Photo courtesy of Thinker’s Publishing
GM Ivan Cheparinov is a very active player whose name can regularly be found amongst the top 50 players in the world,. He attained a peak rating of 2718, and has won or tied for first place in many tournaments, including the 2007 European Individual Championships, the 2014 Gibraltar Chess Festival, and the 2009 and 2010 Ruy Lopez Masters.
He has just released his first book, with Thinker's Publishing, called Cheparinov's 1. d4. As we discuss, this is to be the first of a multi-volume project, and offers some fighting lines to play against the Grunfeld and King’s Indian defenses.
Last but not least, Ivan was former FIDE World Champion, GM Veselin Topalov's second for 7 years, and had some great stories to tell from those times. He also dispensed a few important recommendations about the importance of visualization training and fitness for chess players. Please read on for more info and timestamps.
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2:30- Ivan joined me days before jetting off to the Gibraltor Chess Festival. At the beginning we discussed how he prepares before a big event such as this.
Mentioned: WGM Antoaneta Stefanova (his wife)
4:15- We dive into his book, Cheparinov’s d4, which is available from Thinker’s Publishing (Thinker’s website includes a free preview), and is also now available on Forward Chess.
Mentioned: Grandmaster Repertoire 1.d4 by GM Boris Avrukh, GM Veselin Topalov, GM Jan Gustafsson’s Lifetime Repertoire, GM Ding Liren, GM Vishy Anand, GM Wesley So, GM Gawain Jones, GM Bassem Amin
18:50- A Patreon supporter of the podcast asks for a less common opening recommendation to use in play against 1. D4 for club players.
Mentioned: The Benoni, The Benko, The King’s Indian, The Grunfeld Opening, Nimzo-Indian, The Slav
21:30 Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable. If you are a club-level player who would like to improve her visualization skills, check out this cool course called Visualize: https://www.chessable.com/visualise-1/course/25695/
22:30- GM Cheparinov worked with GM Veselin Topalov for 7 years. He shares some stories and reflections from that period.
Mentioned: Topalov-Kasparov 2005 (Kasparov’s last game) , Topalov-Kramnik 2008, GM Jan Smeets
31:00- With the recent publication of the books The Anand Files and Mind Master, a lot of information has been shared about the 2010 Anand-Topalov World Championship match in Sofia, Bulgaria, so I was excited to ask GM Cheparinov (a team Topalov member) about some of the details.
Mentioned: GM Erwin L’Ami , Topalov-Anand World Championship Game 12, GM Vladimir Kramnik
42:00- Both GM Viswanathan Anand and Anand Files author, Michiel Abeln, wrote about Anand’s team’s fears that team Topalov had a “super computer” at their disposal in 2010 to help with World Championship preparation- Was this true?
Mentioned: Silvio Danailov, Rybka Chess Engine, GM Romain Eduoard, Thinker’s Publishing
47:00- What are GM Chepariniv’s current study methods? What did he do as a rising scholastic player?
Mentioned: GM Vassily Ivanchuk, GM Boris Gelfand, Csaba Balogh’s Chess Books, Perfect Your Chess
59:00- Thanks to GM Cheparinov for joining the show. You can keep up with him via Facebook. Watch his last few rounds of the Gibraltor Chess Festival here.