Vishy's Exclusive Dinner with Indian Candidates ft. Pragg, Gukesh, Vaishali, Humpy

my game with karwana in wans 2020 is definitely one of the most uh awful ones how exactly did it go I'm not going to Rel it with you now sorry it up otherwise I can act out your draw with frog you get up you go all on video boy first of all thanks to all of you for taking the time to join me today just a fun evening to celebrate the fact that you're all going to be playing the candidates first time for three of you second time second time but uh as we discussed you have played on many more occasions but they were not tournaments so can we start off with a little [Music] toast how many of you been to Toronto before or Canada this is first time for you yeah ah really okay also I went to us only once for the St Louis St Louis right right and first time first time first time youve been to the us a couple of times but not to Canada right yeah I have also not played just in Canada I have been um in Toronto a couple of times but I haven't been to Canada in the last 30 years so also very long break for me uh it would be nice to go back what are your favorite countries to play chess in one no or okay let's go for chess for me any country is fine you don't mind that much yeah I don't mind but uh as a person I like Luxemburg very much okay your favorite country uh to play if there is thing otherwise Spain Spain cuz I have the best memories there no not that but they throw him in the S after General like okay you have any favorite countries uh to play GRE is one of you like won my world youth made my second GM like that good result and also love the place good and prag what's your favorite country to play said room like country doesn't matter just the playing venues matters yeah the hotel and the ven with the correct room temperature what about um favorite food do you have something you look forward to typical South Indian food okay especially home what do you do when you play when I play like I try to order food from the possible Indian restaurants if not at all I'll manage with salads and soups okay you basically the same I I don't eat U either pasta or Italian stuff not very much not very much okay I mean in general I can adjust to anything but if possible yeah Indian food it's the best yeah I also prefer South Indian but otherwise I can also manage mhm yeah it's like all three combined answer no you don't have to if you like a c cuine you can go for it but uh yeah yeah interesting I I actually don't I'm very happy to have Indian food but I don't uh look for it much when I'm abroad there I I go with whatever thing my feeling is always for Indian food I better go back home so that's the thinking but once in a while I I do try but not that often I mean Toronto is a lot of immigrants you'll get a lot of different uh Cuisines it's one of these cities with where if you want to experiment you'll have chances but maybe you'll even get uh maybe we even getan anybody want experim yeah yeah yeah that's possible uh but I'm sure there'll even be South Indian restaurants there yeah I there are many places where there's only Punjabi Frontier Cuisine but there are other places where you'll get then be nice to see okay then let's actually get to the chess just tell me whatever you can share about how you've been preparing getting ready for this event uh maybe you want to start from yeah I just played an uh open tournament in Austria few days ago and I had a very bad result there so I started analyzing on my weaknesses and also I started looking back uh with all my previous games where I lost and um yeah in general uh I know I've been stuck with my rating from a long time that also shows that I need to work a lot on my uh middle and end games so I was mainly concentrating on that I mean I remember several great performances in World rapid and Blitz are you tending towards the faster controls or you find them easier to play after long breaks uh no actually uh when during my younger days I used to enjoy more playing classical but I don't know when I got changed to Rapid and bit but in the recent times I'm just loving short time controls more probably I have become more lazy to prepare for classical right right uh in fact I didn't expect to do well in rapping but it just happened that uh somehow I managed to go to the finals and uh yeah uh sometimes I think uh it's good that when you just play without expectations and you get the results any thoughts about Toronto itself and the in the candidates this year anything you feel like sharing uh well this is also like the uh though it's a second uh uh second time for me the previous one was held in a knockout format so we had a mini matches or four games with The Knockout so playing a double round robin is also new for me this is going to be a new format as well uh and I think um though we play with the same opponent having a double round is bit tricky like preparing for both the colors and uh it all depends on uh sometimes I feel like how energtic you are off the board as well because in such a long tournaments you need to be fit physically as well so I was trying to work out on my uh physical exercise as well like uh so yeah I'm trying to change a bit okay and obviously these days with aana and so on I guess uh you have to balance a lot of