Shan Nakamura also participated in a press conference at the press-conference venue. He said “It’s hard, but when you get to this level, you can become as strong as one of the top players in the world.” [Editor’s Note: The tournament also produced another star, Japanese chess grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, who went on to defeat the eventual champion, World Champion Garry Kasparov in the tournament. He is the best-known Japanese chess player of recent decades.]

Q. And after what you said, how were you feeling?

A. It’s something like I was just on a good vacation. I woke up, and I was able to enjoy it. And since I knew the time limit, and since it was Sunday, I started working. [Laughs.]

I played a blitz game on my day off. On Monday, I came up to Tokyo for a day of studying and playing. Then we went to the Japanese Championship. After the tournament, we had a small holiday. Afterwards, I continued to work hard.

Q. Have you studied all of the top players? Or was this your first time to watch these top players for the first time?

A. No, it wasn’t. I went to this event and took a look because I thought it was interesting.

I’ve watched the first chess games of the World Cup, but before that, I don’t really watch a lot of tournaments. I’ve been following tournaments and events online for many years. I saw, first, that Garry Kasparov was very good in 2008, and I started watching him in 2009. He’s a very strong player. From then on, I watched him a lot. I’ve been watching him pretty much since he became World Champion. I followed Kasparov from World Championship on up to the World Cup.

There are quite a few tournaments of the most popular countries in chess and I’ve watched more of them. And you know, I’m a big fan and a fan of chess. And I thought this tournament was a great challenge. I’m happy that I was part of it, but I’m not going to compete for a title until I’m 25 years old, so at some point it’s going to seem boring. I’m a little overwhelmed by it.

Before, I felt like a chess fan, but now I feel like I can actually do something with what I