1. freeCodeCamp just published a GameDev for beginners course that will help you build your first 2D platformer game. First you'll learn the basics of the open source Godot game engine, and its Python-like GDScript programming language. Then you'll dive into Godot's editor, custom tile sets, game mechanics, scoring, checkpoint systems, and more. By the end of the course, you'll have your own game that your friends can play in any browser. (1 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-game-development-by-building-your-first-platformer-with-godot/

2. freeCodeCamp just launched our daily coding challenges. You can solve these programming puzzles using Python or JavaScript. Build up your data structures + algorithms skills each day, right in your browser or in the freeCodeCamp iPhone or Android app. We're launching with a backlog of 30 challenges that are live now. See how many you can solve. (article with more details): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/introducing-freecodecamp-daily-python-and-javascript-challenges-solve-a-new-programming-puzzle-every-day/

3. Learn how to build your own secure PHP web apps using the popular open source Symfony framework. This intermediate course is taught by Beau Carnes, who has many years of experience as a software engineer and as a high school special ed teacher. He'll quickly fill you in on Symfony's security features, which enable you to query encrypted data without ever even needing to decrypt it on your MongoDB database server. You can code along and home and build your own secure personal finance app while applying these new concepts. (1 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/build-secure-web-applications-with-php-symfony-and-mongodb/

4. I also recommend reading this quick post by a freeCodeCamp community member on the importance of Hackathons. They opened all sorts of doors for him in his job search. (10 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/why-every-student-should-join-hackathons/

I also recommend you watch this video essay on Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation" explaining the physics behind why the song breaks some laptop hard drives when played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y3RGeaxksY

And the song of the week is 1989's Rhythm Nation by a then 23-year-old Janet Jackson. The song's great but you really want to watch the video version, with its awesome dance choreography. I've linked to it in the description. Listen to it after the podcast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAwaNWGLM0c

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