Chess: It’s like alcohol. It’s a drug. I have to control it, or it could overwhelm me. I have a regular Monday night game at my home, and I do play a little online.
You can’t follow or understand the game unless you play chess yourself, unlike poker which you can pick up in five minutes.
I started playing chess in the Eighties, but it is only recently that people have begun to appreciate the importance of physical exercise for chess players. You really need to be in good condition to be able to sit for four to six hours and still maintain your concentration.
Critical thinking is the most important factor with chess. As it is in life, you need to think before you make decisions.
I play chess badly and I’ve been beaten by my 10-year old son.
I started playing chess when I was five years old. I learned the moves from my mother, then worked with my father – and later trainers. My style became very technical. I sacrificed a lot of things. I was always hunting for the king, for the mate. I’d forget about my other pieces.
I’ve never been one of those actors who plays chess with his career and goes, ‘I’m going to wait now and see what project comes up that can move me to this or that level.’ I take stuff as it comes, and it just so happens that it hasn’t dried up yet, touch wood.
Anti-submarine warfare is the military version of chess. You must work out what the enemy is going to do before they even think of it.
I was a terrible father. The most I ever did for my children was to teach them chess. At least they got that.
I try to help developing junior chess. When I lived in USSR, I got a lot of free help from very good coaches – now I am trying to repay that debt.
Sometimes as writers, we try and put narrative development above character development. We try to move our characters around like chess pieces that do our bidding. The problem with that is sometimes the characters do things they shouldn’t do. Things that are inorganic.
I believe that true beauty of chess is more than enough to satisfy all possible demands.
