Only he, who penetrates into the depth of the game, can express his personality in it.

The Berlin Defence suited my strategy for the match. I had a defensive strategy - Actually, I had in my pocket some other sharper stuff to fall back on - but first I wanted to try the defensive strategy with Black and it worked so well.

When I speak of the beauty of a game of chess, then naturally this is subjective. Beauty can be found in a very technical, mathematical game for example. That is the beauty of clarity.

Objectivity consists in understanding that the only one who never makes a mistake is the one who never does anything.

Intellectual effort gives me enormous pleasure

My very first book was a games collection of Anatoly Karpov. On the whole I was attracted by positonal play with some tactics, and already then I was aiming for universality.

In games against humans, you often win because the opponent blunders a piece, and you can often survive when you do it yourself. Against the computer, you make only one mistake - the last one.