EP.133 - GM Pentala Harikrishna

GM Pentala Harikrishna has been World Junior Champion, Asian Individual Champion, and he has been ranked as high as #10 in the world! In between tournaments, while home in Prague, GM Harikrishna joined me to assess his most recent tournaments, reflect on his career, and to talk about his recently released Chessable course, which provides a complete repertoire against the French Defense. Please read on for many more details, notes and timestamps. ..

0:00- GM Harikrishna has been quite busy of late, so he begins our conversation by discussing his two recent most GM tournaments, The Shenzen Masters, and The TePe Sigeman Chess Tournament. GM Harikrishna finished in second place in both tournaments.

Players mentioned: Anish Giri, Nihal Sarin, Gawain Jones

Games Mentioned: Harikrishna-Giri 2019, Harikrishna-Sarin 2019

8:35- Does GM Harikrishna have a special knack for endgames? How does he prepare for an invitational GM tournament

11:45- Why did GM Harikrishna recently move from Belgrade to Prague?

Mentioned: Nový Bor Chess Club, GM David Navara

15:00- We talk about chess in India, includiing whether living away from India affects GM Harikrishna’s sponsorship with Bharat Petroluem Corporation Limited? We also briefly discuss some of India’s young phenoms including Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Nihail Sarin

19:00- As a former top junior player and World Junior Champion, what advice would GM Harikrishna give to other strong young players?

25:30- We talk about GM Harikrishna’s new Chessable Course, called French Toast: How Harikrishna Fries 1… e6 . This includes a question from a Patreon supporter of the podcast about the challenges GM Harikrishna faced in trying to tailor an opening course for players of a wide range of experience levels.

Mentioned: GM Magesh Panchanathan, IM Dmitri Schneider, Harikrishna-Rapport 2019 (Watch GM Hari analyze his the game here), Adams-Gupta 2018

36:30- We talk chess improvement. GM Harikrishna weights the importance of solving studies, and answers a question from friend of the podcast, Moonmaster 9000 about whether it is important to memorize games.

Mentioned: Domination in 2,545 Studies

44:00- What is GM Harikrishna’s favorite game of his?

Mentioned: Mamedyarov-Harikrisha 2016, Bobby Fischer

48:00- We say our goodbyes. You can check out GM Harikrishna’s Chessable course here, and can keep up with him by following him on twitter here.

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