Initially I was very drawn to the Tao Te Ching, the Taoist philosophy. It was helping me deal with the balance of these external and internal issues with my chess life. Tai chi is the martial embodiment of Taoist philosophy. Initially, I had no intention of competing in the martial arts; it was just the meditation.

The moment we believe that success is determined by an ingrained level of ability as opposed to resilience and hard work, we will be brittle in the face of adversity.

My coach and my parents both had this relationship to what I was doing, which was allowing me to express myself with chess. And so I could love it. I had a passion for it. I was expressing myself through chess, and I was learning about myself through chess.

Growth only really comes at the point of resis­tance, but that is the moment that we tend to stop. Because it hurts... pushing our lim­its, is a mus­cle that can be cul­ti­vated like any other - incrementally.

Not only do we have to be good at waiting, we have to love it. Because waiting is not waiting, it is life.

We learn by pushing ourselves and finding what really lies at the outer reaches of our abilities.

The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity. Usually, growth comes at the expense of previous comfort or safety.