In my experience, when I went to school, and especially in after-school, and during breaks, a lot of people wanted to sit down and play chess up till a certain age when it was not supposed to be cool anymore and people wanted to do other things.

I think with chess as with everything, marketing is the main issue.

One of the things that first attracted me to chess is that it brings you into contact with intelligent, civilized people - men of the stature of Garry Kasparov, the former world champion, who was my part-time coach.

I am not some sort of freak. I might be very good at chess but I'm just a normal person.

Maybe if I didn't have the talent in chess I'd find the talent in something else. The only thing I know is that I have talent in chess, and I'm satisfied with that.

Chess only appeals to quite a small minority. It does not have the cachet of a mainstream popular sport.

I'm not really into rap.