Friends in life and opponents at the chess board Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Romania) and Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzbekistan) formed one of the strongest pair of the 1^st Round. At the press conference they shared their impressions on how it is — to play against each other.

Kasimdzhanov: We were both upset when got to know that facing each other in the 1^st Round. Lately we both lost in rating so I received a very strong opponent. Dieter is my close friend, but the tournament format makes sure that one of us will certainly go home depending on the result. Today the situation was comfortable for me; I was managing to keep everything under control. The decisive game was yesterday.

Nisipeanu: As Rustam mentioned correctly, we know each other very well and are good friends. Having known that he will be my opponent I got upset for I took into account that could leave the tournament after the 1^st round. Before my rating was a bit higher and normally I used to have weaker opponents in the 1^st rounds. Rustam and I have a good experience in participating in knock out tournaments: Rustam was the World Champion and I was a semifinalist. After the 1^st game where I lost with White it was very hard to concentrate and play with Black further on the level. That is why I think today I did not have any chances.

— Rustam, who will be your opponent in the next Round?

Kasimdzhanov: I think it is Gata Kamsky. Probably it will be the strongest pair of the 2^nd Round.

— Dieter, how did you like playing in the Chess Palace?

Nisipeanu: Everything was perfect; I am satisfied with the conditions. Though there was one small problem: tables in the playing hall are a bit shaky though the table we played today was stable enough. That is why I think other players would prefer to change their tables for ours.

— Rustam, several days ago there was a video interview in Internet with Viktor Korchnoi where he commented your proposal to cancel the draws. In particular he proposed to divest you of your title ex Champion. What do you think about it?

Kasimdzhanov: Life is short, one cannot watch everything. So I did not see this interview but many people have already come up to me and delivered an idea of Mr. Korchnoi’s statement. I cannot understand one thing:  if someone does not agree with the point of my proposal, why to make personal remarks? In general there were a lot of people who emotionally expressed their opinions. There are many who did not like the idea. It is not a secret that in general people today are not hardworking. No one wants to continue playing after a draw result. I think everyone but lazy have expressed its opinion in this respect. That is why I think this is exactly the problem that should be discussed. If my proposal was not worth to be considered, no one would react so keenly.