Vladimir Akopian (VA): My father taught me when I was five. Soon after this, I had enrolled into a chess school in Baku. The first school I went to wasn’t that strong. So, a year later, I went to one of the most famous chess schools in the city. They had strong coaches. My first coach, Alexander Aslanov was a very good coach.
By 1980, when I was eight years old, I had become a first category player. In the Soviet Union, back then, there were four categories. For an eight-year-old, it was some sort of a record to become a first category player. This already showed that I had some talent.

VA: Maybe around 2000, maybe less. It’s difficult to compare but it does show that this wasn’t something ordinary. So, by the time I was 12, I had already qualified to play in Azerbaijan’s national championship and had taken the fourth place. Next year, I played again and shared second.
When I was 14, we moved to Yerevan, Armenia. My father had got a job there. Exactly around this time, I had qualified for the Under-16 World Championship in 1986 in Argentina, which I eventually won. This was the first time I had won a world championship. Later, I went on to win the world championship Under-18 in 1989 and Under-20 in 1991.

VA: Yeah, but there were many other extremely talented players in the Soviet Union that time. There were Shirov, Kamsky and I was also always competing with Mikhail Ulibin, who was considered very strong at the time. I had even played a six game match against Ulibin for qualifying for the World Under-16 championship in Odessa, Ukraine. I won that match with the slimmest possible margin of 3½:2½. The first five games were drawn and I had managed to win the sixth game and, with it, the match. It was a very complex game that lasted 105 moves and even the match overall was very interesting.
In those days, qualifying from the Soviet Union in the Under-16 category was considered to be much more difficult than winning the world championship itself. So, the player who qualified from the Soviet Union was considered the clear favourite to win the title. If you don’t take the first place, it would usually be considered unsuccessful in the Soviet Union. So, all players like Dreev, Bareev etc., would all go through these qualifiers and become the world champion. This was also the case with me.

VA: Altogether I had three coaches. The first one was Alexander Aslanov. He was the one who taught me for the first three years. Then I was taught by Alexander Morgulev, who was also from Baku. Morgulev was a master player and a very good coach. He inculcated good positional understanding in me.

When I moved to Yerevan, I worked with Oleg Dementiev. Actually, as a player, he was quite strong. He had beaten Karpov in a famous game in the Alekhine’s Defence. You can find this game in the database.

Dementiev was originally from Russia but he was invited a long time ago to work with some leading Armenian players like Rafael Vaganian, Arshak Petrosian and some other future grandmasters. So, he became my coach as well. I worked with him from ’86 to ’91.
Unfortunately, in ’91, he died rather young at 53 years of age. The last thing we did together was winning the 1991 World Under-20 championship in Mamaia, Romania. This was in August of 1991 and in October, he passed away. He was not living in Armenia at the time. The Soviet Union was falling apart and he had moved back to his native city of Kaliningrad.

VA: My father was a physicist. He was working at a very famous institute in Baku. My mother was a music teacher. I also learned at the same school where she taught in Baku. Only that she taught the piano and I was learning the guitar! (smiles) I didn’t learn the guitar for too long though. Actually, already when I was six, I had to choose between chess, swimming and music. Perhaps, because success had come more quickly to me in chess, I chose chess. Although, I still love playing the guitar and I also like swimming.

VA: No, because the Karabakh conflict [a disputed region between Armenia and Azerbaijan -Ed.] began just two years after I had moved to Armenia. It was already clear at this point that it will be impossible to move back to Baku. Of course, it was hard. I had gone to school in Baku, I have many friends there, my father had many friends there. If you remember, the Armenian team had not participated in the Olympiad a few years ago because it was held in Baku. Also, the Azerbaijan team had done the same when the World Team Championship was held in Armenia in 2015. The relation between these two countries is bad because of this conflict.