things yeah it's actually really difficult to balance both uh because once I finish off my tournament um like when she sees me she always want to spend more time with me so I hardly get much time to prepare but you know I keep on telling her that I have some important tournament like but she's very fond of um uh having these medals like she already knew like first will be gold silver and bronze so whenever I start traveling she will say like Mom you get me the gold medal okay so that's what I tell her like if you allow me to practice like I can fight for a better place so these things happens even some days when I'm lazy or if I'm not doing something then she will immediately come and ask me if you're not working I know that you will not win anything so this is how it goes on but yeah relatively I get very less time but still uh like um I'm able to manage with the support of my husband and parents they always like keep ahana engaged sure I mean similar situation though um I'm not playing candidate dates and so on but sometimes I also want to train and Akil might sometimes wondering to be honest I don't know if I want him to wonder in and stop me training or I actually want to work it's a trickier question at least for me so sometimes happy is come then I have a good excuse to stop so that also works no it's more relaxing to spend time with the kids actually in whatever pressure I am like it will be gone immediately once I'm with her go I was surprised you was mentioning this is your first double round uh tournament double round robin is that right or yeah as far as I can remember this is the first double round okay is that convenient I mean you you said it's harder to prepare maybe the workload goes up but on the other hand you you know with everyone you'll get both colors right yeah it's yeah it's also trickier to prepare and also when we play a single round tourament we just meet a player once yeah once the result is over it will be done but like when you play this like in The Knockouts when you have these two mini games it will be trickier when we play with the same opponent in the same way it could be like it all depends on our uh psychology and all yeah M how how have you been uh preparing for this event okay like all three of you it's your first uh candidates how excited you are to go to Toronto uh new city understand even new hemisphere for you uh yeah I I've never been to uh the America itself okay so yeah qu uh I I don't know what to expect all this jet lag and all the different things but but okay I'm quite excited I mean more excited about the tournament itself but my sh uh what um how have you been uh preparing you qualified obviously in the grand Swiss so you had some time to plan things uh but you've been playing a fair amount as well oh yeah after the grand you played in Spain obviously congrats to becoming uh joining humy as a grandmas and uh so how have you been getting ready for uh yeah I had some time to prepare for it and obviously like after Grand I've been thinking about the candidates like uh this candidates was not at all in my mind I mean starting 23 year but uh yeah I attended so well I completed my GM title as well and uh we have been working for it like I had some training sessions with sander I've been working with him for sometime and uh uh it's going well I'm very excited for the tournament my first candidates first round robin event I mean the double round robin event so yeah I played this prag challenges right uh like the games were good but the results didn't go in my way but I really start but you managed to come back in some games uh then I had like lot of good positions like complete winning then I messed it up and yeah like lot to work on still have some time to get back the thing so yes and how how are you looking forward to Canada yeah Toronto I'm my first time to Canada as well and um I'm very excited for the tournament especially not particularly as place but for the tournament okay so all of you very focused on which is of course understandable and finally prag um you qualify the earliest of everyone but you had other events to play and uh so you managed to mix both schedules how how has it been um how have you been uh playing and maybe just uh quickly remind us what was it like coming back to Chennai after Baku yeah it was uh as a candidate yeah actually during during World Cup I was not really focusing on the candidate sport um after I won uh the semi-final match I realized I've actually mared two candidates and before that I didn't realize I was actually playing for for spot in candidates I was just playing uh playing a match against strong players and yeah then it felt really good uh yeah I kind of sank in once I landed in till then it was just like really so you were in um when you played Fabiano for instance you simply didn't feel what was at stake you were able to detach yourself maybe Fabiano already Yes because it was almost confirmed that be even if because Magnus was yeah even if I lose both matches but let's say Arjun match it was uh uh I think people already knew that if I wies either me or Ain one of us are make making it to candid candidates but I it wasn't in my mind at all to be honest if I played that match I would have forgotten about everything else also that was one heck of a