The Ukrainian Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk, having outplayed Bu Xiangzhi of China in tie-breaks, spoke with journalists about his attitude to statistics and psychology.

— Vassily, we have an impression that classical games with Bu Xiangzhi were difficult for you, and as for tie-breaks, you managed to win rather easily. Is it true? — No, I cannot say this is the case. One can see that my opponent was not that lucky in rapid games, but my victory was not an easy one, because I had to calculate a lot of variations during the game itself.

— Do you have psychological portraits of your opponents? — A psychological portrait can be composed only when you know your opponent very well and communicate with him a lot. As for Bu, I am not very well acquainted with him beyond the chess board therefore it was hard for me to get an idea about him and during the game I was concentrated mainly on chess problems. I did not set any special goals for me, I was just trying to perform well. And judging by the result, I believe to have managed it.

— Did you have time to analyze your games during pauses? — I did not engage myself with deep analysis, however, I looked through some definite moments that interested me. My seconds immediately drew my attention to some of them.

— Who is your next opponent? — Teimour Radjabov.

— Are there any statistics on your matches against him? — There might be some, I did not actually check upon it. We played much with him — both in classical, rapid and blitz chess. There is such a proverb saying that there is no need to shut the stable door when the horse is stolen. So, is it worth blowing before the fight is started?