Vladimir Kramnik Quotes

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.

Part Of My Preparation For The World Champion Match Against Kasparov Was To Be Ready For His Off-board Tactics. I Did Not To React To Them At All. Once You Start Thinking About These Things During The Game, Even Analysing Them, You're Caught.

Now, Two Years Have Passed And The Situation Is Completely Different: No One Wants To Organise This Match.

Okay, When You Start To Fight For Equality, Like Anand Did In 1995, You Could End Up Losing Game 10, Like He Did, Without Putting Up Any Kind Of Fight.

In This Respect, I Suppose I'm The Total Opposite Of Garry [kasparov]. With His Very Emotive Body Language At The [chess]board He Shows And Displays All His Emotions. I Don't.

Once He Had Selected The Path He Was Going Down He Really Had To Stick With It In A 16 Game Match. He Had To Try And Hit In The One Direction But Unfortunately For Him - Though Fortunately For Me! - He Hit In The Wrong Direction.

When I Was A Child I Liked The Games Of Capablanca, And Later I Was Captivated By Alekhine's Play.

It Made A Big Difference To My Match Stamina. I Couldn't Imagine I Would Have Been So Energetic During The Match - It Really Gave Me A Welcomed Extra Boost!

With The Berlin I Was Able To Set Up A Fortress That He Could Come Near But Not Breach.

Even If You Play Perfectly, A Fault Of Your Opponent's Can Destroy The Entire Beauty Of The Game.

Look At The Catastrophic Record Vishy Anand Has Against Garry Kasparov. Kasparov Managed To Beat Him Almost Everywhere They Played, Even Though Vishy Anand Has Belonged To The Absolute Top Players In The World For Fifteen Years. This Difference Cannot Be Explained Purely In Chess Terms, There Must Have Been Some Psychology.

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.