The world chess champion, now plays its most difficult party: rival of Vladimir Putin

Garry Kasparov is no longer playing chess. Now his main job is to speak out against Vladimir Putin. It is a difficult party.

The greatest chess player ever, Garry Kasparov is similar in your dark suit in law any company. He himself knows this.

“The official version. I came straight from the Studio,” he says, grins, and shrugs, as if apologizing.

Through the picture window we see the skyscrapers of Manhattan are fighting for a place under the sun.

Kasparov — short, but strong, like a wrestler. The nose slightly curved, and chess somehow it just seems to be “the guy.” Thick and dark his hair turned white, appeared bald, but champion energy left.

Now Kasparov is running from one interview to another, because he possesses something that is valued in this city is almost the same as money: flair. Insider information.

For many years Kasparov tried to warn Americans about Vladimir Putin, but the Americans did not want to listen to him, because they had better things to do.

According to the Americans, the challenges of the modern world is climate change, strengthening the status of China and radical Islamism. Compared to this talking about the threat from Russia — like a return to the era of black-and-white spy movies.

In 2012, MITT Romney (Mitt Romney), the Republican candidate has called Russia during his election campaign, the most important geopolitical threat to the United States. President Obama derisively said that these words remind him of the foreign policy of the 1980s. “You know, the cold war ended 20 years ago”.

Joke Obama inspired many, and he won over more voters. Just five years ago talking about the Russian threat, sounded just as ridiculous as the haircut of the 1980s and patch shoulders for clothes.

Kalashnikovs and earflaps? Da?

Garry Kasparov also had to listen to ridicule in his address. In 2015 he discussed Putin on the show bill Maher (Bill Maher). Sitting on the couch and laughing, Mar wondered why seized the Crimean Peninsula, Putin accused of imperialism. Is the largest imperialist in the world is not USA? The audience howled with joy.

In the video, which spread on the Internet, you can see Kasparov’s face darkened with rage. He tried to remind Mara that in Europe there was not a single American tank to capture the Crimea.

Mar smiled and said, “Wake me up when he invaded Poland”.

Putin is not captured Poland, he invaded America.

According to U.S. intelligence, Russian hackers cracked email boxes of the Democratic party and used the stolen information in order to help Donald Trump (Donald Trump) to become President. Russia has shot straight to the heart of American democracy.

The investigation is ongoing, but it forced Americans to Wake up. This means that Garry Kasparov in only an hour before the next interview.

The first answers world champion on chess to film. He slightly leans forward and looks directly into the lens.

That’s the way he looks at his opponent at the chessboard. Mercilessly. It is not surprising that opponents call him a “Troll.”

It is also associated with hair Kasparov, which was similar to a storm cloud, especially against the smooth parting of his Nemesis Anatoly Karpov.

Yes, Karpov! He was the last and most exemplary product of the Soviet chess school.

In the Soviet Union, chess had a special place. The father of socialism, Karl Marx and the father of the Soviet Union Vladimir Lenin — they both enthusiastically played chess. At the same time when other pastimes were stamped gourmet sourdough, chess was seen as a suitable way to educate people and the way to train strategic thinking of soldiers.

Soviet chess, Mikhail Botvinnik won the world chess championship in 1948. The battle of the black and white army — like allegory about the world of the cold war. Champions of the Soviet Union proved the superiority of socialism.

The Soviet Union retained the world title, when Boris Spassky was found in 1972 in Reykjavik with the American Bobby Fischer (Bobby Fischer). East against the West. Socialism vs capitalism. Over the course of the match was watched by the whole world.

The USSR was shocked when the championship ended in undisputed victory of a brilliant but unbalanced Fisher. He later defended his title, but merely lost in their own worlds.

The world title was transferred to 24-year-old Anatoly Karpov. The young champion seemed to be proof of the future that awaited the post-war generation in the Soviet Union. No more vodka and kisses on the cheek, only one cold-blooded scientific thinking.

Saying that Karpov plays like a computer: systematically, without error, finding the weaknesses of the enemy. And when the opponent made a mistake which in the end, everything was happening, the carp slowly started to strangle him.

