Or at least that's my spin on his decision not to play in this year's U.S. Championship. He claims that he is doing so in order "to focus on working toward his ultimate goal of one day winning the World Championship." Even if he feels he has more or less outgrown non-super-GM events, it's still a pity for U.S. chess, and not a great way to reward one of the very, very few people in the US putting up some real money for chess. Even Gata Kamsky is playing, and in his case it really would make sense if he jumped out, considering that his Candidates match with Topalov starts just over a month after the Championship concludes.
HT: Daniel Parmet