Crestbook is a Russian chess portal
that grew out of the original kasparovchess.com, led by its editor GM Sergey
Shipov. It became the starting point of a new site which published news, games,
commentary, analysis, interviews, conferences and even videos. It bears the
nickname "Crest" of its chief editor Shipov, who is considered one
of the best live game annotators around.

Sergey Shipov, editor of Crestbook
Today Crestbook published the first part of an interview with grandmaster Peter
Svidler, who was answering the questions not of an editor but of chess fans
in a special Crestbook conference. It was the tenth in the series, and the first
to have a truly international character. It was published in Russian and English.
Peter Svidler is totally at home inboth lagnuages and he answered the English
questions in his own flawless English.
You can read Part One of the interview on this
Crestbook page. Peter Svidler responded in depth to questions on his views
on chess, his career, his chess playing colleagues, chess politics and chess
on the Internet, in literature and in journalism. Part Two, which deals with
the principles of preparation and improvement, openings, non-classical forms
of chess, other games, and also simply “on life”, will appear in
a few days’ time.
Short biography of Peter Svidler
Peter (Pyotr Veniaminovich) Svidler was born on 17 June 1976 in Leningrad.
He began playing chess in 1983, in 1994 he became the Under-18 World Chess Champion.
In “adult” chess Peter made a name for himself as an 18-year-old
by becoming Russian Champion. He won that title four more times (1995, 1997,
2003 and 2008) – a feat that’s unlikely to be repeated in the foreseeable
future. He received the International Master title in 1991 and has been a grandmaster
since 1994. His current FIDE rating is 2722, his highest was 2765, in January
2006, when he was 4th in world rankings.
Peter has often competed, in different formats, for the World Championship.
In the 2001 FIDE World Championship Peter Svidler got to the semi-final, where
he lost to the ultimate winner, Ruslan Ponomariov. In 2005, at the FIDE World
Championship in San Luis, he shared second place with Vishy Anand (the winner
was Veselin Topalov). In the next FIDE World Championship in Mexico 2007 Peter
came fifth. He got to the quarter-finals of the most recent FIDE World Cup in
2009, where he lost to Vladimir Malakhov. As a member of the Russian team Peter
Svidler has won Gold at the Chess Olympiad in 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2002,
and also the Team World Championship in 1997. In 2004 and 2010 he was on the
Russian team that finished with silver medals at the Chess Olympiad, so overall
Svidler has 5 gold and 2 silver Olympiad medals.

Apart from classical chess, Peter has also paid tribute to other types: he
was the runner-up at the World Blitz Championship in 2006 in Rishon LeZion (Israel),
and in 2003 he won the World Fischer Chess Championship, a title he defended
in 2004 and 2005 in matches against Levon Aronian and Zoltan Almasi. Peter is
a cricket fan and his publically declared musical tastes are Bob Dylan and Tom
Waits. He is married and has two sons.
Sergey Shipov on Peter Svidler
Peter Svidler is the black sheep of contemporary chess – original in
every way. My periodic dealings with him have left an indelible mark on my memory.
Which other Russian player is keen on cricket, prefers English to Russian, doesn’t
consider Leo Tolstoy a great writer, preserves his karma, resigns in drawn positions
and plays billiards masterfully? Only Peter.
Svidler is immensely ironic, particularly in relation to himself. So if he
criticises himself then please divide everything he says by three or four. You
also need to get a subtle sense of humour ready, as some of Peter’s jokes
take those he talks to a year to understand…
Overall, I have the suspicion that I don’t know Svidler at all. Each
new conversation reveals new sides to his personality. I hope our KC-Conference
will illuminate this polyhedron in all its glory and give you, dear readers,
the same impression of the animated and witty Peter Veniaminovich Svidler. As
if you were sitting down with him, discussing everything under the sun.
A few highlights
Why do people play chess? Chess is a means of self-expression, one
that for lucky beggars like me doesn’t even pay so badly. What more could
you ask for? But there are simpler professions, and more reliable ones.
Your most memorable victory, and your most painful loss? Two games
I won in the final rounds of the Russian Championship – against Andrey
Sokolov in 1994, and Evgeny Alekseev in 2008. The most painful loss is usually
the latest, so here the last game of the 2010 Olympiad wouldn’t be a bad
candidate.
The best move you made in your career? h7-h6 against Mickey in San
Luis.
Adams,Michael (2719) - Svidler,Peter (2738) [B80]
FIDE-Wch San Luis (8), 06.10.2005
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Qd2 Be7 8.f3
0-0 9.0-0-0 a6 10.g4 Nxd4 11.Qxd4 Nd7 12.h4 b5 13.g5 Qa5 14.Kb1 b4 15.Ne2 Bb7
16.h5 Ne5 17.f4 Ng4 18.Bh3 Nxe3 19.Qxe3 Qc5 20.Qd3 Qb5 21.Qe3 Qc5 22.Qf3
22...h6! “One of the most vivid moments of the 8th round,
and of the tournament as a whole. Black opens up his king position in order
to make it more secure!” (Shipov). 23.gxh6 gxh6 24.f5 Qe5 25.Rhg1+
Kh7 26.fxe6 Bxe4 27.Qb3 a5 28.Bg2 Bxg2 29.Rxg2 fxe6 30.Qd3+ Qf5 31.Nd4 Qxd3
32.cxd3 Rg8 33.Rxg8 Rxg8 34.Nxe6 Rg2 35.Rf1 Kg8 36.a4 b3 37.Nd4 Bf6 38.Nxb3
Rxb2+ 39.Kc1 Rxb3 40.Rxf6 Rxd3 ½-½
Which combination gave you the most satisfaction? Svidler-Styazhkin
1986 [note that Peter was ten years old at the time!]. It goes without saying
there were more important, and more original combinations – but that one
stuck in my mind, and beating my first trainer was a very significant event
for me.