That is why in the chess world, Karpov had a nickname of “boa”.

Garik Weinstein — Prodigy father Jew and mother an Armenian. At an early age, he received special education, as once Karpov.

This meant that the young man’s life was very different from the lives of his peers. His main perk was the fact that he had already at an early age had visited in the West.

Father of Gary died of leukemia when he was seven years old. He took the surname of his mother, which was modified in Russian manner of “Gasparian” with “Kasparov”.

In principle, the Soviet Union adhered to equality, but in practice with a Russian surname was easier to succeed.

Kasparov wanted to succeed, but genius boy thought not only about chess. He listened to Western radio stations, read controversial books found on the shelves of the Jewish relatives of his father and began to think that everything in the USSR was, as it should.

Lenin thought Kasparov was probably a good and wise man, but then something drastically went wrong. Kasparov took a lot of years to come to the conclusion that the error was not Stalin and the bureaucracy, but in the system, ideology and Lenin.

Kasparov became world famous chess at the age of 15 at the tournament Sokolsky, who called him almost by accident. To everyone’s surprise, the young chess player beat experienced players. After this victory, Kasparov had a goal — to become world champion.

In 1983 — at age 19 — Kasparov rose to first place in the chess rating. He was the main rival of the world champion Karpov.

Thus, in the USSR there were two world’s strongest chess player. They were both young, beautiful and very smart.

The country needed the world Cup has brought her popularity, because during the presidential term of Ronald Reagan (Ronald Reagan) cold war was at its coldest point. Athletes of the Eastern bloc boycotted the Olympics in Los Angeles in the summer of 1984.

But first we had to decide one question: Garry Kasparov had to join the Communist party.

When 10 Sep 1984 in Moscow started a big match, the air was filled with the tension that obviously came from the Armenian party.

Everyone knew that the USSR, like the victory of Karpov. The beginning really looked good. After nine parties Karpov led with a score of 4:0. Five games were played in a draw. He needed two more victories.

Then the young opponent surprised everyone. “Troll”, known for its active strategy of attacking, retreated, and began to make batch after batch to a draw. Instead of a quick victory Karpov had to wage a long and hard struggle, which went hand. The world champion started to lose weight eyes.

For four months of the match Kasparov exhausted his opponent. Two wins in a row changed the situation: 5:3.

From the total defeat of Karpov saved the President of the International chess Federation, Florencio Campomanes (Florencio Campomanes), which announced the suspension of the match to preserve the health of players. It was believed that the decision was due to pressure from Moscow.

Then happened something unexpected: Garry Kasparov came on the scene and publicly stated that it did not agree with the decision.

Earlier in the Soviet Union such an attack would mean the end of a career, or something worse, but the country was never the same. A month later, after the match, General Secretary of the CPSU was elected Mikhail Gorbachev.

Six months later, Kasparov defeated Karpov at the age of 22 became the world chess champion.

Five years after the collapse of the Soviet Union world champion Garry Kasparov was prepared to meet a new chess giant.

Computer company IBM has developed a supercomputer to play chess Deep Blue. The company believes that the computer can beat the best chess player in the world. Victory programs over a man would be a historic moment and a Grand is computer giant, which left behind Microsoft, Apple and other competitors.

The first match took place in 1996. Deep Blue won one from six games, but Kasparov won the match.

For a new match, IBM created a computer that could analyze 200 million positions per second.

Kasparov believed that he can defeat the machine by using a creative approach, but in this game, Deep Blue moved the figure is so illogical that champion suspected the presence of assistance in the game.

It is unlikely you will ever disprove this conjecture, but Kasparov was furious and in the end lost the match. The defeat was given to Kasparov hard: he remained in history as a world champion who was defeated by the machine.

Since the historic match has been 20 years, Kasparov returns to this theme in the book “Deep thinking” (“Deep Thinking”), which will be released in may. In the book Kasparov delves into the relationship of machine and computer.