VA: It’s difficult to say. I always tried to play universally. I never tried to be a clearly positional or tactical player. Winning the world championship for the first time — in the Under-16 category — was crucial. I was a student of the Kasparov-Botvinnik school back then and I had very good relations with Botvinnik. Botvinnik was considered to be a strict man, the patriarch of chess. But with me, he was very friendly. Before going to the Under-16 World Championship, he invited me to his house in Moscow. The championship was in Argentina and I was required to go to Moscow where the authorities were to check my travel documents and everything.

VA: No, there were some meetings, I had to go to the embassy…I don’t remember the exact details. But what I do remember is that Botvinnik had asked me to find time to visit him in Moscow. I went there and I received an important advice. He told me that he had no doubt that I would win the tournament but he also advised me not to lose a single game. He said draws are OK but losing a game would not only lose me a point but it could also affect my psychology. It would have been more difficult to play the rest of the games after a loss. In short, don't lose, make draws and you will win the amount of games you need for the first place. As simple as that!
I did exactly as he suggested. I started off well with 3½/4 and then I made some draws with all of the strong title contenders. In this time, leaders were changing while I was always half-a-point behind. Towards the end, I won several games and by the penultimate round, I suddenly saw that I was leading by a full point. It was an 11-round tournament and I only needed a draw in the final round. I had the white pieces and it was easy to secure a draw and, with it, the World Under-16 title. In the tournament, I won six games and drew five. Botvinnik’s advice worked wonders for me.
I mention this particular tournament (under-16 World Championship) because this was my first major success. I went on to win in the Under-18 and Under-20 categories as well and they are pleasant memories, but the first success is always something different. And even though I was considered a favourite to win this Under-16 championship, there is always a big difference in being a favourite and winning the championship.

VA: Not during these world championships. But later, perhaps even during the World Under-20 or later, I got to know about players like Adams, Piket or Lautier. Before the World Under-20, however, we didn’t know about anyone because there were already too many strong players to know in the Soviet Union. For example, there were Kamsky, Sakaev, Tiviakov playing these qualifying tournaments that I won. Kramnik came to the scene a little bit later but our generation mainly consisted of me, Shirov, Ulibin etc.

VA: Chess has, of course, completely changed because of the computers. Also, information is easily available today. In those years, even getting a simple book about the rook endgames or the Chess Informant was quite difficult.
To compare the strengths of chess players, however, is very difficult. I can only compare chess character, perhaps. For example, I was normally an aggressive player. Now, there can be some other players who might be equally talented but not so aggressive. It’s just about approach. It didn’t matter to me whether I was playing white or black, I tried to play to win anyway. Normally if you are black, you are satisfied because a draw is always good with black. It was never like this for me, though. Lately, I am not playing much chess but if I play I fight. Maybe it’s because of how I was taught. I was taught that chess is a fight and you should play until the end.

VA: I became a GM in 1991. Actually, already before going for the Under-20 world championship, I was a GM. I was 19 at the time.

VA: Actually, at 17, I had fulfilled two norms. In those years, only two norms were required — two norms and twenty four games. These were the FIDE regulations. But in those days it was difficult to reach 24 games. Tournaments were usually 9 or 11 rounds long. I had fulfilled a norm at a very strong GM tournament in Moscow — it was a GMA tournament — and then I got another norm at the T. Petrosian Memorial in Yerevan. But in these two tournaments, I had only played 20 games. Sometimes, FIDE would grant the grandmaster title in such cases but it wasn’t the case with me. I had to complete four more games which meant that I had to complete another norm. But the problem was that there weren’t enough international tournaments in the Soviet Union back then. I needed to go abroad to fulfill the norm since I had to play three Grandmasters from different countries. The next tournament I got to play abroad came only after two years, in 1991 in Niksic. I shared first place with Ivan Sokolov there and completed my norm. So I could have considered myself to be a Grandmaster already at 17. But even at 19, completing the GM title was something special. It wasn’t like now, of course.