match um okay and how has uh the work been how you been training and yeah like in 2023 I didn't really focus too much on the candidates because I had lot of tournaments after World Cup especially right was just playing uh yeah non-stop then after Grand SP I started to think about it and yeah it's been good been learning a lot from it not only from chess aspect obviously chess wise also I've been learning a lot uh but also in general like uh how to work as a team how to manage your team and so on so yeah it has been uh very good experience very excited for the candidates as well um yeah just looking forward to the tournament but you have been to the States before a lot at least well two occasions Miami and actually five times five times okay did you you played in play in St Louis once uh I was there for some program once and played in a round rubbing event in Charlotte okay okay so then you've been there a lot yes how do you find the East Coast time zone it's very tough the toughest was actually uh San Francisco so we went there and we went there like three days before the event still uh during the event we were suffering a lot uh I recommend Hawaii by the way I've been there and that's 15 and a half hours yeah too much and we were just uh yeah basically night hours we were just waking up at the night don't know what to do and the problem is also you'll start to feel angry and there's no food ah okay everyone uh in India is uh roting and very excited about all of you and um good luck and um thank you look forward to seeing that I will see you a lot there because I'll be coming as a commentator uh at least for the first nine or 10 Rounds I'm leaving on one of those days so I'll have a lot of fun how was your experience in canidate okay good question uh um well my first candidates tournament but that's a coincidence because it happened very late in my career obviously was huny pces 2014 I think I had not switched on my computer for almost 2 and a half months I mean for chess somehow still after the match I was bit U wondering even do I want to look at chess and it was in that frame of mine but then as it comes closer you realize well you either play or you don't and if you play Then you either play well you don't so then uh I tried to work very little at a small camp with radic um and I played one Bundesliga game I played game with rager these things often depend on one thing but for me the first round I beat aronian with uh and more or less he was the guy who was U the toughest uh opponent for me at that point I think he had the biggest plus score against me he was not yet made such a big score so at that point Aron was and um I beat him in the first round and actually it was a very good game Marshall this night G2 well he didn't play G2 of course yes but you're right and you know how I found out about this computers were not showing it very quickly then and of course in all our checking it hadn't come up and I actually prepared for a match right then sandipan told me by the way there is this move KN G2 King G2 A5 I first thought okay but there must be some reputation the computer didn't show anything so what the reputation I tried he said no everybody's saying it's very good um I said where did you find this he said on Facebook you found 92 on Facebook he said yes and I was shocked but this was the new world uh where uh people are uploading the story on uh I mean somebody put an article on Facebook and that's where it was very embarrassing that the line was dead there so that was also well two days later you find out but you have a delayed shock but still it didn't happen so so and then I beat madaro in the third round with um uh black quite uh easily and it just went from there so that was um best possible start and already I won more games than I'd won in God knows how long in just 3 days so you feel very good about yourself and I was relaxed because I was more or less in the joint lead all the time after that I think it's just one of the best tournaments I ever played in my life In terms I had no not even a single bad position except the one against karaki penultimate but otherwise not even a bad position and uh karaki and I saved in this long uh end game so went like a dream basically and uh for me that was very nice but you weren expecting to play well or there was a brief n second where I thought maybe why should I bother playing but then I realized that um that's it the next time onward I'll have to qualify with the candidates this is my last chance to just play like that for fun so um ideally if if I could have swapped and said I I give my 14th spot and I take the 16th spot or something I could have considered but that option wasn't uh possible then so I um nonetheless um decided what the hell i' go and play but as I mentioned I couldn't prepare and so on so I was in a funny state of mind so in that sense very positive memories of the candidates tournament though by 16 kak won second I was joined second with Fab with faia after that happened I mean I tried to qualify for 18 and uh By the time and 19 I played Grand swis again and after that I said okay I'm not going to go through this and after watching especially you last year trying to qualify I don't feel like changing my mind good I had a very good run you know now it's fine but uh