As the dust settles on the FIDE Candidates tournament and its attendant news, three- time British Champion and popular Chess24 commentator GM David Howell joins me to assess the news. As you might expect, we discuss the World Championship plans of David’s friend GM Magnus Carlsen, and we discuss both of the potential World Championship matchups, based on Magnus’ decision about whether to retain his title. David also assesses the performances of other notable players including GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Ding Liren, and GM Alireza Firouzja. In the second half of the interview we focus on David’s own career. David will be heading to India soon to represent Great Britain in the Olympiad, and he discusses his recent and upcoming tournaments. Lastly, David discusses his plans for commentating in the coming months and how he balances it with his playing career. I always appreciate David’s insights and modesty, and there is lots to learn from this conversation. Please read on for more details, timestamps and lots of links to topics mentioned.
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Prior appearance: Episode 176 with GM David Howell
02:00- What are David’s thoughts about Magnus Carlsen and the World Championship cycle and any potential format changes ?
Mentioned: Prior Candidates Discussion with IM Christof Sielecki, Link for an unconfirmed Report about Potential format changes to the World Championship, Peter Doggers for Chess.com: ”Carlsen Never Demanded a Concrete Format,” Magnus streaming Lichess Bullet Arena
12:30- Patreon mailbag question: Is Magnus’ memory for chess positions on a par or better than the other top players?
Mentioned: Video: Magnus Carlsen’s Mind Blowing Memory
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18:00- David shares his thoughts on Nepo’s dominant performance in the FIDE Candidates, as well as his other observations.
Mentioned: Nakamura’s Video Recap of his last round game with Ding
25:00- What did David think of the quality of the games in the Candidates? Could Nepo give
Carlsen a better match in a rematch?
Mentioned: Caruana-Nepomniatchtchi 2022, Nakamura-Nepomnatchtchi 2022
31:00- What chess improvement lessons can we learn from the Candidates?
35:00- We briefly discuss Firouzja’s disappointing showing in the Candidates.
38:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com. You can find IM Andras Toth’s new course, IM Irina Bulmaga’s, as well as so many others, here:
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40:00- How is David’s OTB game as he prepares to represent Great Britain in the upcoming Chess Olympiad?
Mentioned: GM Boris Avrukh, GM Mikhail Marin, GM Gawain Jones, GM Nigel Short, GM Michael Adams
45:00- David discusses his upcoming course with Magnus Carlsen, “Grind like a Grandmaster”
Mentioned: Chessable Tweet regarding the Course
46:00- British Olympiad Team
49:00- David discusses playing the 2021 FIDE Grand Swiss, where he was close to qualifying for the 2022 Candidates, but lost a crucial game to GM Alireza Firouzja.
Mentioned: GM Firouzja-Howell 2021
55:00- How is David enjoying work as a Chess24 commentator with WGM Jovanka Houska and Kaja Snare?
Mentioned: John Motson, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, GM Jon Ludwig Hammer, IM Torstein Bae
1:06:00- What does David think about the current trajectory of chess?
1:08:00- How is David enjoying doing the podcast The Late Knight Show?
Mentioned: IM Lawrence Trent, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, GM Eric Hansen
1:13:00- David reviews his performance in the most recent World Rapid and Blitz tournament
1:16:00- How would David assess a Ding-Nepomniatchtchi match?
1:20:00- Thanks so much to David for sharing his insights! Here is how you can keep up with him:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DavidHowellGM
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidhowellchess/?hl=en