VA: It’s not like I remember this period very clearly. I was mostly playing in Open/Swiss tournaments in this time. But, somehow, I did not pay much attention to chess. You can say I was lazy to work on chess. I did not work on chess during those years like other chess players. And this was the problem with a lot of Armenian chess players, of course with the exception of Aronian. But with players from generation like Vaganian and other team-mates of mine from the Armenian Olympic team, I would do anything but practice chess. If we would play chess, we would only play blitz. We’d mostly spend time like this and never worked on chess seriously. You can be very talented but to progress without working is not possible. Comparing this to what I saw afterwards while working with Leko or Shirov, I realized that I did nothing to improve my chess.

VA: Yeah. That was exactly the case. And while it might have been possible to do this a hundred years ago — maybe Capablanca was doing this — it certainly couldn’t have worked in my time. Also, Botvinnik, in my first or perhaps the second training session with him, said if I worked like Kasparov, I would become the next world champion. The important part was for me to work and that I never did.​

VA: I don’t know. Maybe I did not have a strong will. In the circle of chess players I was with, nobody worked. If there were people or if I lived in some other place, I might have been inspired. But around me, I never found someone who was working for let’s say six or eight hours every day.
It was something very unusual for Armenian chess players. I was living in Armenia, I was playing for the Armenian chess team in Olympiads and everything, and somehow we were just spending good time together. We would spend time talking, playing cards, playing blitz, going for walks. Sometimes, we would also look at an interesting position for an hour or so but it was never anything close to systematic practice.

VA: No, I don’t. Maybe, if I had worked, I could have achieved more success. But in doing this, I would have been deprived of other things. It’s possible to say now that I enjoyed life. I did only what I wanted to do. If I wanted to play the guitar, I would play the guitar; if I wanted to spend time with my family, I would do it. I never made a schedule for chess or adhered to it. If there was time for chess, it was fine; if there wasn’t any time for chess, I would still be satisfied.

VA: Yes, exactly. And I have a very good family, I have very nice friends. I have three sons and having a family requires you to spend time with them. And chess takes a lot of time. So, at some point, you have to make a choice. I made my choice and I am very happy in my life.

VA: That was OK because, during this time, I was winning many open tournaments. There were years when I would win four to five Swiss tournaments a year. This was around the late 90s and the early 2000s. I have won many open tournaments. In those years, you might win $3000 or $4000 for winning an open tournament. It wasn’t much but it was still something.

VA: No, I would analyze but again, not very systematically. I analyzed some games for the Chess Informant. But it wasn’t like studying an opening which you could play in your next tournament. I would analyze something like an interesting middle game or an endgame position. Studying openings takes a lot of time and effort. Openings are terrible and for me, even more so. I just could not understand what is interesting in an opening. I could understand if a middle game or an endgame was interesting. In fact, I especially liked studying endgames. But I never really fancied the idea of sitting in front of a dull position and finding ideas. I know that it is important, but still I don’t find it interesting.

VA: We had several sessions before his match against Kramnik. Initially, of course, working like this was something terrible. But eventually I realized it could also be interesting, not to sit and find something but to destroy the ideas found by Peter and his father-in-law Arshak Petrosian. I would always try to destroy every idea they found. If I was unable to destroy the idea, it meant that the idea was good. But it was difficult for me to find some ideas because I would rather spend the time doing something more interesting.

VA: Yes, surely. You can also ask Peter about this. Sometimes, I would be very happy for having destroyed seven out of ten ideas but there would be at least three that I would not be able to destroy. And if eventually I could not destroy those, we would conclude that it could be played.

VA: I always had good relations with Peter. Also, he married Arshak’s daughter Sofi. When he qualified in Dortmund to play a match against Kramnik, I got the offer to work with him through Peter himself, or through Arshak, I believe. We had several sessions in Hungary after this in 2003 and 2004. Before the match, we thought it would be better to have one more chess player on board. So, I asked Vlad [Vladislav Tkachiev], my friend, who later also became a good friend of Peter. We had the last training session and then we went to Switzerland. Our team consisted of Peter, Sophia (Leko’s wife), Arshak, Vlad and me.

