 So Garry, you were here in 2015 last year at the TradeWise Gibraltar Chess Festival. You won it convincingly, decisively, and now you're back in 2016. How has the year been for you, chess-wise, personally, tell us a little bit about this journey in the middle? 2015 was a very good year for me overall. I started here with a win, of course, last year here in Gibraltar, and I won a tournament in Zurich, won the US Championship. I think I basically started off winning our time for the first four or five events that I played last year. So it was a very good start, and then kind of around the middle of the year I started playing a little bit less. There just weren't a lot of tournaments to compete in, and so the second half wasn't quite as good. I still had some decent results. I won this tournament in Vegas, I think you were there as well, the millionaire chess. The end didn't quite go as well as I would have liked, but still overall, when all was said and done, by the end of the year I picked up maybe nine or ten points, and at some point maybe in June or July I picked up something like 30 or 35 points. So kind of the last like one or two tournaments that I played and kind of obscured the overall picture, but that being said it was still quite good for me. So I had a good year. There's been a lot of talk about how in the last year or so your outlook towards the game and your psychology part of it especially has evolved a lot and changed a lot. What do you give us a little bit of your take on that? I'm not in a way a hopeless romantic, I think a lot of people when you talk about chess they tend to have this feel like there's something special to the game or there's something really different. I think when you look at a lot of top players it's more about being pragmatic and understanding that when you get opportunities you try and take advantage of them, but for the most part you're not going to have these brilliancies or these games that growing up at least I looked at a lot. I think some of the games I looked at of the old players from the 1800s up until probably even Tyler Spask, there was a lot of creativity in some of the games and a lot of the players as well, but nowadays it's a lot less of that and it's much more about just simply trying to get positions that you can play and so because of that it's mostly about being practical and pragmatic than just trying to find something really interesting and just play a great game. So what do you say earlier you were always trying to make chess into something more beautiful than? Yeah, I think a lot of people at least if you were asked them. Growing up certainly you have a view that it's very beautiful, there's a lot to it and I think now especially as I get a bit older and I've been playing for so long, my view has shifted. It's more about trying to optimize and get the best result as opposed to trying to play the most interesting chess. Higari now, last year you told us coming back to Gibraltar in this tournament that the one person that you were looking forward to playing was top-low, what about this year? Maybe I didn't mention this, but there was also one other player I wanted to play. I think at the end I mentioned that I was unhappy that David Haldent won his last round game because I wanted to play him in a playoff so I could beat him and make up for the draw that he got against me and I think round seven it was last year. So I think he's going to be here, maybe not, but I assume he is, I wouldn't mind playing him. Otherwise I think just in general it would be nice to play against some of the top guys like Vishy or Maxime because Maxime especially is a very creative player, tends to come to all these turns very well prepared and he plays a style of chess that I think is in some ways missing from the top level of the game these days. You said something really interesting, so it's clearly you don't forget easy but if you were to play David is going to be here and would that play in your mind what happened last year when you were playing against David? Do you think that would make you feel that you have to go that extra mile in this game? Not really, I mean that's another thing with chess it's very important to remember but also in a way to forget in that when you're playing a game you kind of have to be focused on the game itself as opposed to thinking about what happened in the past or what's going to happen in the future, it's all about being in the present. So certainly at least before the game I'll think about during the game it definitely won't be at the forefront of what I'm thinking about. And what about this attraction with this open tournament format that is suddenly there with all you top elite players? This year we've also got Wishi who's playing here and there's this whole movement where it's shifting from just the round job into being open to playing this tournament, why do you think this is happening? I think there are a couple of reasons, I think first of all it's much more economical for organizers and sponsors when you have open tournaments as opposed to closed tournaments for many reasons. First of all I think the cost is much lower but secondly and probably more importantly you have so many more players that you have a much wider variety in the games and the positions that you reach whereas when you have tournaments with maybe 10 players very often you're going to have the same sorts of openings and you're going to have a lot more draws and open tournaments when you have so many different players who play all different styles they're going to have more decisive games they're just I think more interesting for spectators. And what about the unpredictability factor of who you're playing against not having any idea of not being in your comfort zone when it comes to opening? Is that something that bothers the top player this feeling of almost wanting to having to win on demand at times? Well I think for me it's a bit easier because I grew up with this system for me growing up I played pretty much exclusively in opens until it's maybe 2700 strength so for me I mean obviously I've been then you know the top level for some time now so I've gotten used to preparing before games and you know even months in advance but with that being said I don't mind playing opens because there is a level of unpredictability and for the most part I do prefer the sort of chess where you have less opening preparations more about just going to the board and playing well and I know I'll set up and I'm pretty sure almost any top level European player you would ask someone like Maxime for example or some of these other guys like Kramnik they would say they hate it just because they're so used to playing this one game a day you know where you're always prepared and you know of course here it's only one game a day unlike in the US where it used to be two but that being said the level of preparation is a bit lower but still I prefer that because I think that's a bit more of the pure style pure that's chess you know in its pure form where people go to the board and they play and they have some preparation but they're not completely prepared the way that they are in these closed events where you have lots of lots of time to prepare from Gibraltar you're going to be going to the candidates that's your next big event I have Zurich after this like sorry Zurich and then candidates is going to be completely different format and obviously that's one of the most important events of the year how would you say that a tournament an open tournament like Gibraltar would go into your journey for your preparation for this event or these few months obviously I want to do well here but I think the main thing is it's because there's such a importance being placed on this tournament you know the Candice tournament in March it's just very important to stay sharp play some chess and be ready because if you don't play before that tournament let's say I were to not play here and to not play in Zurich that basically would be something like three months where I wouldn't have played a game of actual chess sure I've been preparing but there's nothing that's quite the same as playing because it's just if you're not if you're not used to playing and you haven't played for a while and you're going to be a little bit rusty and it's going to feel a little bit strange so you were here in 2008 when you wanted in 2015 when you wanted and now you're back in 2016 what is it that makes you come back here all the time besides the winning part of it first of all as an American there's a certain cultural sense sense of understanding or comfort that I feel here because there are there are a lot of a lot of Brits and they're definitely the closest thing to Americans I would say but also it's just the location as well here in Gibraltar the weather is not always perfect but for the most part you get quite a few sunny days and the weather is more mild it's a milder climate here and compared to some other tournaments at the same time of year it's it's just much more preferable over these years when you've been in Gibraltar so many times have you seen the tournament grow or evolve over time it's just amazing so that that first year the first years that I was playing here it was just all upstairs and in like a back room on the same floor now it's just this entire hotel that that is filled with chess players so I think it's really great to see where it's gone and they do a great job and I think every year it just keeps improving and what about a big part of this tournament like you said which has also grown a lot over the years it's a social aspect of it they've got the battle of the sexes they've got all these Blitz event do you personally enjoy taking part in them I used to enjoy the social part of it more I mean especially when I won here in 2008 that was that was one of the highlights of course I've gotten a bit stronger and and into the elite level a bit more it's much more serious than it used to be on one hand but yeah just the fact they have have all these different different events for for everyone from the strong amateur players you know up to the professionals I think it just provides a great atmosphere and I think that's one of the biggest attractions for for someone who who wants to come and just just play one or two of these major tournaments every year because there there are quite a few people I know even back in New York who are coming to this event because because of the atmosphere and all these different things that are going on here so it's it's quite special absolutely thank you and all the best