Near the end of the London tournament, Hikaru Nakamura suggested that the main benefit he drew from his working relationship with Garry Kasparov was in the realm of openings, as he was "quite convinced there are other players who were better than he was" when it came to middlegames and endings. To no one's surprise, I think, it came out soon afterwards that they had terminated their work together, but some might be surprised by Garry Kasparov's rejoinder:
Happy to let my games speak for me for now. Start looking on move 20 if you like!
That's a remarkably collected response from Kasparov, whose comments on other players are often sharp and sometimes incendiary. Good for him! Even better, I think he's right, though Nakamura might rejoin that it's easier to play strongly in the rest of the game when you start off with a big advantage based on your opening prep.
(HT: Brian Karen)