As a fascinating and upset-laden FIDE World Cup comes to an end, 2022 Austrian National Champion GM Felix Blohberger joins me to break down the key moments, share stories from his own World Cup experience, and reflect on his chess career. GM Blohberger has been offering insightful commentary on his YouTube channel where he has been sharing his thoughts on the FIDE World Cup, and was able to elaborate on many themes from his channel in our interview. In our conversation we discuss:

The new Candidates qualifiers: GM Javokhir Sindarov, Wei Yi, and Andrey Esipenko plus who Felix now sees as the favorite to win the Candidates.
The pressure of tiebreaks including Felix’s take on GM Esipenko’s heartbreaking blunder against Wei Yi, plus what it’s actually like inside the venue between games.
Felix’s chess career: including his favorite books, his rating goals, and reflections on the viral video that helped grow his channel. .

This was another entertaining and surprising World Cup, and I am already excited for the FIDE Candidates next year. Timestamps are below.

0:00- Thanks to our sponsor, Chessable.com! If you sign up for Chessable Pro in order to unlock discounts and additional features, be sure to use the following link:

https://www.chessable.com/pro/?utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=benjohnson&utm_campaign=pro

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0:00- Thanks to our sponsor, Chessable.com! If you sign up for Chessable Pro in order to unlock discounts and additional features, be sure to use the following link:

https://www.chessable.com/pro/?utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=benjohnson&utm_campaign=pro

And you can check out their new offerings here:

https://www.chessable.com/courses/all/new/

01:30 Introduction

05:00- GM Felix Blohberger joins me

Sub to his YouTube here:

https://www.youtube.com/@febloh

Felix’s video about the challenges of life as a chess pro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8DW6XShofQ&t=0

Esipenko’s blunder-

https://x.com/GMJuditPolgar/status/1992651679108616301?s=20

07:00 The FIDE World Cup Experience-

The Anand Files

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