I'm still number one and I just recently won a major tournament ahead of my toughest rivals so I think I had a few years ahead of me if I decided to stay.

I've met enough KGB colonels in my life.

If you wish to succeed, you must brave the risk of failure.

A grandmaster needs to retain thousands of games in his head, for games are to him what the words of their mother tongue are to ordinary people, or notes or scores to musicians.

It was not about losing my mental power; it's about not feeling good about my contribution to the game.

I think Russians today have a distorted picture of capitalism, liberal democracy and market economy.

Losing can persuade you to change what doesn't need to be changed, and winning can convince you everything is fine even if you are on the brink of disaster.

At the end of the day, it's all about money.

Excelling at chess has long been considered a symbol of more general intelligence. That is an incorrect assumption in my view, as pleasant as it might be.

Chess helps you to concentrate, improve your logic. It teaches you to play by the rules and take responsibility for your actions, how to problem solve in an uncertain environment.

When I was preparing for one term's work in the Botvinnik school I had to spend a lot of time on king and pawn endings. So when I came to a tricky position in my own games I knew the winning method.

And only now, when he was gray-haired, had he fallen in love properly, thoroughly, for the first time in his life.

Sometimes people have to compensate for the past, forgetting about the future.

There are as many different kinds of books as there are writers - as many different responses as there are readers.

Fear has become normal and is covered by the idea of “patriotism”.

Bury your enemies with success.

A man that seeks truth and loves it must be reckoned precious to any human society.

Painting gave meaning to my life which without it would not have had

The fear is simply because you are not living with life, You are living in your mind.

My undertaking is not difficult, essentially. I should only have to be immortal to carry it out.

I like many types of music and probably too many to mention here.