 Since the 80s, he has consistently been one of the world's elite players. He has won numerous super tournaments, including the 2009 World Cup. He was also the challenger for the World Championship in 2012. As chess gets younger, he's still one of the force to fear. I'm very honoured to have with me legendary Grandmaster Boris Kelfin. Hi Boris. Thank you for your kind words. Boris, welcome to the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival. I know you played in Arrow Float, but this is your first real true open with no rating cut off in a very long time. Yes, yes. I'm happy to be here because it's a tournament with a good name, with a good tradition. Everybody who played here praises it. It's a great location, great weather and very strong tournament, extremely strong. Getting stronger and stronger year by year. Absolutely. Now, you have had a phenomenal chess career, but you keep going with the same passion. What's your secret? Yes, the passion is a secret. When you love what you do, you do it day by day. So even today, you work on chess every day? Yes, yes. We might say, okay, there are some exceptions, but normally, yes. Normally, I try to work as much as possible. Right, now I watched your amazing award-winning documentary, album 61. You must watch it if you haven't already. It was very clear that as a child, you were very loved and you had very indulgent parents. Was that ever a pressure on you? No, no, no. I was really privileged that my parents never put pressure on me. They really supported me but never put pressure. And I think it gave me a lot of... Let me focus on chess without being pressured on result, on the process itself, I mean. On studying chess, playing chess, enjoying it, because I never felt pressure. I knew that, okay, I win or I lose. I'm the same person. And I think that hasn't changed over time. Even today, every sports person needs that one parent who really pushes them into the game. Yes, but the secret is not to over-push because we see many cases in chess and other sports and when parents want to become famous themselves or get their own career, their own money through the children, it ruins the mentality of sportsmen and puts a stop at a certain moment in my opinion. So if you were to advise the parents of today's young kids, it would be to encourage them but not to put too much pressure. Yes, yes, yes, to encourage but not to put pressure because pressure kills. We can have an example of Magnus Carlsen. You can see that, okay, everyone can see how his family supports him but it's clear that they put no pressure whatsoever. They're there for every tournament? Yes, for every tournament just to make him happy, not to like to press him. Right, now if we were to say divide a pre-2012 World Championship Boris and a post-World Championship Boris, where are you in your mind space, in your personal space? How would you differentiate these two bosses? It's a good question, it's a good question. No, I think I had a really great moment. I managed to get to the World Championship and it gives me motivation to work hard because I have an idea that hopefully I can do it again. Okay, a lot of young contenders, but still, you know, 98, all the public crossed me out and in 2012 I played this match. So nothing is against that I will be able to do it again. Of course it's extremely difficult but it gives extra motivation, this memory of this great match. It was a great fight. Yes, yes, I think I did my best because also before the match if you ask everyone they would say, okay, Boris would be crushed whatsoever. And I played an equal match, I was leading, okay, I had some, even tie-break I think I played, tie-break I would say I played better, but okay, I didn't manage to do it, but I did my best, that's what counts. Undoubtedly, and now out of all your numerous chess successes and victories, what for you has been truly the most special one? No, I think World Championship is definitely the most special for each player because of childhood, especially nowadays you have many tournaments, rating, importance of rating grows, but when I was growing up World Championship was like the peak of Korea, ultimate goal, and I remember as a child I watched the Karpov-Korchny matches and then Karpov-Kasparov and then it imprinted in my head. So I was always dreaming to play this match. Inspired. Inspired, it gave me inspiration because you know when I saw that World Championship cycle started I had already, you know, like double motivation and I always succeeded better than in tournaments. Right, now to get to that level it almost seems that from your very childhood you have to have like a single-minded dedication and discipline and I think you're an example of that. Looking back, would you have done anything differently because of course sacrifices are also involved? Well, if I would do differently it wouldn't be me. It would be a different person. But of course each young player who inspires have to decide for himself. I wish to all of them to find the best solution for themselves and go forward. So everyone has to decide for themselves? Yeah, no one can decide for you. No one needs your parents, needs your trainer, needs a public. You have to know if you are ready for it if you are ready to accept setbacks if you are ready to accept losses which are, well, all this would bounce away. Yes, and all this will come along the way. There is no escaping back. No escape, no escape. Everyone, everyone have to go through it if you're strong enough for it or not. And everyone have to decide for himself. What do you think for you personally is the one thing that you have learned or evolved to love about the game that you still struggle with after all this time? Well, what I struggle I can tell what I struggle the compromise, the compromise. You know, if I do very well, if I do very bad, you know, to find this balance, to minimize the losses, it's really difficult for me because each game I want to do my utmost and when I'm in bad condition it backfires. I find it's difficult mentally to accept that sometimes you have to minimize the damage. So even after all these years, a bad day in office still affects you a lot? Yes, yes, it affects strongly. And what about, what do you love about the game after all these years that keeps you going? I think it's unlimited possibilities. You know, even now when there's computers, there's theory developing so well, there's so many information available. Each day you discover something new, some new beautiful things. Okay, you open any study, let's say, and you see the inner beauty of the game, some great study or some great game, you see some inner beauty of the game, inner logic of the game. So chess is always evolving? Yes. Right, and now you came from, you're from a time of a very different chess era where there were no computers actually. And you're one of the few successful transitional players who have been able to be at the top with the computers coming in. How is this transition for you? I think I was lucky in this way because the players who have been a bit older, they couldn't get through these transitions as they couldn't learn computer. When computer came, my brain was flexible enough to accept it, even so I was not happy. And to learn how to deal with all this data, with engines, how to use it in my advantage rather than let this information, let's say, hijack me, yeah? Do you prefer the earlier times when chess was a little