Elite Russian grandmaster Alexander Grischuk in an interview spoke about falling earnings, scandalous handshakes and compared Adeline's incident Sotnikova with a film about detective Colombo.
«EARNINGS DECLINED TWO TIMES»
— Alexander, you have a high rating, but you rarely play abroad. Do not invite or refuse?- The Russians are now especially not invited anywhere. It's one thing when Ian Nepomniachtchi won two Candidates Tournaments in a row — yes, he is a super-outstanding grandmaster. And another thing is, when you are in the general mass, such people are rarely called to play abroad now. Are you in the general mass, are you in the top 20?
— I already relate, to be honest. I talked to Daniil Dubov, and he said that it's hard for the Russians to get into international tournaments, because they don't really want to see us there.
— If he said so about a year and a half ago, then since then it has become ten times more difficult for us. To do this, relatively speaking, you have to win a couple of Candidates Tournaments in a row.
— Infrequent participation in competitions abroad did not hit your financial condition? /strong
— Maybe not due to the state, but the earnings have been hit hard. They fell about twice for sure.
— Is commenting well paid?
— Yes, and I mainly comment on the Russian audience. Interesting developments have been taking place lately. In chess itself, there was not much more money, and in chess-related matters, their amount has simply increased significantly. And if you strive for maximum earnings, then, excluding five to ten leading players in the world, it is more profitable to engage in activities near chess — commenting, coaching, and so on.
— Now the topic of handshakes of Russian and Ukrainian athletes has become very relevant. If in tennis that problem was somehow solved, then in fencing there was a whole scandal with the disqualification of the Olympic champion from Ukraine Olga Kharlan, who did not greet the Russian woman Anna Smirnova. Do you perceive refusal of handshakes as a logical step?- It seems to me that this should be a personal matter of the player and one should not procrastinate this topic so much. I can say this — if someone does not want to give me a hand, then I would not make a problem out of this at all. The only thing is that if someone does not want to shake hands with me before the game, I would ask him to warn me about this in advance. So that there would not be an awkward moment when I give my hand, and it hangs in the air. Warn in advance and there are no problems at all.
— Who do you support in tennis?
— Now — for Serb Novak Djokovic. Because he is generally the only top athlete who fought against covid restrictions and did not follow their lead. Since then, I have been rooting for him very much.
— Are you also against such restrictions from all sides? — Definitely. Because I am deeply convinced that all these measures did much more harm than good. «
— Your wife Ekaterina Lahno told me in an interview that she was rooting for Kamila Valieva at the Beijing Games. And you?- My interest in figure skating is greatly exaggerated. He was when the confrontation arose between Evgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova. Yes, I watched the women's single skating at the Beijing Olympics, but, rather, I was more rooting for Anna Shcherbakova. But, by and large, for me it was the main thing that one of our athletes won.
— And who did you root for in the dispute between Medvedeva and Zagitova?
— For Zagitova.
— Another Olympic champion Adelina Sotnikova recently got into a strange scandal, unsuccessfully expressing her thoughts that she had questions about doping.
— In this situation, I can only remember the words of Commissioner Colombo, remember, was there such a series? He kept saying that you only need to talk more with the suspect, and sooner or later he will give himself away. But I brought this expression not in relation to Sotnikova.
— In January, Olympic champion Roman Kostomarov was on the verge of life and death after complications caused by pneumonia. Have you been in any such extreme situations?
— No, God bless. And I can only wish Roman a speedy recovery. I've been following his situation, but I honestly don't like to dig into it too much. This is kind of a bummer for me. Yes, a tragedy happened to a person, but why go further into this?
— In other sports, who do you especially sympathize with?
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— I will not say anything original, in the past it was Diego Maradona, Michael Jordan, Mike Tyson, Fedor Emelianenko. And from the modern ones — Djokovic, Nikola Jokic admires in the NBA, Igor Akinfeev is just super, he spent his entire career in CSKA. Alexander Bolshunov.
— If not for chess, what profession would Alexander Grischuk be today?
— I would be unemployed now . Leave this here. To be honest, if I hadn't taken a great interest in chess, I don't know what I would have done during school, and after, and now.