I have had to work long and hard to eradicate the dangerous delusion that, in a bad position, I could always, or nearly always, conjure up some unexpected combination to extricate me from my difficulties.

A lifetime in not enough to learn everything about chess.

I think that for the highest achievements nowadays... need to have the stable as a rock scientific base. And also need to own modesty.

During a chess tournament a master must envisage himself as a cross between an ascetic monk and a beast of prey.

You can become a big master in chess only if you see your mistakes and short-comings. Exactly the same as in life itself.

Chess will always be the master of us all.

I do not play chess – I fight at chess. Therefore, I willingly combine the tactical with the strategic, the fantastic with the scientific, the combinative with the positional, and I aim to respond to the demands of each given position.