11 December 2015

Nakamura on the Grand Chess Tour

This week's selections for Video Friday were dominated by the London Chess Classic, aka the Grand Chess Tour. By coincidence, the first clip I watched was relevant to my post from a few days ago, Propaganda Is Awesome, where I learned that

The London event is hugely important because it represents the culmination of the the first serious effort to bring all the best chess players in the world together for a big-money contest that can signal a challenge to the World Championship cycle, which commences early next year with the Candidates Tournament.

Would GM Nakamura have anything to say about the London event being 'the most important chess tournament in decades'?


London Chess Classic 2015: Hikaru Nakamura (2:57) • 'Hikaru Nakamura on playing against Levon Aronian and (not) playing on his birthday.'

About 40 seconds into the clip, Peter Doggers of Chess.com asks,

Q: In the virtual standings of the Grand Chess Tour, you're actually on top. Do you feel you're getting some extra pressure? • A: I think if there wasn't this tournament coming up in March, maybe I would be feeling a lot of pressure to win this. The Candidate's Tournament is coming up in March and it's a thousand times more important than the London Chess Classic or the Grand Chess Tour. It really doesn't bother me, because it's just preparation for that. I'm warming up.

So much for propaganda.

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