As Svetlana made her counter moves, he was curious to see what she would do. He kept setting up his offense and defense, carefully placing his pieces. If she worked her way through both of these, he would twist her mind enough to cause friction between her and those close to her. Of course, he had no idea if she had people close to her aside from the brother she had mentioned, but he would drag the story out of her if need be. He had his ways of getting people to talk without realizing what they were saying.
As they both made their moves, following their tactics, the Master tried to get a read on Svetlana. But he couldn't. He found it difficult to read her features. Which left him to just reading the tactics she was invoking on the chess board. Which only added to the all ready revealed fact that she was calculating. Interesting, she could prove to be quite the troublemaker if he found out some of the things she kept locked inside.
"I know what you mean, I've seen it all too often. Fame changes people, molds them into something their loved ones don't recognize." Unbeknownst to him, he was hitting on the sore subject for the Russian. He was just making conversation until he found his opening. Then he'd make a move that Svetlana couldn't counter or defend against. Humans didn't have the capability of defending their minds the way other species could. It was just one of the many reasons the Master despised the human race. They were weak and pathetic.