Chess is my life, but my life is not chess.

'Rubberneck' has nothing to do with comedy, nor does it follow comedic people.

I still love to play chess. So I do not even spend a minute on the possibility to step back.

It is dangerous to maintain equality at the cost of placing the pieces passively.

No, I do not want to sacrifice four days for two games. My time is too valuable to do that

By all means examine the games of the great chess players, but don't swallow them whole. Their games are valuable not for their separate moves, but for their vision of chess, their way of thinking.

I didn't picture myself as even a grandmaster, to say nothing of aspiring to the chess crown. This was not because I was timid - I wasn't - but because I simply lived in one world, and the grandmasters existed in a completely different one. People like that were not really even people, but like gods or mythical heroes.