Kasparov knows that the meeting of human and computer — like a collision between a Ferrari and a Bicycle. The need for a new match, no, because computers are moving so fast that the current world champion, Magnus Carlsen (Magnus Carlssen), there would be no chance against a conventional tablet.

The chess Champions — awesome monsters memory. For example, Garry Kasparov memorized every move of thousands of chess matches. With the computer people, however, will never cope: in memory of Deep Blue was 700 thousand matches. The computer is not smarter than humans, but it can quickly calculate your situation.

The last bunker of mankind — art, because the computer could not — at least yet — to write even a simple detective.

Now Kasparov believes that a person does not need to fight with the computers, and give them work according to the calculations. So people will be able to focus on those tasks that can not cope and the best car.

Kasparov now leads the third largest battle in your life. He leads him here in new York, where he lived the last four years. His opponent again huge and strong, but also very dangerous. Opponents of Vladimir Putin often die unexpectedly.

At the time of this interview, living in the US opponent of Putin Vladimir Kara-Murza lies in a coma in a Moscow hospital. 35-year-old journalist suddenly poisoned in Russia, where he presented a documentary about Boris Nemtsov.

Former Prime Minister and close friend of Kara-Murza, Boris Nemtsov killed in the street in front of the Kremlin two years ago.

Garry Kasparov, sitting in the corner room of a skyscraper in Manhattan, would prefer to stay alive.

“I had to leave Russia. Those brave souls who decided to stay, as Boris Nemtsov, now killed. Others sit in jail. Many live abroad.”

Kasparov knows that security does not exist anywhere, but says that trying to live as normal life.

“I’m trying to be as careful as possible, but criticism of Putin and attempt to strike him — a very risky business.”

Kasparov heads the staff of the Human Rights Foundation, the main representative of which was previously Vaclav Havel (Vaclav Havel).

Kasparov also has his own website that spreads the good news about chess. Kasparov ceased to participate in matches at the age of 42 years in 2005. Then he was no longer world champion, but was considered the best player in the world.

53-year-old Kasparov has been married three times. From the current marriage he has three year old daughter and son, who soon will be two years.

The name Garry Kasparov is found in many lists of the most intelligent people. Such lists create rather for fun, because a high IQ does not mean that people will be able to achieve in life at least something: for example, one of the smartest people in the world working as a caretaker at a strip club. Amazing mind, nevertheless, attracts attention as any other unique feature of the person.

During the interview, a marked a special brain Kasparov: it does not need time to ponder the answer, in his speech, no words-parasites. The answers come quickly, but later, while listening to the recorder, seem pre-written text. English Kasparov says wonderful.

Not surprised that Kasparov’s assistant then requests a copy of the recording of the interview. Perhaps excerpts from it will appear in the new book the chess player.

Like many smart people, Kasparov present hectic rebellion: as if the whole world — a problem that he is trying hard to solve it. He has a clear idea about different things, and to be his opponent would not want — like a chess Board, and in any other situation.

People like Kasparov, it is hard to win. But he mistakenly thinks that the world is as logical as chess. Exactly what happened to him many times.

Now there is a theory that the “human” course of Deep Bluе was caused by a failure of the program.

The book is Garry Kasparov “Winter is coming — Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped” (“Winter is coming: why you need to stop Vladimir Putin and the enemies of the free world”) appeared in English in 2015, and in 2016 — in Finnish.

The name Kasparov took from the books of George Martin (George R. R. Martin) “a Song of ice and fire” (“A Song of Ice and Fire”). Kasparov says that is a big fan of Martin’s books and the TV series “Game of thrones”, based on their motives.

“The idea of “Game of thrones” is close to the idea of the second of my favorite works — “the Lord of the rings”. Among the heroes of the book there is no absolute good, because a person always has a weakness of some kind. However, evil can be absolute”.

Kasparov admits that he changed his opinion about the course of history, because after the fall of the Soviet Union, he believed in the victory of democracy, just like Francis Fukuyama (Francis Fukuyama) in his book “the End of history and the last man”.

“In 1992 we thought that the world is going in a good direction, and I forgot that the evil will not disappear. It was buried under the rubble of the Berlin wall, but if we lose vigilance, it will again come to light”.

