Sitting next to an ornate chess board in his home outside Moscow, 26-year-old Russian grandmaster Sergei Karyakin lowers his gaze as he ponders how to beat reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen.
Next month Karyakin will have his stab at dethroning Carlsen, 25, in New York as he takes on the Norwegian phenomenon in a 600,000-euro ($668,000) match some are hyping as a clash between East and West that echoes the Cold War.
The showdown, the youngest ever by cumulative age, has drawn parallels with the 1972 world championship match between American grandmaster Bobby Fischer and Soviet star Boris Spassky as it comes during another surge in tensions: this time over Ukraine and Syria.