more romantic and less about the computer engines, or do you think that there's more positive that has come with the computers? Well, you should accept negative and positive. I think it's not very productive to regret about something, but I think it's a good idea to think how you can use computers to find something new and use it for advantage of chess to see the positive side. Let's say, due to this, computers became so active, you can see that players all over the world have more possibilities. When I was young, okay, if you were in some remote place, you had much less chance to learn something, to play something, only outstanding talents could break through, like Vishy, for example. But normally it was like Europe, yeah? And maybe States, yeah? A few countries. But nowadays you can see that in every country if the player has talent and determination, he can break through. I really enjoy this idea. So maybe it's this, the fact that you embrace the change that makes you one of the successful transitional players, because if you struggle with it, like you said, you are not going to be able to survive the competitiveness then. Yes, yes, I think you're right. So chess is getting younger, and one can call your colleagues like Vishy, Kramnik, there is top level of the Swidla, who are still at the very, very top. Now when you see each other play against the younger generation, do you secretly vouch for each other and want the person to win? Well, very likely, very likely, more often than not. More often than not, okay, because it gives you extra motivation also from personal point of view. Let's say Ivan Chuk played brilliant right now. In Doha? In Doha and before in European Club Cup. They're okay, we are almost the same age. It gives you feelings that you are also capable to do it. Vishy plays brilliantly. Where do you really feel the effects or the challenge of growing, let's say, wiser, and older, like in what part of the game do you feel the effects? The young players we face now, they're brought up on different basis. And sometimes you manage to get your knowledge and your advantage, but also they learn things much quicker. We have to admit they learn much quicker. They switch from opening to opening much quicker from idea to idea. I mean the best players we see now. And this is the challenge, because probably I can see things even deeper than them, I hope, but they switch much quicker and they recover, no motivation. It's not a problem. Not a problem, but problem is to recover after game and to go to next day. After a tough game I do believe that if you are younger you recover quicker. If in my age one needs to make much more effort to recover, to focus on this. And this is a thing I'm working on Right. And now Boris, you're known to be a player with a universal style. Someone who loves and can play brilliantly in pretty much any sort of position. But for you personally, what do you think is your biggest strength? What kind of chess do you enjoy the most? Well, I enjoy good chess. Basically I don't have this big preference. What I enjoy is to play good chess and you know the chess with the idea. You know that I do believe that chess game has to be played with sub-ideas. Every move is an idea. Every move is an idea. It's Tigrad Petrosov, the Diteswell champion. He taught me when I was a kid that you should think about each move even in Blitz game. So it deeply imprinted in my mentality. So never play without a plan or an idea. Never make a move without an idea. Right. That's some great advice now. Where is this coming to your personal life? You're a family man. You have two kids. You have a beautiful wife, Maya. But to be in this level, you have to have complete dedication and no distractions. So how do you balance that? It's not easy, but basically I manage because when children are in kindergarten or in school I have time to work and also when they come back I work for a certain time and then I spend my time with them which is also very good emotionally. It helps you to recharge your emotional balance because if focused only on studying chess it's not good. When you play with children or talk with them or tell them some stories it's really very good. Keep you real. Keep you real. And now they're waiting for stories how I met monkeys in Gibraltar. I told them I'll be back with these stories and they're waiting for it. So they're more excited to hear your stories than to know about what might have happened in a game. Yes, in a game they wish me the best but stories about monkeys and animals I told them a story recently how I met monkeys on the street of New Delhi. Near the parliament. Yes, we have a lot of them in Delhi. They're really excited. Right. Or how I met an elephant when I played in Sanginagar. Yes. I was actually there as a very young child watching you all play and that was one of the most inspirational moments for me. Oh, you see, really? Yes, I was there. Really? I do believe because I do believe that it really inspires if you see some big players playing in a young life it inspires you. It inspired me. When I saw in my city I saw Tal and Geller and Jan Kasparov and Jan Yusupov playing that inspired me immensely. And you have inspired a whole generation as well now Boris. Now of course it's clear that to be at the top you require a lot of hard work. But as a human what do you think are the qualities that one has to possess the human traits to make it to the top? It's a really good question. I think one has to be able to admit mistakes because if you repeat the same mistake you'll go nowhere. You have to have work in ethics. High work in ethics. And you have to be flexible. If you just work on calculation it won't do well. If you work just on end games it won't do well. If you work just on openings it won't do well. You have to find balance and to think what's the most productive way to work and what is the most useful thing in a certain moment. But that is true from a chess point of view but as a person it's common belief that someone has to possess this toughness of character and it's almost like this killing instinct. Do you think it's almost important to be a slightly mean person and not care about emotion so much to make it to the top? It's possible but also I studied it because it's also a very interesting question what is the motivation of the players because different players have different motivation. Like me I have motivation to improve myself to get rid of the weaknesses and depending on your motivation type of your motivation you develop different qualities and different character. That actually brings me to my final question Boris that how do you think that chess has evolved certain characters in you what traits in your personality do you owe to your attachment and addiction to this game? How has chess evolved you? It's a very good question. You know Alexander Alakhan said thanks to chess I developed my character and basically you could say that I could become maybe tough I could become but it is said the way both flexible because I very types I learned the lessons that if I do things which I do it leads nowhere. I have to admit it and to change and to do a bit differently so maybe ability to analyze your own experience but in other way to stick to your values. Right, very well said it was amazing to have this conversation with you Boris you continue to inspire all of us and best of luck for the tournament. Thank you very much. Thank you Boris.