 Gobi in a nice win with the white pieces against the talented Indian Devishis Das. How did the game go? Well, I was trying to prepare something, but he plays so many different lines So I figured I'll just play something and just I play this move Bishop f4 move 4 against b6 I you know, he doesn't play the too many Times b6 moves I just play Bishop f4 just get some position And I think he just played this Bishop before check Which I'm not sure if it's the best and later on the bishop got stuck and he should have taken on d2 at some point And he would have a probably slightly worse position, but you know playable It's very solid and I think at the moment where I took on d5 95 bishop b6 rookie 8 and I think knight c4 and it's very complicated. You know, I thought I'm doing great and Okay, maybe he has some good defense, but he spent a lot of time there He spent like almost 30 minutes, but he couldn't find anything better than what he went for the peace sacrifice But looks like I just defend everything and you know convert up a piece Right now the peace sacrifice was definitely interesting But when you went a3 black had this interesting resource of rook c8 b5. Is that something that you saw on the board? How did you feel about it? To be honest, there were so many things he could have done in that position I had to calculate the bishop takes this six knight d6 knight c5 for example knight e5 There were also some other moves like knight c5 immediately without even taking on d6 So I saw the idea with rook c8. I figure I will just take the bishop If he plays b5 knight takes d4 bc, I thought maybe I'm still slightly better thanks to the pair of the bishops But it looks like it's probably just a dynamic equality there. So he missed the rook c8 move after a3 You know, which was difficult to find I think right now as a grandmaster in such a situation where you know You have to calculate so many interesting variations and so many possibilities How do you come to the point where you know you have to decide and you have to make the move and what Variation to go to give us some insights on how the mind works. Well today in particular I didn't want to get into you know time travel because position was so complicated I didn't know which way he's gonna go. So I just played the move I was thinking to play and I say whatever he decides on I'll just I calculated to see my position is safe So I just give him the option to choose. He had like four different options Rook c8 was the best one way which he didn't find if he had found Rook c8 You know, I just try to play practical because if you just try to find the best move every time You're gonna be in time travel I already spent 20 minutes on one move today and I was not really happy about that So I just after that I just started to play intuitively just play quick moves and build up some nice time advantage for later later on Which I needed Right now with the last few games to go. You're doing pretty well. What is the strategy in this? You know these last three rounds to go. Well, it's three more rounds to go and you know I think you know, I'll probably be half a point behind the leaders at the moment So, you know, I hope to play well I came here to, you know, get some practice before my big tournament US championship in March So that's why I'm here. I'm just here to play and just not to worry about the results right now Is the US chess champ something that's the most important tournament for you in the year? Oh, absolutely It's just by far the most important term It's like an elite event to which I get to play I don't play any other elite events like this So it's a, you know, very strong tournament and I hope to play some very strong players because that's people I'm gonna play in US championship. So people comparable if I can get them I mean, I'll be good to you know to get some practice because otherwise I only play once a year against This 20-200 players. So it's very difficult Right now, Kofi, a lot of top players say that in fact playing in tournaments is a great way To improve your games and to improve your chess in general and actually Practical play is underrated. Do you also advise young players, upcoming players to play as many tournaments as possible? If you're young, yes, you can play probably as many tournaments probably even once a month or twice a month for me in particular I didn't see any good tournaments in a calendar So and I wanted to get something similar similar time control to the US championship like this tournament and Very strong players that maybe I get to play a few of them and also one game a day Which is rare in US US. We have a lot of tournaments, but two games a day and the quality of the opponents It's not a strong. So that's why I really You know wanted to play here as my last tournament leading up to the championship And then I analyzed the games to see how I perform and to go from there Well, you're five and a half a great start for the event You wish you all the best for the last three rounds as well as for the US chess champs and hope to have you back here Thank you very much