Contrary to many young Colleagues, I do believe that it makes sense to study the Classics.

Without the element of enjoyment, it is not worth trying to excel at anything.

Not winning a tournament is not an option for me, unless it's no longer theoretically possible - then of course winning becomes impossible. But up to that point, not winning is just not an option.

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

I spend hours playing chess because I find it so much fun. The day it stops being fun is the day I give up.

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.

All I expect are wins and to get pleasure from the game. And if someone thinks something about me, if someone's dissatisfied with something... that's not my headache. I hope someday I'll become World Champion - and I'll make all these people happy. But even if for some reason that doesn't happen it won't stop me getting pleasure from chess. I'm sure of that.