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Intervista in esclusiva per L'Italia Scacchistica di
Hertmut Metz a Alexei Shirov, in occasione del Supertorneo
Semilampo di Francoforte. Tutti i diritti riservati.
Will you play for Lubeck Bundesliga team next season?
I hope so. This season was a disaster both for me and for the team. If I am invited for next season I will really try to do my best.
At the top board you scored 50% of possible points, which is not too bad. However, people expect more from a player who used to net 80% points. Not only the fans expect more.
Together with my Dresden result two years ago this 50% was y worst result in the Bundesliga. Somehow I seem to have lost my killer instinct when I have to play at 9 A.M. on Sunday mornings. Nevertheless, I aim to change this in future. Maybe I need to get used to a different mental preparation. From a psychological point of view I'm in a difficult situation, because most grandmasters are perfectly satisfied if they draw against me. But I prefer to win.
Sometimes I am a bit over-ambitious, as was the case in the game against Raj Tischbierek of the Dresden team, who opted for a draw-like variation and thus revealed his intentions.
This Bundesliga weekend was a special situation as you had travelled all the way from Linares where games finished on he Friday. Do you think that this affected your play?
No, I would not regard this as an excuse. On Saturday I was close to a win against Beljavski although I was really tired. On Sunday I should have had enough sleep to play a normal game against Tischbierek.
With a better performance by yourself, the Lubeck team -which was no. 3 in the averages rating list - would have finished in a better place than the bottom third of the table.
I was informed that they are planning to engage a further strong player. I would welcome this step as long as it is not Kramnik.
But you two were the most powerful duo in the league during your time in Berlin ...
One thing is for sure: I will never again play with him in the same team.
You are going to met Kasparov, Anand and Kramnik at the Frankfurt Chess Classic when you all take part in the Fujitsu Siemens Giants rapid chess tournament. Are you prepared to prove that you are of an equal standard?
Well, it's rapid chess, I am not planning any special preparation for it. Maybe I will be rather tired after a well-attended tournament in Merida (Mexico) which will finish right before this event. Generally speaking, I come to Frankfurt to have fun and make some money rather than fight for a tournament victory.
But in the Amber tournament in Monaco you won easily and quite convincingly...
That's true. However, I would prefer a different time system to the one in Frankfurt. Something like the conditions we had in 1996, when I won the tournament, with 20 minutes plus 5 seconds for each move. Or 15 minutes plus 10 seconds is another possibility.
But the organiser Hans-Walter Schmitt created this 25 minutes for each game in order to have a rigid time schedule that suits the media in the first instance: it means that every hour new games start and a player has definitely finished after 50 minutes.
I fully accept his argument. But I'm used to focussing better on the game if a brief time extra is added after each move. I would argue that you have to pay more attention to the time factor if you only have 25 minutes, and this short period is gradually slipping away.
If you have to choose between beating Kasparov twice in the Giants or winning the tournament, which outcome would be more satisfactory for you?
Both are OK! 'Ojala' as we say in Spanish.
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