EP.176 - GM David Howell

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.” 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.  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