Chess strength in general and chess strength in a specific match are by no means one and the same thing.

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.

Valkyrie smiled patiently. "I like how you do your make-up. Do you use a brush, or just dip your head in the bucket?

People are so unnecessarily negative about envy. It really ought to be struck off the list of deadly sins.

My soul is full of whispered song,-My blindness is my sight;The shadows that I feared so longAre full of life and light.

The works have to look like they're confident. But they also have to look sort of troubled. It's this weird thing: "Does that look confident and troubled?" It's a bit like difficult poetry.

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.

I have done film, television and theatre - all at a pretty substantial level - I don't think it's possible for American actors to do that.

I threw all my clothes away from high school.

Obviously, I'm not a trained actress, and right now I'll come out and say I'm glad I'm not.

I'm not saying I'm some high priestess. I do things, I'm sure, that are damaging, but it's certainly not on purpose.

Boy poison - a boy's kisses were like a poison, which infected you and after you were exposed you craved more, like an addict.