Interview with a Grandmaster

How much truth is there to the well-established story that you managed to

reach an extremely high level without working too hard?

I think that I was pretty lucky. 1 reached a good level without doing too much work

but, at some stage, you're always going to hit a level that you can't really improve on

without work. I found that level and had a few years where I didn't work too much

and didn't really get anywhere. I think that in the past five or six years I've put a lot

more work in and I've progressed, but I certainly managed to get to 2600+ pretty

quickly without doing too much work, so that was pretty good.

IF you ;pork harder for something you enjoy it mon' — Michael Adams, New In Chess

1999.

Was that because you have the amazing ability to 'sense' exactly where

your pieces should be? Is this a skill that you're born with or is it something

that people can learn?

I think that you definitely have to have some sort of talent and, obviously, some‑

how did have that talent. I think that I've always been a good practical player as

well, very good at turning in good performances in games and being tough when

things don't go my way. A good temperament, that's one of the things that's

worked for me.

What do you consider to be your greatest achievement and where do you

see your ambitions leading you?

I've been pleased with the kind of rankings I've had, you know, 2700+ on several

rating lists. Also my performances in World Championships, both in Professional

Chess Association (PCA) and World Chess Federation (FIDE) events. I've normally

done pretty well and been in the late stages of all of those. Basically, I've done well

in the big events. That's what I aim to do really. I'm just carrying on, trying to im‑

prove and do as well as I can and seeing what happens. The chess world is in a state

of flux at the moment. It's difficult to know what's going to happen. My immediate

ambition would be the FIDE World Championships in Moscow, which should be

in a couple of months, if all goes according to plan.

How do you prepare for the monster tournament that is the World Champi‑

onship?

Normally I like to play a few games before, because it's a very quick format and you

can be eliminated after a couple of days. I'll be playing in the European Teams in

Leon and that will be quite useful, especially because it's with the same time limit,

which I don't have any experience with at all yet, so that's going to be a bit of a

problem this time. In general, you just have to be very well prepared because it's

very hard to say who you are going to play, what openings you will get. It's really a

test of your general strength and your overall level of preparation, as there's no way

to focus on one particular opponent — the pairings aren't even out yet and the