VA: Yeah, that is true. Although, the match wasn’t very interesting. There were too many draws but it was still a tense struggle. Everything actually was decided in the last game.

VA: There were some interesting ideas that were played in this match. Now it’s difficult to remember exactly but there was this interesting pawn sacrifice in the Spanish that was played in the match which we had found together with Tkachiev. There were also a few other ideas that were interesting but it has already been a long time since the match. And we didn’t have very strong computers in those years so we had to find those ideas by ourselves.
Of course, not all of the ideas that were discovered were played during the match. Leko played some of the ideas in his games after the match. In fact, Peter won a very strong tournament in Wijk Aan Zee immediately after this match and we were very happy. He used a lot of the ideas we had discovered for the match at this tournament. Even I used some ideas, Vlad used some. Back at that time, we felt that Peter had prepared very well.

VA: No, because by this time, I was already above 30. When I realized this is how hard I should have worked, it was a bit too late. But okay, I at least got to know how people work — the world’s top ten players. At the same time, I understood that although it is good that they work so hard, it is not for me to work like this. Not everyone can work this hard. It means your life only revolves around chess. To enjoy life and to work like this is surely impossible. Also the computers have completely changed the game.

VA: I don’t hate computers but it changed everything. In my times, there were no computers in chess. The advent of computers in the game is progress and to be against this is wrong.
Thanks to computers, seemingly lost positions have become playable. I think computers help you broaden your horizon as chess players. Nowadays, I have seen that the computer just destroys everything. Everything is wrong. And it’s not wrong because I am missing something obvious but because I am missing some very complicated tactics. It means that the whole concept of the game has changed. You might have thought for a long time that a certain position was winning for one side but it turns out it is equal or even lost!
It’s more difficult now, perhaps, because you have to work much harder. But the computers, I think, just show that the game is much more complicated and rich than what we had imagined.

VA: This knock out championship is one of the most difficult ones. I had also played in Groningen 1997 where I had played pretty well. But you cannot hope to go very far in it. It is like lottery. You can lose in any round and go home. I played in the final against Khalifman at this event but if the event was played once again, I am sure the battle for the championship would be between completely different people. And this holds true for all the knock-out championships.

VA: Even in those days, it was clear that this championship was not very important from the chess perspective. We were playing but this wasn’t a world championship. Nowadays, the world cup is only a qualifying tournament, which is OK. But how is it possible to even consider that chess players were playing in this format to determine who was the best in the world! Yeah, they gave good money, in those years. The prize fund was much higher, almost three times of what it is now.
In the tournament, I had reached the finals without losing a single game. I played 19 games without a loss. I was indeed in a very good form. But even if I had won that championship, I would never have considered myself to be a world champion.

VA: I have won many strong open tournaments. For example, I have won Gibraltar 2007, I have also won Enghien-les-Bains category 17 tournament in France 2001 and back in 1991 in Los Angeles I became US Open champion. From a financial point of view, of course, the second place finish at the ’99 World Cup in Las Vegas was my best finish but what I see as much more important are my performances for the Armenian national team at the Olympiads. I have been a three time Olympic champion from the Armenian team. Also, I was a member of the Armenian team which won the World Team Championship in Ningbo. For me, these are my best successes.
In these four tournaments which cumulatively composes 42 games, I did not lose a single one. I had some very difficult positions in some of the games. But I am very happy I never lost. In terms of results, I scored +6 in Turin, +5 in Dresden, +5 in Istanbul and +3 in Ningbo.
Part II of this interview will soon follow. It deals with how and why Armenia does well at Team competitions, Akopian's opinion and duels with world class players like Aronian, Kramnik, Kasparov and other greats, how did it feel when Kasparov called him and a few other players tourists, meetings with greats like Petrosian, Fischer, Spassky and more.

VA: It’s difficult to say. Of course, the Armenian team wasn’t the strongest in these tournaments. I guess, it’s because we were always fighting for first place. Everybody who played in the team was trying to give his best and it worked. Also, I must mention that the President of our chess federation, Serzh Sargsyan, put a lot of faith in the team. He helped create a positive atmosphere. Somehow, he motivated us and kindled a winning spirit in the team.

