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GM David Howell is the three-time champion of the United Kingdom and holds the record as the youngest player to earn the GM title in UK history. He has been a top 50 player in the world rankings and has a peak rating of 2712. He has been well-known in British chess circles since the age of 8, when he impressively beat GM John Nunn in a blitz game! As David tells, such accomplishments,have come with amazing opportunities, such as playing against and alongside GM Magnus Carlsen and training with GM Garry Kasparov, but he has also had to reckon with significant external expectations placed on him from a young age.
In the past year, David has also been getting more involved in chess media. He is now the chess columnist for The Times of London, was one of the broadcasters of 2019 Gibraltar Chess, and has begun doing entertaining “banter blitz” shows for Chess24.com. David also recently released a great instructional DVD, called “Winning Grandmaster Methods: How I Got to 2700.” In our conversation, we discuss all aspects of David’s chess work, and David candidly relives the ups and downs of his chess career, and shares some of the standout stories and improvement advice from his DVD. Please read on for more details and timestamps.
Click here to download the episode
0:00- We chat a bit about how the coronavirus is treating David, and what he has been up to lately, including his newly released instructional DVD with GingerGM productions.
Mentioned: Seaford UK, Fiona Steil-Antoni vlogs, Tarjei Svenson, GM Glenn Flear, Jonathan Tuck
Get David’s DVD here:
https://www.gingergm.com/shop/winning-grandmaster-method-how-i-reached-2700
12:00- David reflects on his early successes as a chess player, which included a highly publicized victory in a blitz game over GM John Nunn when David was only 8 years old.
Mentioned: GM Magnus Carlsen, GM Maxime Vachier Lagravel, GM Ian Nepomiatchi, GM Sergei Karjakin
GM Gukesh, GM Nihail Sarin, GM Praggnanandha
17:00- A Patreon supporter of the podcast asks what a player of David’s caliber sees in his head when he calculates.
Mentioned: IM Mark Dvoretsky’s books, WGM Irina Bulmaga, IM Alex Astaneh Lopez
The challenging study David mentions is here (courtesy of GM Howell).
Study without solution-
Study with solution and GM Howell's notes-
26:00- What was it like to have high expectations placed on him by chess fans once David was identified as a bright chess talent? Does he think about different paths his career might have taken based on different life choices?
Mentioned: GM Nihail Sarin, GM Alireza Firouzja
35:45- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable. If you want to work on knowing the classics and improving your calculation at the same time check out Chess Calculation Training 3: Legendary Games, by GM Romain Edouard
https://www.chessable.com/chess-calculation-training-3-legendary-games/course/1587/
36:45- What was it like to travel to GM Garry Kasparov’s home to play training games with him in 2017?
43:45- GM Howell also helped Peter Svidler prepare for the 2016 Candidates Tournament. What did he learn from that experience?
45:30- What does GM Howell think of this year’s FIDE Candidates so far?
46:30- Out of his recent jobs as banter blitzer, chess writer, chess announcer, and chess competitor, which is David’s favorite?
Mentioned: GM Jan Gustafsson
50:00- In the final rounds of the 2019 Chess.com Isle of Man Grand Swiss, GM David Howell came agonizingly close to qualifying for the 2020 FIDE Candidates, but he missed out. How has he processed that experience? Did it affect his mental health?
Mentioned: GM Magnus Carlsen, GM Simon Williams, WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni, GM Wang Hao-Howell 2019
57:30- David tells a few more fun stories about encounters with celebrities, both in and out of the chess world.
GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, GM Magnus Carlsen, Woody Harrellson, Dave Grohl
1:01:00- We discuss a bit more of what can be learned from David’s instructive and fun DVD, Winning Grandmaster Method, How I Reached 2700.
Mentioned: Short-Timman 1991, Fischer-Benko 1963, Howell,D-Bitalzadeh 2009, GM Simon Williams, IM Simon Ansell,
1:05:00- Thanks to David for a fun interview. Help him boost his follower count on Twitter and Instagram.
David’s Twitter here:
https://twitter.com/DavidHowellGM?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
David’s Instagram here:
https://www.instagram.com/davidhowellchess/?hl=en
If you would like to help support the podcast you can do so here:
https://www.patreon.com/perpetualchess