A chess champ’s riskiest move: Facing off against the Kremlin
Garry Kasparov is trying to unite Russia’s opposition to a bid to undo Putin’s legacy
December 23, 2006
Michael Mainville
Special to the Star
MOSCOW–In his 20 years at the top of the professional chess world, Garry Kasparov was known as a risk taker, a relentless aggressor who loved to throw his opponents off balance. A year after his retirement, Kasparov is still taking risks, but against a very different kind of opponent.
Kasparov, 43, has thrown himself into the murky and sometimes dangerous world of Russian politics. A fierce opponent of President Vladimir Putin, Kasparov has become the driving force behind a movement to unite opposition forces in Russia ahead of the country’s 2008 presidential election. In the process, he’s been threatened, his offices have been raided and he’s even been struck on the head with a chessboard by a disgruntled former fan.
“I’m discovering that politics, especially in Russia, is very different from chess,” Kasparov says. “The rules can change. You think you’re playing chess but you’re actually in the casino.”
Kasparov is no stranger to controversy, but until recently his political experience had been limited to the arcane world of chess politics.
He burst onto the chess world in 1984 as a 21-year-old protégé challenging the reigning world champion, Anatoly Karpov, in a “first to six wins” match. He fought back from a disappointing start to hold Karpov to a seemingly endless series of draws and eventually began to whittle away at Karpov’s lead. Then the World Chess Federation called off the contest, citing the players’ health. The match had lasted six months and Karpov had lost 22 pounds.
The decision to cancel infuriated Kasparov, who went on to win a rematch the following year, and he began a long feud that eventually led him to set up a rival chess association.
The full article can be read here. 
what an inspiring article! Kasparov is my political idol! Can we discuss politics here? I have a few points to point out.
You can post anything you wish, just as long as it is clean.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
Okay, since politics is allowed, I think that there are two basic things our society has with politics: 1) Prejudice and 2) Dumbing down.
1) People forget that there’s more to prejudice than just racial prejudice. There’s religious and political prejudice as well. When Susan posted a picture of her and President Bush and people wigged out, that was political prejudice. When she posted a caption, “Support our troops” and people wigged out on that, that was prejudice, too.
When people assume that all Republicans are racists or that all Democrats are atheists, that’s prejudice. Finally, when someone posted on Susan’s site about Arabs/Israel and called this a “jewish site” that was prejudice.
The political blogs are even worse. Sadly, when I first looked into the current state of chess politics, my first thought was, “what is Susan Polgar so unhappy about? This is the way the real politics in Washington is done.” Prejudice seems to be the main driving force in politics today.
2) I think of this as “the American Idol Effect”. People go on “American Idol” and think that because they can sing they should be treated equally to everyone else. Some people can sing better than others. Some people try harder than others.
When it comes to politics, the same attitude occurs. Your opinion is equal to mine. No it is not. If you have studied the issues and I haven’t, then your opinion is better than mine. And just like Simon will tell contestants, “you don’t know what you’re doing” so the same could apply to me.
The Constitution gives everybody the right to speak; it does not impose upon you the duty to listen. Some opinions can be and ought to be rejected outright: (a) holocaust denial; (b) Bush is responsible for 9/11; (c) giving brain-enhancing drugs to kids.
Too many people seem to think that because the subject is politics, they can have any opinion they want and are entitled to equal respect from society.
The two of these attitudes together are what makes politics today so bad.
Susan’s post was about Kasparov and Russia. I wonder how much worse things must be over there.
Oh, and one more political comment:
After Susan fixes the USCF she should run for President of the US. Kasparov as President of the USSR and Polgar and President of the US.
I wonder what that would be like.
I read from a primary source that it was G.Kasparov who first suggested or requested that the first Karpov-Kasparov WCChamp match be suspended.
If true, then this persistent reporting that Kasparov “protested” is either revisionist hisory or it was a bogus protest by Kasparov in the first place (which is what the source described).
Sorry, I cannot remember who the source was. I remember that I felt he was credible.
G
Russia is doomed if Kasparov becomes the president. Autocratic, intolerant and arrogant person who had never shown any respect to his chess colleagues. Therefore, there is no expectation he can care about larger population. Everything he did in chess politics was aimed at satisfying his own interests and big ego.
He is a great chess champion, but lacks a wisdom, vision and humility to become a true statesman.
One Anon said:
ussia is doomed if Kasparov becomes the president. Autocratic, intolerant and arrogant person who had never shown any respect to his chess colleagues. Therefore, there is no expectation he can care about larger population. Everything he did in chess politics was aimed at satisfying his own interests and big ego.
He is a great chess champion, but lacks a wisdom, vision and humility to become a true statesman.
Don’t get me wrong, I am neither supporting nor criticizing Kasparov’s aspirations, but the above traits are not at all contraindications to run a country. Most people just believe they are, but they are not.
The truth is that I am a very opinionated person, yet this is one of the few issues I don’t have a firm opinion about. Russia is an unusual place right now. Being the core of Soviet Union for many decades created a situation which is probably not analogue to anything we know. It was difficult to imagine in the first place that from a totalitarian empire it could really change to a free country overnight.
It certainly needs a “hard hand” to control the changeover. Putin seems to have it, but I don’t know whether it is for the better or for the worse. Kasparov may have the right ideas, may not. I don’t think even the Russians can know whether he would be the right candidate or not.
People outside of Russia certainly can’t know that. This is one of those “we will see” situations.
Gabor
Oh the ignorance. Unite Russia’s opposition? Kasparov is actively splintering Russia’s opposition and allying himself with political provocateurs not to mention extremely despicable people like Limonov and his extremist “National Bolsheviks”. This is a picture of the brave “democrats” at the anti-Putin rally recently.
Meanwhile, a few days he accused Yabloko of taking orders from the Kremlin. The truth about Kasparov is that he is an extremely marginal figure in Russia’s politics whose main mission seems to be to weaken the opposition and feed Putin with arguments that it consists of lunatics and extremists. Insofar that Putin cares about him at all I suspect he is more grateful than anything else.
“a few days before that…”
Kasparov is doing the bidding of those evil international bankers robbing the russian of thier national wealth!
he has khordosky and abrahamovic as he supporter. and don’t foerget about Lords rothchild. It looks lik Putin is the truer Russian Hero… Protector of th people and the counterbalance of that cowboy Bush!
What do you aspect much from a man lik Kasparov who is even more hawkish than Bush and the Neocon?
Neocon? Who do you mean?
BTW what’s the difference between a neocon and a conservative?