VA: Winning for the first time is never easy but once we had won our first Olympiad, we had a feeling that we could do this. After that, we were a lot more confident. Of course, it’s not that this would always work. Luck also plays an important part. We had our share of luck in almost all of these tournaments. In our match against Germany from the Istanbul Olympiad, for example, we were totally losing and we should have lost that match but somehow we managed to win. And we already had this winning spirit in us after having won the Olympiad in Turin and this helped a lot.
I would still say it is difficult to tell how we won, though, because there were so many strong teams. We had decent players in the team, not top players — except maybe Aronian — but still strong players. And all of us scored decently well. So, perhaps, as individual players, we weren’t the strongest but as a team we were very tough. But again, it was only during those years that the team did so well. It wasn’t the case before the Turin Olympiad or after the Istanbul Olympiad.

VA: Of course, Aronian is a good player. But I feel that his chance to win the world championship title was in 2011. He should have won the Candidates’ Tournament in Kazan that year. I don’t know what happened. Maybe there was some psychological problem but he lost to Grischuk. This must have been a big blow. At the time, I thought whether Aronian or Kramnik might play Vishy for the title. And after this, I don’t think he ever had any real chances.

VA: I haven’t played him many times. We’ve played only four times if you don’t count the blitz games. But playing against strong players like him is always pleasant. He is very talented and almost all of my games with Vishy were very interesting.

VA: Yes, but it was a blitz game. I don’t think it’s really worth considering.

VA: Yes, once I have beaten him and I have also lost to him one time and there were some draws. I’ve played some of these players, of course, and the games were always very interesting. It was a pleasure to play them. I’d get to play them when I was playing on the first board in the Olympiad or whenever I got rare invitations to strong tournaments. Mainly it was after this world championship in Las Vegas. But even then, I didn’t get many such invites. I was only invited twice. Once I played in Dortmund and another time in Wijk aan Zee when my rating was quite high.

VA: By talent of course I could match them. And these are not my words; these are Mikhail Botvinnik’s words. And I believe there are many talented chess players. When I play, sometimes I see players who are very talented. And by talent, many players can be compared easily; it’s not something special. But hard work is very important. And not only hard work but also a player’s weakness in character or some psychological instability can make a difference. Chess is very complicated and all of this counts. Purely in terms of talent, I believe, not only me but many others even maybe surpass these top players. It's possible.
But when you consider all things together — not only talent but the willingness to work hard, to sacrifice everything else, to be psychologically strong — not many have it in them to make it to the very top. Everyone, of course, has some small weaknesses but there are many factors that need to be in place for a player to reach the world’s elite.

VA: In those years, Garry always came and said something like this. It wasn’t directed against me or someone in particular. He was just always making enemies. At this he was strong.
Also, from his point of view, he was right. He was always a very tough worker. And maybe seeing, for example, me — who wasn’t doing anything much in chess — coming and reaching the finals, he thought that it was not logical. Kasparov referred to us as tourists not in the sense that we completely cannot play chess but the sense that we didn’t work so hard on chess. And when you don’t work on chess, automatically, from his point of view, you’re tourists; you are not professional chess players. This was his approach. Of course, one could argue if someone should say such things or not but this was what he meant.

VA: When I was playing — not only me but also some others like Nisipeanu — did not take it very well. But now a lot of time has passed and I have understood exactly what he meant. He was comparing the world’s top 10 players who were working very hard on chess to us. He was surely expecting Adams or Kramnik to reach the finals and then he saw me and Khalifman. I had beaten Adams to reach the finals. Probably me reaching the finals was luck. Just winning six matches to reach the finals means that there was luck involved. And, indeed, I got lucky in the second round. I could have been knocked out at the hands of talented Filipino player Antonio [Rogelio Antonio Jr.]. This match was the most difficult for me in the whole competition. Somehow, I won but I was on the verge of losing.

