World Championship G6 – A sixth draw; Kasparov comments

Kasparov: The position wasn't an advantage you could press just simply playing by your hand [instinctively] you had to concentrate, this is what Spassky used to call the climax of the game and the form of the great player can be defined by an ability to smell the moment. The moment of crisis, where you have to spend more time. [Vishy was unfortunately down to a minute a move from move 30] and clearly Vishy missed this moment. He needed just to spend 20 minutes just to maybe relax and bit and maybe to look at the position from a different angle because of a unique chance of winning.

Svidler: I was surprised, I was at home and I was doing something and I left it when the bishop was on d7 on the board and I did something else for 15 minutes and I came back and the game was finished and I thought this is very odd. Because in a match like this, I understand that after three games you can't draw really many conclusions but it seems like a very tight match where one game might decide so it's a golden opportunity to do something, it was an opportunity missed.

Dirk Jan: The longer it goes, the bigger chances it is for Gelfand?

Kasparov: I wouldn't say that the protracted crisis benefits one player or another, I think they're both under huge pressure. I said at the press conference, Gelfand hasn't won a single game against Vishy since 1993. So really puts you in a psychological.... To make you defensive. As for Vishy, I think he's sliding downhill these [last] years. He wants to win, he knows he's a better player, but it's not enough. You know that but big deal! you still have to win. There's a huge pressure on both sides for different reasons. Safety is definitely the buzzword of the event and I compare this match to the previous matches, since I left chess, professional chess. It's Kramnik-Topalov, Anand-Kramnik and Anand-Topalov and all these three matches they were very tense, a lot of ideas, and not just about decisive games, you could see there was so much fighting spirit by both sides and they were not, despite the fact they were also players of the highest callibre and they had a lot at stake, but no-one was afraid to take risks.

The way Vishy played against Kramnik 2008 I think was phenomenal, his preparation for the match, and his determination and the quality of chess he showed it was absolutely phenomenal.

Dirk Jan: And this was what everyone was hoping, his recent results were not good but so they were before.

Kasparov: His match with Topalov was already clearly a drop in quality when you look at the Kramnik match. He survived the match and in some games you saw sparkle of genius. Very often in the match he was struggling. But now you very often see a "Maginot Line", defensive wall tactics. (Ed: The Maginot Line was the basis for an amazing attempt to stonewall the Germans in World War II. Though it defended against direct assault, the Germans eventually flanked it and invaded France in days. Today it is also used to describe a strategy or object that people hope will prove effective but instead fails miserably.)

Dirk Jan: How do you explain that, is it age, is it motivation, what is it?

Kasparov: What I think with Vishy is that he lost motivation. The Indian journalist criticised me for being so blunt and saying that Anand lost motivation but I said that as an Indian chess fan you should be more concerned about Anand losing motivation than me saying it. I don't know but everyone has his own reasons for that.

Dirk Jan: I think he was eager. What I spoke to him before the match he said you don't... I mean it's a World Championship match your entire body reacts to that.

Kasparov: Hopefully we can still see some sign of greatness of the past but if you look at the record from 2008 to 2012 there are four years and it's not very inspiring and the way he played in London, in Moscow, Tal Memorial...

Svidler: He hasn't been a great tournament player for years and I think that's a concious decision by him because he just conserves energy.

Kasparov: But it's not about tournaments it's about sparkle in the eyes, when you are really in it. And by the way he won many, many top tournaments. Very impressive.

Svidler: But not in the recent past.

Kasparov: Not in the recent past but I think in tournaments there's more difficult because the lack of motivation makes you very vulnerable. Because in tournaments you have to win x number of games to be on the top. In a match you can still be cautious and maybe over-cautious but you still can prevail and obviously that's his tactics, especially as he is playing an opponent that is by many factors inferior. I mean if he played Aronian and Carlsen it would be a very different ball-game.

(Click here for the full transcription by Mark Crowther)

The photographers on site, Vladimir Barsky and Eteri Kublashvili