"TOPALOV FOR ME DOES NOT EXIST"
Your last year's match with Veselin Topalov was marred by a toilet scandal. Now has he exhausted himself?
He was sucked out of the finger, so there is nothing to exhaust. There was nothing in him but the desire to unbalance me. Now, over time, I think that one of the reasons for the scandal is the desire to disrupt the match, which for Topalov was very unsuccessful. For viewers and journalists, all this may have been interesting. But for a person who was at the center of a misunderstanding scandal, the situation was very unpleasant.
What feelings do you feel today regarding Topalov?
Not very positive. But in my life I’m a man without a touch. And if someone does something outside my ethical framework, I just forget about him. It ceases to exist for me. I have the same attitude towards Topalov.
Alekhine or Capablanca became world champions without computers. Would they have a chance to win today?
Each person plays in his time. If Alekhine or Capablanca were not given a computer, now they would have no chance. It is clear that this machine advanced chess an order of magnitude forward. Without it, no matter how talented you are, it is impossible to compete on equal terms with the best. Chess became different, changed dramatically after connecting computers to them.
You lost the computer. Want to take revenge?
Of course I want to. The harder the opponent, the more interesting I am. Today the most difficult is a computer. He is already stronger than any player, but so far so that the fight does not make sense. In the next two to three years, you can still fight with the machine. Well, in five years the question will be closed.
You are sometimes called "Mr. Iceberg." Is that a compliment to you?
A: Journalists should always drive a person into some kind of framework. I am a fairly calm person. If you compare me with Kasparov, a southern man, emotional, then I really am an “iceberg”. Although I have a lot of emotions. I just know how to restrain them - at least during the parties.
According to your classification, there are chess players of the "gaming" and "scientific" areas. What category do you consider yourself to be?
I am rather a representative of the "scientific" direction. This is due to the fact that a person initially likes chess. I was always attracted by logic, purity of design. I get the most pleasure from the party, in which a certain strategic line from beginning to end is preserved. But there is a more “gaming” approach. Some chess players like to create something non-standard, chaotic - albeit with errors.
"IN CHESS THERE IS SOMETHING MYTHICAL"
Do you feel on yourself, as Nabokov wrote in The Defense of Luzhin, that "time in the chess universe is merciless"?
Naturally. At the age of 17, I quickly considered options ... The secret of a chess player’s longevity lies in the ability to squeeze the most out of the pluses that you have. Over the years, energy decreases, motivation becomes a little less, but experience is added, character is tempered. However, in the career of any chess player, there comes a time when the aging process of the brain outweighs the benefits that you get with age. And then he begins to degrade.
The book of Yevgeny Bareev and Ilya Levitov, Notes of the Second, speaks of the deep inner meaning of this game and even its connection with Kabbalah ...
There is something mystical about chess. In the distant past, they were even used for fortune telling. There is an element of mysticism in the fact that a small chessboard, in which there are only 64 cells, is essentially a whole universe. But I relate to chess more simply: the main thing is that this game gives pleasure to millions of people.
Viktor Korchnoi complained about psychics who allegedly interfered with him during the match. Do you believe that such people can influence a player?
I believe. This is still an unexplored area, and there are people who are able to do something. But their units. During my match with Topalov, there was some kind of psychic in his team. He sat in the hall with disheveled hair and with wild tension on his face looked at the stage. But I didn’t feel anything.
How do you imagine life after a chess career?
I don’t know yet, but I can say for sure: I won’t play all my life. Chess is, in general, a narrow sphere, and I have already achieved everything that is possible. Why continue to play when you realize that the best years are behind? Financially, I am quite independent. The problem is this: when you are used to being one of the best in the world, it is very difficult to do something on an amateur level then ...
Do you have a glut of the game?
In certain moments, such a feeling arises, but quickly passes. I have been performing at the highest level for 15 years, but when I am in good condition, I play with pleasure. If I feel total satiety, I’ll probably leave at that moment. Because chess has never been for me a means of realizing personal ambitions. Honestly, I never wanted to be a world champion. I don’t absolutely draw up when I say that I don’t really hold on to the champion title.
Sooner or later you will have to part with him ...
This will not be a tragedy for me. Tigran Petrosyan was terribly pleased when he lost his crown. He was terribly happy about it, had a party, danced with his wife and repeated: "What a blessing! Finally, I got rid of her."
"IN YOUTH I WOULD EXTREMELY MILITARY LIFESTYLE"
In the West, Russians are often considered talented but lazy people.
And there is some laziness in me. I’m not Kasparov — I’m a steel man, wildly capable and terribly strong-willed. You have to constantly fight laziness. For me, even going to the fitness center is overcoming myself.
However, once you lost 20 pounds ...
It was a deal. True, I now again added a little. And at some point, in the mid-90s, generally weighed 110 kilograms. Since then I have matured and become a great professional. I used to be a slob, although it didn't bother me much. When you're 20 years old, you can drink all night, and then play great. But at some point I felt that I was lacking in energy.
So you had to rebuild?
From 17 to 23 years, I led a very free lifestyle, because I realized that I could afford it. I just wanted to try it. But over time, the constant parties are tired. Although I am glad that I had such a period - there will be something to remember. In people who become ascetics from the age of 15, they deprive themselves of many pleasures, there is some kind of inferiority.
It’s not about you that Mikhail Botvinnik said: “smokes, drinks and is fat”?
About me. I was one of his favorite students. And when he found out that I was violating the regime, I didn’t live by his method, he really didn’t like it. Botvinnik and I met a year before his death, and he read me a notation: "Here, you are wasting your talent!" But I think he was wrong. I could not follow his advice in everything - then I would play worse.
They say that the Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman was a terrible slob?
He remains with them. Timman told me that before some important tournament he read Botvinnik’s book and ran for several months, watched himself, stopped smoking weed, drank ... He came to the competition and lost the first two meetings. After that, he got drunk like a pig, immediately began to win and won almost all the remaining meetings. From that moment on, he again smokes and drinks.
In the fate of some chess players - for example, Petrosyan or Leko - marriage played an exceptional role. At the end of last year, you married Frenchwoman Marie-Lore Germont. Will family life bring you new chess results?
I got married just now, but we have not known my wife for many years. We just fixed the relationship. There are people who, after marriage, completely change their lifestyle. This has not happened to me. Therefore, I do not think that my marriage will affect my game in a negative or positive way.
How long have you settled in Paris?
No, of course. In Russia - perhaps because of its geographical location - any move is perceived as something large-scale. In Europe, everything is much simpler. He spent a year in one place, a year in another. Now I live in Paris because my wife is a journalist in the Figaro newspaper. She does not speak Russian yet. It’s inconvenient for me to rob her of her work and bring her to Russia. Owing to my professional activity, I don’t care where to live.
Are you going to receive French citizenship?
I did not become a Frenchman, I do not have a passport of this country. I am a Russian citizen and will play for the Russian team.
Yuri KOVALENKO