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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.

-Vladimir Kramnik

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The Berlin Defence Suited

Vladimir Kramnik

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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.

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

Chess Is So Deep, I Simply Feel Lost.

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

Computers Have Changed The World Of Chess.

Objectivity Consists In Understanding That The Only One Who Never Makes A Mistake Is The One Who Never Does Anything.

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

For Me Art And Chess Are Closely Related, Both Are Forms In Which The Self Finds Beauty And Expression.

Every Month I Look Through Some Ten Thousand Games, So Not As To Miss Any New Ideas And Trends.

I Don't Like To Show My Emotions At The Board, Not Because They Might Give Something Away To An Opponent, But Because That's My Style: I Like To Keep It To Myself.

Chess Is A Matter Of Daily Training.

When I Was A Child I Liked The Games Of Capablanca, And Later I Was Captivated By Alekhine's Play.

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.

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

Chess Is Like Body-building. If You Train Every Day, You Stay In Top Shape. It Is The Same With Your Brain - Chess Is A Matter Of Daily Training.

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.

Okay, When You Start To Fight For Equality, Like Anand Did In 1995, You Could End Up Losing Game 10, Like He Did, Without Putting Up Any Kind Of Fight.

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!

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

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

Chess Is An Infinitely Complex Game, Which One Can Play In Infinitely Numerous And Varied Ways.

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.

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.

An Impatient Person Plays Differently Than A More Patient Person.

The Development Of Beauty In Chess Never Depends On You Alone. No Matter How Much Imagination And Creativity You Invest, You Still Do Not Create Beauty. Your Opponent Must React At The Same Highest Level.

No - I'm Quite Calm Inside During The Game For Most Of The Time - Not 100%, But Generally Very Calm.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Look At The Catastrophic Record Vishy Anand Has Against Garry Kasparov. Kasparov Managed To Beat Him Almost Everywhere They Played, Even Though Vishy Anand Has Belonged To The Absolute Top Players In The World For Fifteen Years. This Difference Cannot Be Explained Purely In Chess Terms, There Must Have Been Some Psychology.

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.

In Games Against Humans, You Often Win Because The Opponent Blunders A Piece, And You Can Often Survive When You Do It Yourself. Against The Computer, You Make Only One Mistake - The Last One.

Intellectual Effort Gives Me Enormous Pleasure

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.

My Very First Book Was A Games Collection Of Anatoly Karpov. On The Whole I Was Attracted By Positonal Play With Some Tactics, And Already Then I Was Aiming For Universality.

It Made A Big Difference To My Match Stamina. I Couldn't Imagine I Would Have Been So Energetic During The Match - It Really Gave Me A Welcomed Extra Boost!

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.

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

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.

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