At one point during our matchup, while I was staring lasers at the board, working my way through the position, Schwartzman walked over to my father, who was in the audience, and told him that he had never seen me like this—he said my concentration was so fierce it was scary sitting across from me. Against Kaidanov, I felt like a tiger in a cage, seething with raw energy. I won both those games, and played some of my most inspired chess, but what is interesting is that afterward I was profoundly depleted and in both cases my tournament immediately fell apart. I blew myself out and had nothing
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