Having secured two rest days for himself, the first finalist of the World Cup 2011 has narrated on his winning game details in two languages: English and Russian.

 — The battle was going on in my style: in the opening which I have been playing for last 25 years, closer to move 10 I had a position which was as usual very dubious. The same story happened to me: I was even remembering some notes, but after the move 7.Qa4+, I realized right away that I had some mistakes in my notes, but nevertheless I could not make another move. I thought if I make 7…Bd7 — what if he goes 8.Qa3? After this move it is unclear what to do, for the Bishop on d7 is horrible and it is absolutely not known where to move it further. Later on the moves  Nc6 and е5 were made in order to justify the mistaken move number 7. White has millions of opportunities, and d4-d5 to respond e7-e5 looked promising. And what Ruslan did was also very good. But after an exchange on e7, he made an imprecise move: I think Rook on b1 would have been stronger. But we can understand Ruslan: this is Grundeld Defense and move 0−0 is not always considered. After 0−0−0 absolutely different game has started. I had the strong play against his centre and the picture has been changed. It was very important for me. At that moment I was not sure that move 0−0−0 was that strong. But I realized that this move should be made anyway to change the picture and in order not to give to Ruslan the easy life: a slight advantage and an opportunity to play to his heart’s content for a victory during 40−60 moves.

After that we entered into the position almost in a forced way where White had an exchange up and I had a pawn row on Queen flank and as minimum a full compensation. I was playing with no idea what is objectively going on at the board. I think that I had a good position, how good it was — another question. Ruslan also realized it, for after Bxd4 he offered a draw, being aware that the situation has been changed and he would not have something better. But at that moment I was playing for a victory without any risk, so I refused. I think after the Bishop exchange I had almost winning position though Black had only one pawn for an exchange. As always I am not confident in the perfectness of my realization techniques. Perhaps we should have exchanged the white-squared Bishops — instead of move on a4, to move Bishop on d5 and try to move the pawns. I wanted to control that the Rooks of my opponent will not have a chance to get activated so I did some blockade. He has move Re2 instead of move g4 after which it is not clear at all how I can improve the situation. Even if a pawn is on b2, after an exchange of one pair of Rooks it would have been not easy. If not a blunder on f3-f4, I guess that I would have had big problems with the realization. I was lucky that Ruslan blundered and let a Bishop on e4. After that the victory became trivial.

— Don’t you think that the latest rounds were easy for you? No long lasting tie breaks, no Armageddon… — Well, this is better, isn’t it?

— Do you feel yourself a happy man who achieved something considerable? — This is a very big achievement. I have my own opinion on what happiness is. Happiness was when Ruslan shook my hand, but it was 15 minutes ago. Happiness is a point emotion, a man cannot be happy during a long period of time. It is not happiness anymore, it is a satisfaction. Now I am satisfied.

— What about restaurant, Champaign and gypsies tonight?  — I don’t know about gypsies but I will make up something of course. Two rest days are ahead! If I will live a monastic style of life for this period, my senior friends would not understand me!

— Whom were you supporting in the parallel match? — The question is either provocative or rhetorical. Sanya is my closest friend in the chess world; we play for one club and etcetera etcetera. That is why, despite my good terms with Vassily Mihailovich, I grieve for Sasha, I grieve for my compatriots.