Episode 168- Previewing the FIDE Candidates tournament with GM Daniel King



Photo by Lennart Ootes, courtesy of GM Daniel King

Photo by Lennart Ootes, courtesy of GM Daniel King


With the highly anticipated FIDE Candidates tournament starting in a matter of days, I am honored to be joined by Grandmaster Daniel King to preview the tournament. GM King is well known for his accomplishments as a chess player, journalist and announcer. The videos on his YouTube channel, Powerplay Chess, are always a must-watch for me.  GM King will be part of FIDE’s announcing team for this event, and we talked to him just days before he planned to leave for Yekaterinaburg, Russia for the tournament. We recorded this interview on Tuesday, March 10.  Please read on for details and timestamps. 




Click here to download the episode.

0:00- Intro.  We set the scene for the FIDE Candidates Tournament and discuss the dramatic late entry of GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who is replacing GM Teimour Radjabov who withdrew from the tournament due to concerns about the Corona/Covid-19 virus. 

Mentioned: FIDE World Senior Team Championship: https://www.europechess.org/fide-world-senior-team-chess-championship-2020-starts-today/ 

10:00- This episode is brought to  you in part by Chessable! Check out GM Simon Williams brand new course “The Black Lion” here. 

12:00- The odds I listed for the Candidates come from Unibet UK, you can find them here (They have changed a bit since we recorded): 

https://www.unibet.co.uk/betting/sports/filter/chess/world_championship/candidates/all/competitions/1005917216 

We discuss the individual Candidates in the following order: 

13:00- GM Kirill Alekseenko 

Mentioned: GM Ali Firouzja

16:23- GM Fabiano Caruana 

19:00- GM Anish Giri 

23:20- GM Alexander Grischuk 

Mentioned: Chess24’s Candidates 2020 A Preview: https://chess24.com/en/learn/advanced/video/candidates-2020-a-preview/candidates-2020-intro GM Peter Svidler 

26:15- GM Wang Hao 

Mentioned: Chessbase India’s IM Sagar Shah interviews Wang Hao: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_elqkx-IgI

30:30 GM Ding Liren 

34:30- GM Ian Nepomniachtchi 

39:00- GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Mentioned: UEFA Euro 1992 Final: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_1992_Final, GM Etienne Bacrot 

45:00- Thanks so much to Daniel King for joining the show. You can watch the FIDE Broadcast with GMs King, Judit Polgar and Evgeni Miroschenko beginning on March 15 here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9B47GnzCRFHTT1BIBWvStQ

Subscribe to GM King’s PowerPlayChess here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMBATpFb--uLNAODOVWvCTA

Support GM King via Patreon here: 

https://www.patreon.com/powerplaychess/posts

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