It’s been a while since I wrote here, but now I finally have a little time to write an update.

November was extremely busy for me. After the European Team Championships I went immediately to a training camp in Italy where the Italian women champions started preparations for the upcoming season. It was a very productive 5-day camp on the beautiful Brunello property.

During a break with Lago Moro in the background

After the camp I barely spent one week at home before I jumped on another plane, this time to Spain. I am writing this from Spain, where I will coach my Spanish team for a week. Then hopefully I will return home for a quiet December (but you never know!).

During these wanderings, a lot of things happened in the chess world. I was not surprised to see Kramnik get the wild card for the Candidates. In fact I logically concluded that he will get it the moment he confirmed his participation in next year’s Wijk aan Zee. Kramnik’s has never been successful in Wijk and the last time he played there was in 2011. But he needs practice for a long tournament, the Candidates will be a 14-round double-round-robin and the only long tournament in the calendar is Wijk. Hence my logical conclusion.

There has been a lot of rapid chess going on and here Carlsen showed his dominance, literally destroying Wesley So (27.9-9.5), Ding Liren (22-8, as part of the Champions Showdown in Saint Louis), and Alexander Grischuk (15.5-10.5). The way Carlsen has been playing these matches reminds me of his dominance in classical chess not so long ago. The big question is whether he can translate this rapid dominance to classical chess, something we will very soon find out, as he is scheduled to play the London Chess Classic in December.

The last leg of the FIDE Grand Prix series in under way in Palma de Mallorca. Vachier and Radjabov are the only two players who still harbour hopes to qualify for the Candidates, but things are not going too well for them, even though they still keep their chances with one round to go. It seems that a lot will depend on the tie-break criteria and luck.

On a more personal note, just to let you know I haven’t abandoned my YouTube channel. As you can see, I just didn’t have the time to record anything. I even have an idea what I will record next, so stay tuned, hopefully for not too long!