#66. David Navara Addresses Kramnik Cheating Insinuations, His Life In Chess And More

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Czech grandmaster David Navara. For more than 20 years, David Navara has been the leading chess player of the Czech Republic. Thirteen times he won the national championship. In 2015, he was ranked number 14 in the world, with a peak rating of 2751.

I (Dirk Jan) spoke to David last week, in Prague, the city where he was born 40 years ago and where he still lives. Over the years, we met on many occasions, but for some inexplicable reason we never sat down for a proper interview.

Now we did and to begin with we returned to our first meeting, in 2001 at the European Team Championship in Leon, in the north of Spain, where 16-year-old David was one of the stars as he scored an impressive 7 out of 9. Even if we’d only just met, he kindly showed me three of his games, giving me a first taste of his phenomenal talent.

After this nice memory, David talked with great openness about his upbringing, his loving parents, the crises in his life, his Asperger and the comfort that he finds in religion.

Finally, we spoke about something that has been troubling him for many months now. How he was dragged into Vladimir Kramnik’s troubling crusade against cheating. Although Kramnik claims that he never accused David of any misbehaviour, he did include him in a list of seemingly suspect results. This greatly upset and angered David, who contacted FIDE, explained why in his view Kramnik’s insinuations were ridiculous and insulting, and urged them to undertake action against Kramnik.

So far, nothing has happened. Apart from a short message of support, FIDE’s reaction has been deafening silence.

We sincerely hope they will listen to this podcast and do what they should have done months ago: listen to one of their finest members and care about his well-being.

0:00 – Intro

2:43 – Welcome David!

3:05 – DJ’s first meeting with David in 2001

5:30 – David’s interest in foreign languages

8:05 – Where does David’s politeness come from?

10:15 – How does David cope with his Asperger's?

13:25 – The importance of religion in David’s life

19:05 – Despite his self-proclaimed laziness, how has David achieved such success in chess?

25:12 – Being the #1 Czech player for over 20 years

26:15 – David’s relationship with Thai Dai Van Nguyen

30:22 – How stressful is chess for David?

32:08 – AD BREAK

33:06 – Cheating allegations made by Vladimir Kramnik

46:56 – What did the allegations do to David?

52:05 – What does David expect from FIDE in this situation?

56:15 – AD BREAK

56:55 – Reaction from FIDE

1:10:15 – When is David’s next tournament?