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— Among all representatives of Ukraine at the World Cup, you must be less known. Tell us anything about yourself that you consider necessary for the chess community to know.  — I got the Grandmaster title when I was 15 and half years old and then I made a long pause. In 2009 my rating was 2558 and at the beginning of the year 2010 it went down to 2527 which means that the entire year I was not active and did not play in strong tournaments since I did not have either a coach or any assistance, that is why I slowed down. This year I seem to have taken the right direction, started working with coaches and therefore made some progress.

— Do you live in Lvov? Who is your coach? — Exactly. I am trained by the distinguished coach of Ukraine Vladimir Grabinsky who also works with all other grandmasters of Lvov including Volokitin (of course, except for Ivanchuk), however, recently he is working with us rather rarely.

— How do you feel playing in the tournament together with Ponomariov and Ivanchuk and other famous grandmasters? — Certainly I am much honored. I take them for an example and the fact that I have had such an opportunity to play here proves that my work is not in vain.

— Judging by your results, you do not have any hang-ups facing your opponents at the chess board.  — There is such a proverb — if you bend under the burden, it will only get heavier, therefore I try not to think about it and play calmly.

— Yaroslav, you are the youngest participant of the tournament. Please tell us how did you manage to defeat such titans as Mamedjarov and Eljanov?

Truly speaking, it is a surprise for me as well. Before coming here I was joking with my parents: of course I can pass three rounds, but how shall I outplay Eljanov? That is why it is clear I am amazed myself how I could manage it. Perhaps the maximum concentration during the game — this is what necessary. One mistake, one wrong move and you go home. I don’t want to go home so far.

— Yaroslav, do you enjoy chess? Did you celebrate somehow after your victory over Eljanov whom you were afraid to play against?

Of course I enjoy chess. We celebrated my victory over Eljanov but I will not tell you which way.

Baadur Jobava: Yes, we celebrated, but… Well, I would say: we were preparing to the next round in a special way.

— Baadur, how did your cooperation start? What can you tell us about your trainee?

Baadur Jobava: I was not acquainted with Yarik till the time when we played for "PGMB"-team from Chernigov. We had a very good team spirit which we still have among us. I was sharing with Zherebukh on my opinion how he should get prepared to the games on his own. Sometime later I received an offer to work with him. He came to me and we spent some days together. I was trying not only to give some advises in chess matters, but also to help on the psychological level, to strengthen his confidence. I wanted to make him understand that the chess components as well as the psychological mood are interconnected. To my mind the system he used to work before — spending 10−12 hours at the chess board — was not really correct. Quality matters, not quantity. I was trying to explain to him how he should properly work and what should be done to gain more confidence. In fact, Yarik is a very good fellow, very smart for his age. I consider him as my younger brother. I am absolutely sure that under the condition he continues developing, works a lot, cooperates with more experienced than me coaches, he will achieve big results. I cannot say now if he would become the World Champion, but he will fight for this title.

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