VA: It was a rapid game and, even before this, I had played three classical games against him. All of these ended in draws. I cannot say something like this motivates me. Also, I have always been taught in such a way that no matter who plays against me — be it someone as great as Kasparov or Karpov, or some average GM — I would play with the goal of winning in my mind. For me it absolutely didn’t matter whom I was playing. Okay, if I had black, maybe, at some point, I would consider making a draw. But if I was playing white, I would just play to win.

VA: Probably, I am self-confident. But more than that it’s about how I was taught. My coach always told me that if I am playing — especially with the white pieces — I should play for a win. It’s better that I lose trying to win than playing for a draw from the start. At least I would know that I played and I wanted to beat but I failed. With the black pieces, perhaps against a very strong opponent or in a team competition, I might consider going for a draw.

VA: There isn’t much to say about this game. We were both playing terribly in this tournament. I had lost both my games before this one. I was on 0/2 and I told my captain, Yasser Seirawan, that it is better that I don’t play. Our team — the world team — was playing very well against Russia and I, therefore, thought it would be better if I don’t play. But then I got a call from Yasser. He said I was the one in the team with the best personal score against Garry. I had a score of 1½-1½. All others had a minus score. So, he said if someone should be playing Garry, it should be me. He also told me that our coach, Victor Korchnoi, was ready to help me. So, I agreed and we began analyzing some positions before the game. He showed me some positions in the Gruenfeld for about 40 minutes. And then I thanked him and said I would rather play 1.e4. [laughs].

VA: Well, no. We had good relations in the team. We won this third round match with a score of 6-4.

VA: Yes, chess is very popular in Armenia. Especially in those years, it was all the more popular. It’s a very small country in a very difficult economic situation. For Armenia, this was great success. Everyone saw it as their success and was very proud. The very small Armenia had become the strongest in the chess world. About my life in Armenia, I can walk freely without being mobbed by fans. In those days, of course, people recognized me on the streets. Now, it doesn’t happen often but people do recognize. Perhaps, it’s not just about chess players. There aren’t many famous people in Armenia and it’s not a big country. Normally, people who like chess or are interested in chess, especially from the older generation, know us or recognize us. People of the younger generation who were born after our successes have, maybe, only heard of us.

VA: I play but I don’t play that much now. I play only when I want. Recently, I played the Dubai Open in the UAE. I had actually spent two years there before. I was training UAE best player Salem there.

VA: It was very good. I had a two-year contract. The contract ended last year. Prior to that, I had worked in Qatar for some time. Most of the times, I go to train but if I like the place and organization and the overall atmosphere, I also play.

VA: My sons are studying currently and it is difficult for them to travel with me. Normally, they would come along during summers. But with these contracts, sometimes, I could go out or play some tournament. Now I mostly coach and sometimes I also play but not very often.

VA: In team competitions, I don’t play at all. Somehow, after the Istanbul Olympiad, I decided for myself that I would close the book on team competitions if we won. And we won the tournament.But even so after the Istanbul Olympiad, I still played the next Olympiad in Tromso. I did not like the experience, however. Despite being the three time champions, we never had any chance for fighting for the first three places in Tromso. I don’t know why it went like this. Actually, we didn’t even play that badly but we never played a really strong team. I knew in Tromso that the best years of the Armenian team had already passed. And then I decided it is time to stop. You know, for me after being three time champions, somehow is not very interesting to fight for the fifth place.
Also, with the coaching and everything it was getting difficult. For some people, it is a need to keep playing in tournaments. For me, I am very happy playing one or two tournaments per year.

VA: Yeah, mostly, I analyze games of the chess players. I also rely on chess positions on endgame and the middlegame. I try to understand a player’s strong points like this. I mostly help them improve their playing strength. And I openly tell them that if they want to improve at openings, I am not their guy. I understand that it should be done but it is not interesting for me. Or I tell them I could analyze concrete positions that crop out of their openings. I would analyze these positions for some hours and tell them my thoughts about the position.

