‘I want to play some good chess’

I am in India for the first time. My friend Ivan Popov (the Russian who won the Chennai Open last year and seeded No 2 here) told me about the tournament. In fact, I could combine two tournaments, the one in Delhi last week and here. It is better if you have a couple of events in the same country, then it is easier to make travel plans. I have played against a few players from Chennai such as Sasikiran and Adhiban. I like Chennai better than Delhi.

My best was 2705 (rating point) four years ago. I have gone down in recent years and I am at 2652 now. I am not looking at expectations at all. I may be required to score 85 per cent here which is a tall order. So there is no point looking at this. I want to play some good chess. 

Tournaments are the same. In Delhi I scored seven points from 10 rounds and it was not enough: 11th place and a loss of seven rating points. That was my card.