all of you should be very proud of U uh getting there that itself is very hard journey so any countries you're all looking forward to visit for any reason any country you dream of visiting this to play a tournament in St Louis club like just a tournament there I don't know I many people playing have played some so just it is a very very good chess club to play of course and very special special town in the even in the US I would say there can't be many places that much as as in K any country you want us to go to I can't think of anything but now now that said us I think that's good good place to go here okay well you will have obviously go for the grand this year so you have you got in Factor St Louis so yeah how many countries have you visited BR you know I was counting this just yesterday actually I wasn't that's the okay your man is 37 you're 37 very good probably somewhere more than not sure she has gone to countries which I haven't but it's like two three probably you I counted few years ago like then it was already above 70 so I don't know oh my God I only been to 64 oh 64 then how can I count you count you my husband who counted so maybe I should cross check how many have you been to do you know I haven't really counted but I assume 30 to 35 okay now the tables are turned reverse colors double round you can ask me anything I suspect either humpy or Vel is going to start because these two are pointing at each other you start so whichever one of you wants to go first what is your best game and the most memorable one and uh the weakest one best game is not easy because I'm always toned between the Aran game and vikin z and my game with ler amongst all of them I like these two the most but um there are other lots of games of course but I like those two the most and in some sense for aesthetic reasons I mean for memorable reasons there are other things connected to CS but for just the beauty of the game I think these two weakest it's hard to beat losing in six moves right so my game with Zapata in be is hard to Escape it's classical game that's a classical game yeah I mean I simply touched a piece and then played Bishop F5 I was expecting C4 Bishop E7 Knight C3 Bishop F5 he went Knight C3 I just touched the bishop moved to F5 and then suddenly thought Queen E2 Queen e795 what the hell am I going to play and I was looking like this and then I resigned quickly and left the hall so that nobody would before anybody understood the I think for two days people thought I many people thought I had made a quick draw because days there was no internet all so back in the day when some you had to see the bulletin or find out from someone and I escaped for a long time but of course eventually it came out and I'm sure there are 20 videos on YouTube easiest video to make right so it's hard to beat that um but there have been some pretty painful games I mentioned um my game with karwana in VI can say 2020 20 is definitely one of the most uh awful ones how exactly how exactly did it go I'm not going to Rel it with you now sorry it up that's so painful otherwise I can act out your draw with prug you get up you go all on video boy no this will be like classic he gets a very confid jacket and all he's putting and he goes and then he turns around comes back because this guy is not moving yeah no I okay before making the move I was checking the score sheet I just missed that there was this move that the okay let's not talk about that you know in this uh in this video they will be doing what game what was the position okay and there many other paintful ones I B SK RS 91 yeah probably do you know that one no I don't so I have a knight on B3 Queen on C3 he has Knight on e4 Queen on D6 I go Knight C5 check thinking Knight C5 bc5 I'm winning play Queen take C5 because the other Knight is still attacking C3 and defix C5 uh but Queen C5 yeah but I'm I've lost material so that's great thank you next question I think it's you asali if these boys keep on at this yeah was actually always sorry no God I was actually always wondering I mean just uh just because of curiosity like the game with SM the one where it took 1 minute 43 seconds like very confused about the mod I don't know somehow maybe it was tension because very strange to be confused on move four right yeah but somehow instead of playing Bishop D3 D5 Knight E5 he started Knight E5 and then I was confused am I supposed to play D6 or D5 then after D6 I remember some Knight F7 and it was bothering me so then I remember queen queen E7 and um then I think the line goes Queen E2 but then King at F7 and there is no real compos Queen E2 King F7 Queen H5 G6 yeah no G6 Mish B6 and queen F3 Knight F6 nothing is happening yeah I don't even remember what I was thinking but there was some old game um which actually there's a Perpetual some Bishop hit 7 Bishop G6 check and there's a Perpetual I mixed up you know sitting like I couldn't remember what to do after exactly 1 minute 43 seconds I suddenly thought okay I'll play D6 he went back immediately KN F3 I went D5 and then I blitzed out the next yeah 20 moves and I in fact uh overtook him on the clock afterwards it would be a nice story to say I made it for Content because of course now it's perfect content been content all my every yeah every YouTube channel has a video that