As it was, perhaps because of his own playing style, my full-time coach was drawn to Dvoretsky’s conclusions—and so from the age of sixteen a large part of my chess education involved distancing myself from my natural talents and integrating this Karpovian brand of chess. As a result, I lost my center of gravity as a competitor. I was told to ask myself,“What would Karpov play here?” and I stopped trusting my intuition because it was not naturally Karpovian. When the maelstrom surrounding Searching for Bobby Fischer hit me, a big part of my struggle holding course stemmed from my sense of
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