The strong and weak points in your style of play? I am a very decent
dynamic player, and I think I handle initiative quite well. Although my technique
has improved drastically in the past ten years, I am still not the world’s
best defender of passive somewhat worse positions.
What is more significant, holding the World Championship Title, or being
rated Number 1 on the rating lists? This seems Magnus-related, and as such,
will be covered elsewhere. For me the Title would be immeasurably more important.
Chess players
What would a chess player have had to achieve to be called the “greatest”
chess player of all time? Winning and holding the Title, dominating the
chess scene for a long period of time, bringing something new to the game. So
far, I think only Fischer and Kasparov qualify, and choosing between them is
not an easy task. If forced to, I’d pick Kasparov.
Who is the strongest chess player in history? I think Kasparov.
The three greatest players in the history of chess? Kasparov, Fischer,
Capablanca.
If Kasparov were to return to chess now, at what strength would he play?
He'd be very strong, but there wouldn’t be that domination which
we witnessed before, of course – and it would be harder for him on account
of his lack of practice, and then simply in terms of the passing of time and
new opponents having grown up who are less (or not at all) traumatised by a
long history of losses in games against him.
What did you feel when you first won a game against Kasparov? That
evening you had to scrape me off the ceiling – it was one of the best
days in my career. The next few games were very tough for me, however –
games with GK always cost me an excessive amount of energy.
Which chess player do you currently find it most uncomfortable to play
against? I always found it hardest to play against Anand and Kramnik. I
still haven’t won a single game against Anand in “classical”.
I’ve got a very good score against Magnus, mainly, of course, because
I started playing him quite early on. But also in terms of his game I’ve
always done better against him, than against A or K.
Is Magnus Carlsen lucky? There is no luck in chess – Carlsen
constantly creates problems for his opponents, often by taking what many would
describe as unnecessary risks. Perhaps the fact that his opponents keep on cracking
under that pressure might go some way towards explaining why he keeps on doing
it. For someone like Kramnik or Anand making moves that they know are not optimal
in order to increase variance comes much less naturally than to Magnus. But
to explain his play and results using the term 'luck' is just plain wrong.
What are the particularities, from your point of view, in the play and
style of the top players?
- Anand: Very serious opening preparation, a brilliant practical player, in
my opinion the best defender in the world.
- Kramnik: Probably the world’s best openings, brilliant universal
understanding, excellent technique.
- Carlsen: Huge natural talent, a fantastic focus on winning, the skill and
ability to play any position out – now (after a year working with Kasparov)
that’s also combined with excellent openings.
- Topalov: Superb openings, brilliant play in sharp, unbalanced positions,
the will to win every game.
Can Aronian become World Champion? Winning three matches in a row,
and then a match against Anand, will be extremely tough. But in terms of talent,
if you take the young (and by young I understand everyone under 30) then two
people stand out – Carlsen and Aronian. So I consider Levon one of the
favourites to win the title in the next five years.
Vasily Ivanchuk as a chess player and a person? Vasily Mikhailovich
is one of the most interesting chess players of the last 20 years, and a model
for all of us to imitate – you can’t help but admire his love for
chess and his readiness to play anyone, anywhere. You could spend a long time
talking about his encyclopaedic knowledge of all the openings without exception,
but that’s already a commonplace. He’s also an extremely unusual
and interesting person to talk to, with a very unique outlook on the widest
range of topics.
Who among the juniors made the greatest impression on you? I really
like Anish Giri – he’s very pleasant to talk to and clearly he’s
a very talented chess player.
Chess politics
Do chess players need FIDE? They need it, but not in its current condition.
Who did you support in the recent election – Karpov or Ilyumzhinov?
Like the majority of my colleagues I’d really like to see changes in FIDE.
But it was extremely difficult to convince myself that Anatoly Evgenievich,
a man who’d gained more than most from cooperating with the current FIDE
administration, should be the face of those changes. So I couldn’t pick
a horse in that race.
Could you offer a post mortem of the FIDE election? Two people who
used to be fairly close run against each other, hilarity and litigation ensue,
in the end reasonably open elections are held (at least compared to Torino,
and to the extent that such a thing is possible at all; I am not sure the 'one
country – one vote' system is much good, but that's a different subject
altogether), the incumbent unsurprisingly wins, the two heroes are friends again.
The chess world sighs and moves on.
Your opinion about Carlsen’s refusal to take part in the Candidates
Matches? His decision strikes me as strange, to say the least, and of course
the cycle will suffer greatly because of it. I’ve had the chance to discuss
the topic with colleagues and the overall conclusion is as follows: if you suppose
that Magnus isn’t fixated on the World Championship Title (and that’s
precisely the impression given), then his decision will hurt the cycle, and
fans, much more than it will hurt him. With his reputation, his position in
the rating list and his tournament results, he can perfectly comfortably continue
to do what he’s been doing for the last year or two, and then he can decide
for himself if he wants to take part in the next cycle. There’s no reason
the decision should impact on his modelling contracts.
How should the process of determining a World Champion look? After
everything that’s happened in the last 17 years what’s important
is not so much that the formula for running the cycle is correct, but that it’s
consistent.
Credits (from the original): This conference was prepared by Valery Adzhiev
(Valchess), Stanislav Fisejsky (phisey) and Colin McGourty (mishanp), who translated
the Russian questions and answers into English (Peter Svidler answered the English
questions in English). The chess fragments were overseen by Vasily Lebedev (vasa).