When I started out playing chess as a kid I thought I should be world champion. As a kid you have no idea what that means and you only sort of picture it. It is hard to imagine that I waited all those years and it happened in a late stage of my career.

I was very lucky that while I was a chess player in a country where chess was not a big deal, I happened to be in the one city where there was a sprouting chess team: Chennai.

There are some aspects of work you need to keep working on and no matter what environment you are in. Continuous learning is very important. It's what I call 'competitive tension', which is about having a competition around.

My practice schedule is not constant and changes a lot and depends on my moods also.

Carlsen will be ridiculously difficult to play against. (on the 2013 World Championship match)

India has lot of talent. What I am happy with is that the talent keeps on coming. Certainly it could be nice, though I am not terribly keen on seeing my successor yet.

For me, each game is a new challenge, which has to be dealt with rationally and systematically. At that time, every other thought fades into oblivion.