you have spent 1.43 seconds that's video many got memorized 14 14 yeah yeah so I have a question like just related to aa's question like when you're having very bad games such as like you have mentioned so how do you recover from it I more or less write off that night even with best intentions and good habits or whatever chances are I will wake up in the middle of the night and scream at myself mentally and you know so I kind of just allow that to happen and um next day I try to either imagine myself being so upset about this game that I lose another one and how I will feel then as a way to stop somehow you have to stop that well we all know that if you lose one game you have to push it aside somehow so whatever I can do to deal with that and I try to go play that game not think about this usually it takes only one day as long as I have one decent game even if it's a draw it's one decent game then that night I'll sleep better and you feel everything is in the past and so takes one night but in bad tournaments where couple of things go wrong or the very disappointing game then it takes much longer even a rest day interesting question for you um what do you hate most losing or losing before the rest daying before the rest obviously easily no good they all we all agree on that I mean at least rest day okay I can break things and then I can come back to no no you felt like losing before the rest days better for you oh I said for me all I think all of us are on the thing of losing on the before the rest day is the best way to spoil the rest day oh really very diff okay I was always like I mean not happy to lose but okay yeah I have a rest let me celebrate no in why can like I lost two in a row and then I was so happy that I was had a rest day and then I won three in a row I think there is no Greater Joy on Earth than winning the night before a rest day then that night you really enjoy yourself and you don't feel guilty that you're spoiling the next game because the rest day is to push that know that is the absolute dream interesting reverse psychology question you prefer to be minus one by winning your last two games or plus one by losing your last two games minus one losing to finish the tournament well is important it's funny know I also I think exactly the same even though I understand the score is much better on the other side I think plus one take plus one with the last two no I prefer minus one winning the last two because it feels like have you tried it you sound like you have tried it oh yeah yeah yeah I did it there it's all versions are the same thing no winning before the rest day all these things yeah and U I think I understand the one score is much better but for me losing the last two games would be horrible horrible and the whole flight but but okay at least you have plus score no it always feels good to end the tournament with a victory either you get a better place or not but just some positive note yeah yeah whenever I won the last two games in some minus two minus three tournament you come to terms you go home in a better State of Mind even if you get second place by losing the final game you won't be happy but like this things come on prog one question recently having this conversation who's the most overrated player on top 10 okay who do you think I don't in general like top players not necessarily the live ratings or I understand um my own answer is I'm not playing enough for it to be very representative so it's not a question of undervalued overvalued but I'm floating amongst the um others it's harder to say what we have is these two groups we have one group that's safe they're going to be in the top 10 tomorrow and then we have another group of maybe 10 players who could be out and in at any moment depending on one game whenever you have this Bunch up it's harder to tell but um I wouldn't um say underrated overrated that easily I mean there are no easy candidates uh but it's clear right now that let's say ding's form is just uh awful so he's the biggest Gap um I mean Anish had one bat on but after plus 4 in W so uh you can and maybe n is at the other end plus4 and plus4 so just huge result um but we are talking form rather than uh underrated overrated I don't um I honestly don't have a easy answer besides the fact I would I wouldn't really enjoy yeah no no fair enough but I wouldn't enjoy making fun of someone but uh I think in the this case I genely have no clue okay so we'll do a team thing uh each one of you will impersonate someone some chess player that you can think of and uh the teammate has to guess from a performance who you impersonating so I'm going to put both of you in one team and v h in the other boys versus girls and uh we're good to go whenever you're ready who set you start the same what is yeah you start it's okay let them start no no no pleas start Co yeah yeah we can it's better drawing of lots yes okay I'll just do drawing of lots I mentally keep one name here one name here you pick something uh uh right WR of what my left hand has gone right my right hand has gone left so right the left hand which went to right you I basically swapped your position so you so you will tell a player to him no no no that's all eliminated sorry that is the first version we just if that player is watching this it'll be never