Vladimir Kramnik | What task have you set yourself in this
tournament?
I haven’t set a task. I see this tournament
as training. For the first time, I’m in a situation where it’s hard
for me to be motivated. This fact makes my play worse, because in
sports the most important thing is motivation. I don’t have a
concrete aim – my thoughts are in the match with Kasparov. This is
the reason my play doesn’t work.
But you played a good
game with Akopian.
That’s right. And today against
Junior, though with wavering, too. Against Adams I began to play
unjustifiedly for a win. I could have made an easy draw. My position
wasn’t worse. I could have simply done nothing, but finally I threw
it away. A silly game, but it isn’t important. Somehow,
unconsciously I wished to lose, because for a long time I haven’t
lost a game. This grew to become a psychological stress, so I’m
happy to have lost finally one game.
Your opinion about
the participation of a computer program?
I don’t mind,
but I think it would be better to have single matches with the
computer. Today tournaments are rare, and a program takes away a
grandmaster’s place in the tournament. And a grandmaster needs the
money. I understand that ChessBase pays money for this place, but I
prefer exhibition games with the computer, organized as a
show.
Today you won relatively easily against Junior. Is
the reason that you have some experience with other programs, like
Fritz?
I don’t have much experience, but I understand how
it “thinks” and this helps a lot. An advantage of computers is that
humans still don’t have much experience with them. But the humans
will become stronger when they have learned how to treat
them.
In Frankfurt you won a very dubious position against
Fritz!
This doesn’t matter. Playing a computer it’s more
important to get the right type of position and not to look at the
evaluation. I was very confident with my position. I knew that
objectively it was a worse one, but I understood that I got
excellent winning chances. I’ve foreseen what the computer would do
and what it would underestimate. This brought victory.
In
other words, you can understand the computer’s
psychology?
Today I hadn’t much in the opening but I knew
it would make mistakes.
Did you feel a psychological
pressure when playing Junior?
No. It’s important to play
solid chess. The only problem is to avoid mistakes. A mistake costs
the game, because the computer doesn’t know mercy. A human can
always made mistakes in time trouble but the machine is never in
time trouble and doesn’t make mistakes. However, this fact can
probably lead to psychological pressure.
How do you assess
your chances in your match with Kasparov?
I’m a player.
My job is to play chess. It’s the journalist’s task to assess my
chances. I know that I’ve good chances. I will fight like never
before in my life. I expect to win.
Who is a more
unpleasant opponent for Kasparov – Anand or you?
If you
compare the statistics of Kasparov’s games with Anand and with me,
you will see that obviously the advantage is on my side. Our score
is even. Anand is a brilliant player, but he has enormous problems
playing Kasparov. Nowadays I have the best chances of all players
against Kasparov. This doesn’t mean that I will win, but it means
that I have the best chances. It will be an interesting and tense
match. |
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