You can feel the same thing in football or soccer - that for the best teams in Spain and England, for instance, the public... they're not really going to cheer at all when they play against bad teams unless they do something spectacular. Even if they're winning by a few goals they'll probably just say, "nah." That's normal and they're not excited about it.

Some people think that if their opponent plays a beautiful game, it's OK to lose. I don't. You have to be merciless.

If you want to get to the top, there's always the risk that it will isolate you from other people.

I've never been much of a computer guy at least in terms of playing with computers. Actually until I was about 11 I didn't use a computer for preparing for games at all. Now, obviously, the computer is an important tool for me preparing for my games. I analyze when I'm on the computer, either my games or my opponents. But mostly my own.

I get more upset at losing at other things than chess. I always get upset when I lose at Monopoly.

Right now I'm really happy with how things are going with my chess career, so I'm not thinking of doing anything else.

I can’t count the times I have lagged seemingly hopelessly far behind, and nobody except myself thinks I can win. But I have pulled myself in from desperate [situations]. When you are behind there are two strategies - counter-attack or all men to the defences. I’m good at finding the right balance between those.