"I think that by and large chess players have been very kind. Like I said there have been a few incidents, but they certainly didn't serve to bring me down any"

A measured gratitude runs through the statement, paired with a quiet steeliness. The emphasis on “by and large” signals a refusal to flatten experience into extremes; it honors the many acts of support and decency he has encountered while keeping space for the reality that not every interaction was benign. That balance feels deliberate. It resists the easy narrative of either unqualified celebration or unrelenting hardship, and instead presents a fuller human landscape around a competitive mind sport.

The word “kind” matters. Kindness in chess is not merely courtesy at the board; it includes mentorship, shared analysis, invitations to train, and the willingness to see a person’s potential beyond preconceptions. Naming kindness as the prevailing tone credits a community that often functions on the exchange of ideas and mutual respect. At the same time, the acknowledgment of “a few incidents” avoids sanitizing the past. It nods to moments of bias, disrespect, or exclusion, experiences not uncommon to pioneers, without granting them the power to define the whole.

The decisive clause is the last one: the incidents “didn’t serve to bring me down any.” That is agency, not denial. The harm is recognized, but the outcome is chosen. The phrasing suggests a mental habit: file the hurt, learn what’s necessary, keep moving. It is a stoic posture that refuses victimhood and transforms adversity into background noise rather than a controlling narrative.

There is also leadership embedded here. By naming the good and minimizing the sting’s impact, he models how to inhabit a community imperfectly striving toward its ideals. For younger players, especially those navigating visibility or difference, this vision invites a pragmatic optimism: expect decency, prepare for bumps, let neither determine your ceiling. The statement ultimately affirms both the integrity of the chess world at its best and the individual’s sovereignty over how challenges shape a career.