forget you actually I can start if you want no wait I'll start just they were they made me draw locks and all and now I can do and actions right yeah yeah yeah can I use property prop sorry what property like something to act like yeah sure clock or something guess one okay very good have like this but okay easier that was quick okay now we which one of you wants to go first okay if you want I can do another and we get another point and then you can go if you have one R yeah I have one r no I think you are acting better you do it we will guess that's easy we will take the [Laughter] point or the team should be different no is the more Dynamic team first they both try to push it on each other now they both want to do it first yeah okay I got an easy one I just don't want you to do it first okay let's start okay we get two points oh that's good I don't supposed you didn't do anything example I thought okay I was supposed to do like but yeah that's okay you want to go now but that doesn't count yeah answered first but we get a point that I answer no no okay let's get let's do that it's how to do the rules it was supposed to be supposed to guess if you seen my acting skills against param in the last round yeah yeah you have askcar what for that I was actually thinking that during the game you was so Cal I was looking at him his dead loss I saw that and was thinking either he's missing or he's just not happy with something but there's nothing to be unhappy so he's probably missing it and G is like very calm takes a sip of water goes to restroom and comes back eats something and it's like walking casually sitting at the board relax like no Panic at all I wish I had act and then when went to he like no what else then he should know should know what yes during the game he understood he understood and he reacted during the game we both were laughing at each other it was so funny and I wish I had half your acting skills I resigned my game and left before mamad even came in Norway and then mamm comes will you resign you can't see will you resign then you didn't see he came back from the thing and he was just wondering what was going on maybe he would have seen it but maybe he wouldn't how can you imagine I I felt like I lost that game four times in one day but he was genuinely puzzled and then uh everyone said you should have just left the room and gone and gotten a tea if he plays Queen takes F3 then you come back and resign no one ever won a point by resigning one more early so you could have come back then and resigned otherwise enjoy your tea come back and exchange queens and that's it but just very good logic but um the beauty is I can't even put my queen down there uh once I've um uh moved to B5 even if it's defending F3 Queen takes F3 still wins because Knight H4 FKS so the only way to draw is Queen F5 and that will be upon on down but it's touch the queen no I think I'd even put it on B5 taking my hand off and then only I realized and that was the problem so then it was too late to do anything and there's no other Square I can go because it's still made uh but I realized there's no other move as well because Queen takes F3 is a threat so uh I can I also use the property right yes of course yeah so I'm using this glass what okay I don't know if it's just it looks I don't know if it helps just glasses can guess the players like this is what the clue I got with glasses glasses just players with this glasses I don't this glasses this glasses but lot of oh okay I got you I don't know am I being too clever I don't know I think of two so different you just can give it a guess some top okay this might not answer yes and we're going to close with you H like can I give some clue before like either it's man or woman or I should just do that so it's woman yeah by the question I can understand okay oh what oh oh no I've only seen one woman smoke that is the problem I've never seen that I can think of one moment okay to my knowledge only one I know no I'm sure I would not know or do I know yeah obviously you played I okay no no it's a woman play yeah it's a woman player it's woman player okay I think stepan I guess it's the only one I could think of yeah but I wasn't sure the only one I could think of was the only one there that my Gap no because we have this discussion before every Grand Prix like where is the smoke smoking area so so I hope you had a fun evening but really thank you all for coming I know uh some of well many of you are very tired very nice of you to come all the way to Chennai and join us I had a lot of fun and listen just wish all four of you all the very best for Toronto we'll be rooting I'll be there rooting thank you and uh yeah yeah thank you very much sir it was all fun we also had a very memorable dinner and it was lots of fun to join all of you I'm uh yes it was really a fun evening and uh discover a few things next time I think I will also have to be ready for some invitation so we'll say [Music] h

Channel: Chess.com

Views: 635,749

Keywords: chess, chess videos, chess.com, chess content, best chess players, chess games, gukesh, pragg, vaishali, humpy, chess interview, vishy, vishy chess, vishy chess interview, waca chess

Id: d6RIHdFX4i0

Length: 39min 51sec (2391 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 09 2024