VA: Yes, in this case, it is true. He also liked endgames very much. Only that everything has changed now and opening study has become very important. But what do I do, I just don’t find it interesting. I have tried my best but I always get bored studying openings.

VA: Yes, I like it if you generally compare. But it’s not very popular. If this was popular, I would play it. It is interesting — chess without theory! I’ve always liked these different formats. I used to like blitz a lot but that was when I was young. Now I have just lost interest. Actually, I liked everything except opening theory unless it was over the board. Over the board, I would try to find ideas because it’s a game, it’s a continued story. This is something I might have taken from Boris Vasilievich Spassky. I have very good relations with him and I like him very much. He had come to my place in Armenia once and I once visited him in France. Like me, he was very lazy. When we would talk he would tell me that he always worked hard over the board. And this was my approach as well. I work hard over the board. Boris Vasilievich is one of the greatest lazy chess players.

VA: Yes, but I never really had a relation with him. I met him in 1982 at the Interzonal tournament in Moscow, which Kasparov won. I was ten years old at the time and my father had taken me there to watch. I saw the atmosphere of a world class tournament for the first time. There were such grandmasters like Kasparov, Tal, Geller, Andersson, Gheorghiu. Petrosian was also playing there. When they would be out of a playing hall, I would go and take autographs from them. I also took an autograph from Petrosian and this was my only meeting with him.

VA: Yeah, I never met Fischer. I had an opportunity to meet him once. In 1993 I had training session with the Polgar sisters in Budapest. They are very nice and I liked them. Normally I would work and play blitz with Judith and Susan. When we were talking about something one day they said that once you left Bobby immediately came in. It was probably possible to meet him because as I understood he was not against it but somehow, I missed my opportunity.

VA: It’s difficult because there are many.

VA: I can tell you that I like books by Kasparov very much. He has written many books, but I especially like his books about his own games, the last three volumes are very interesting. His games are very interesting and instructive in general.
There are some other books as well. Fischer’s My sixty memorable games is very interesting and so is Larsen’s book. Also, there are some books of these great chess players that I respect a lot. I very much like Stein. He was a great chess player who was extremely talented but died very young. And of course, Boris Vasilievich Spassky, he has played some incredible games. But he never wrote a book about his games. I also like the games of Alekhine very much. I would read all of the books that contained his games and analyze them myself.

VA: Yes, exactly. All of the players I like play dynamic chess.

VA: I don’t know. With this computer generation, it is all different. They probably should do what suits them well. What suits them now probably is just working too much on the game itself. These are completely different times and to play like they did before is just impossible — to play like Larsen for example. They were very creative. Now, somehow, you will not find it. If you are creative, it means that you are creative at home. Before, there was more opportunity for being creative. Now you just follow computer analysis. Time is changing. Maybe one day, chess will be finished completely.

VA: Well, even right now it’s a completely different game than what it used to be. Now, the game is too much dependent on memory or memorizing games. They used to memorize in the old days too but, now, if you forget one move, you could end up in completely lost position.
In our times, I would not play like this. If someone came and told me about an idea and show me some possibilities, I would play it over the board and do the rest by myself. The ideas would usually not be more than two or three moves. But now, if you have an idea, it must be polished. Everything should be several moves deep and must encompass all tactics. I don’t want to say it is good or bad. It is just completely different. But still, the game is interesting. I don’t know whether or not it will be finished in a few years but for me it is already half finished. From one side, it goes extremely deep into the opening. From the other, there are endgame tablebases with seven pieces already.

VA: Yeah, you just get to play that. But you can always gain pleasure by playing rapid or blitz games. There is always stuff that is interesting. But what I mean is that if you’ve worked hard and become a chess professional back in the days, then indeed, it becomes boring. For me, it became boring long ago.
I remember myself playing in the days without computers. I was one of those who was very late to adapt to the computers.

VA: Yes, they did. They are, in this sense, more talented than me. To me, the computer is still like an alien.

VA: It was a pleasure talking to you too, Sagar.