About this episode

GM Rafael Leitão discusses the FIDE Candidates Tournament, Sindarov's performance, and chess training methods.

With the FIDE Candidates now in the rearview mirror, 7-time Brazilian Champion and Chess.com “Game of the Day” columnist GM Rafael Leitão joins me to help break it all down. We discuss: Sindarov’s incredible performance and the training methods that helped him ascend to the top Vaishali’s strong finish and her chances against Ju Wenjun Rafael’s take on opening trends, and which players might be most disappointed with their performance GM Leitão also shares his thoughts on the Judit Polgar documentary on Netflix, along with his story of getting to play Judit. Thanks to Rafael for sharing his insights. I’m excited to see the two new World Championship challengers fight for the title later this year. 00:00 Introduction to the Candidates Tournament 02:04 Training Methods and Classical Chess Education Mentioned: IM Roman Vidonyik interview with Charlize van Zyl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5TJMiHqiwc 04:50 Expectations and Surprises in the Candidates 07:43 Analysis of Player Performances 10:56 Sindarov's Unique Play Style 13:51 Reflections on Historical Performances 16:54 Opening Trends in High-Level Chess 19:52 The Future of Chess Openings 30:09 Concurrent Tournaments: A New…

People in this episode

Host: Ben Johnson

Guest: GM Rafael Leitão

Topics covered

• FIDE Candidates Tournament
• Training Methods
• Player Performances
• Opening Trends
• Future of Chess

Keywords

• FIDE Candidates
• Sindarov
• Vaishali
• Judit Polgar
• chess training

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Chess.com, Netflix

Books & works: Game of the Day

More episodes of Perpetual Chess Podcast

• EP 478 – GM Ben Finegold on the Candidates, the Hans–Magnus Netflix Documentary, and TakeTakeTake’s Bold Business Move · April 13, 2026 · 55 min
• EP 477- Jennifer Shahade on Cheating, AI, and Thinking Like a Chess Player · April 7, 2026 · 60 min
• Bonus Pod: Sindarov’s Historic Start + Inside the FIDE Candidates with Mike Klein · April 6, 2026 · 34 min
• EP 476-Vlad Ghita: Is the Rating System Still Broken? A Data-Driven Investigation · March 31, 2026 · 1h 2m
• Book Recap #38- Silman’s Chess Odyssey + Stories from a Former Student with Gaurav Datta · March 24, 2026 · 1h 22m
• EP 476-  GM Jan Gustafsson previews the 2026 FIDE Candidates · March 17, 2026 · 1h 16m

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