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I Started Playing Chess When I Was About 4 Or 5 Years Old. It Is Very Good For Children To Learn To Play Chess, Because It Helps Them To Develop Their Mental Abilities. It Also Helps To Consolidate A Person's Character, Because As It Happens Both In Life And In A Chess Game We Have To Make Decisions Constantly. In Chess There Is No Luck And No Excuses: Everything Is In Your Hands.

-Vladimir Kramnik

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I Started Playing Chess

Vladimir Kramnik

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I Started Playing Chess When I Was About 4 Or 5 Years Old. It Is Very Good For Children To Learn To Play Chess, Because It Helps Them To Develop Their Mental Abilities. It Also Helps To Consolidate A Person's Character, Because As It Happens Both In Life And In A Chess Game We Have To Make Decisions Constantly. In Chess There Is No Luck And No Excuses: Everything Is In Your Hands.

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At Some Point He Seemed To Lose All Confidence Trying To Break Down The Berlin Wall. He Was Still Fighting As Only Kasparov Can, But I Could See It In His Eyes That He Knew He Wasn't Going To Win One Of These Games.

On The Whole, The Life Of A Chess Professional Is Not As Easy As It Appears At First Sight. One Needs To Devote Some Ten Hours A Day To Chess And To Everything Connected With It - Physical And Psycholgical Preparation.

So Basically It's Very Simple: To Start With, If You Want To Win The Match, You Shouldn't Be Afraid Of Him. There Are Still Many, Many Things To Do, But Above All This Is The Most Important: Don't Be Scared Of Him!

It Is Rightly Said That The Most Difficult Thing In Chess Is Winning A Won Position

Only He, Who Penetrates Into The Depth Of The Game, Can Express His Personality In It.

I Started Playing Chess When I Was About 4 Or 5 Years Old. It Is Very Good For Children To Learn To Play Chess, Because It Helps Them To Develop Their Mental Abilities. It Also Helps To Consolidate A Person's Character, Because As It Happens Both In Life And In A Chess Game We Have To Make Decisions Constantly. In Chess There Is No Luck And No Excuses: Everything Is In Your Hands.

In This Respect, I Suppose I'm The Total Opposite Of Garry [kasparov]. With His Very Emotive Body Language At The [chess]board He Shows And Displays All His Emotions. I Don't.

For Us Chess Players The Language Of Artist Is Something Natural.

Intellectual Effort Gives Me Enormous Pleasure

Even If You Play Perfectly, A Fault Of Your Opponent's Can Destroy The Entire Beauty Of The Game.

I Made A Better Decision In Choosing My Team. Sure, I Had A Bigger Choice Of Players To Choose From - But I Couldn't Have Asked For A Harder Working Group Of Players Who Did An Incredible Job.

Part Of My Preparation For The World Champion Match Against Kasparov Was To Be Ready For His Off-board Tactics. I Did Not To React To Them At All. Once You Start Thinking About These Things During The Game, Even Analysing Them, You're Caught.

Once He Had Selected The Path He Was Going Down He Really Had To Stick With It In A 16 Game Match. He Had To Try And Hit In The One Direction But Unfortunately For Him - Though Fortunately For Me! - He Hit In The Wrong Direction.

I Am Convinced, The Way One Plays Chess Always Reflects The Player's Personality. If Something Defines His Character, Then It Will Also Define His Way Of Playing.

Playing Rapid Chess, One Can Lose The Habit Of Concentrating For Several Hours In Serious Chess. That Is Why, If A Player Has Big Aims, He Should Limit His Rapidplay In Favour Of Serious Chess.

But With The Berlin, I Was Able To Allow Him To Get Near, But Not Quite Near Enough, And I Knew Where To Draw The Line With The Fortresses I Had Set Up.

The Berlin Defence Suited My Strategy For The Match. I Had A Defensive Strategy - Actually, I Had In My Pocket Some Other Sharper Stuff To Fall Back On - But First I Wanted To Try The Defensive Strategy With Black And It Worked So Well.

With The Berlin I Was Able To Set Up A Fortress That He Could Come Near But Not Breach.

In Chess One Cannot Control Everything. Sometimes A Game Takes An Unexpected Turn, In Which Beauty Begins To Emerge. Both Players Are Always Instrumental In This.

Chess Is So Deep, I Simply Feel Lost.

Every Top Player Has His Own Style, Just As Every Painter Has His Own Personal Signature.

I Don't Know Whether Computers Are Improving The Style Of Play, I Know They Are Changing It. Chess Has Become A Different Game, One Could Say That Computers Have Changed The World Of Chess. That Is Pretty Clear.

I Go To Bed At 4 A. M. Almost All Chessplayers Do.

I Believe Every Chess Player Senses Beauty, When He Succeeds In Creating Situations, Which Contradict The Expectations And The Rules, And He Succeeds In Mastering This Situation.

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When I Speak Of The Beauty Of A Game Of Chess, Then Naturally This Is Subjective. Beauty Can Be Found In A Very Technical, Mathematical Game For Example. That Is The Beauty Of Clarity.

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Computers Have Changed The World Of Chess.

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In The Current Fide World Championship, On The Knock-out System, Weaker Players Have Good Chances. Those, Who In A Long Match Would Practically Have No Chance, Here May Creep Through.

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Now, Two Years Have Passed And The Situation Is Completely Different: No One Wants To Organise This Match.

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