So, in Kasparov’s opinion, happened. Evil got out, and his power will grow until stopped. And that evil is, according to Kasparov, Vladimir Putin.

The leader of the United civil front, Garry Kasparov. Vladimir Putin in the background

“If we’re not careful, the evil can grow to an enormous size. Dictators never ask: why? They ask: why not?”

Kasparov was in the US, the main critic of Putin. In a new cold war it will become dissidents like Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Kasparov’s message is clear: the key to understanding Putin — power. The President of Russia — as a mafia, who is constantly afraid that his position, anybody can threaten. The best guide in modern Russia, he said “the Godfather” by Mario Puzo.

Kasparov reminds us that every ruler must justify his authority. The monarchy asserts its power with the help of God, democracy with free elections. In the USSR there was neither the one nor the other, but he had a special vision for the future. According to Kasparov, the dictator’s enemies — like oxygen, which helps him to live.

“Putin says that Russia is the citadel of goodness amidst evil, and only he can protect his people,” — said Kasparov.

According to Kasparov, Russia is ready to support neo-Nazis, Communists, believers, atheists and anyone, just this force has destroyed the power of the democratic countries and spread chaos.

“Putin does not care about their principles. KGB is KGB”.

According to Kasparov, terrorists and dictators agree about democracies: they are weak because they do not dare neither to die nor to kill. Razed Aleppo to the ground, Putin has proven that he is ready for anything.

“Putin wanted to say the free world that he doesn’t care. Obama is a rag, and I’m the alpha male.”

Kasparov reminds us that Obama has not carried out threats against Bashar al-Assad, and Putin, by contrast, has kept his promise to Asad. The rulers saw this and remembered. This means that the number of problems in the future will only increase.

“Said Boris Nemtsov: Putin is Russia’s problem, but if not addressed, it will become everyone’s problem. And so it happened.”

Generation Kasparov, facing the iron curtain, learned to admire Ronald Reagan, whom they continue to thank for their freedom. So Kasparov with horror watching the direction of the Republican party of Donald trump.

Chess player writes critically about trump and Putin on Twitter under the name @Kasparov63. “House on fire, trump runs with a pack of matches, and the Republican party needs to figure out who called the fire brigade,” laughed Kasparov on 20 March on the Republicans, who demanded information about who published information on the relationship of the tramp with Russia.

“Before Ronald Reagan had said that democracy in one generation from extinction. It is better to respond too much, and to ask forgiveness than to be passive and to Wake from sleep too late.”

Kasparov met with the strategy of Putin, when he participated in the activities of the democratic movement in Russia in the early 2000s. the Assembly was dissolved, the operation is interrupted, attacked and put behind bars. Kasparov knows of the KGB, and would not be surprised if in the safe Russia has discovered something interesting about trump.

Kasparov said that closely followed the press conference, during which Putin was asked if he had a sex tape out trump. Kasparov said that he saw on TV kgbeshnika, happy as the cat that ate the cream.

“Little KGB agent from the distant Dresden could do something to get the President of the United States. This is the main prize, the fulfillment of your desires! I could see it in his eyes. I can’t be wrong. I believe in coincidences, but I believe in the KGB.”

According to Kasparov, the development of Russia can follow how the words from Russian were borrowed in the English language. During Khrushchev came sputnik, during Gorbachev’s perestroika, during Putin kompromat, vtaptyvanie in the mud of political opponents.

“This shows the achievements of each leader: one, it was science, another political transformation, the third — KGB”.

Garry Kasparov begins openly laughing when he said that the West humiliated Russia when it was weak, so Putin is now trying to return Russia to its dignity and position.

“Nonsense!” — growls Kasparov.

“We are talking about the legend of the Kremlin, which lobbied in the West.”

The West, according to Kasparov, is a threat not to Russia, but only Putin who is afraid of the hardest things as a state of law, democracy and real market economy.

If Putin really thought about the interests of Russia, he would, according to Kasparov, to move closer to the West. It would benefit the people and society and it would be a wise strategic decision.

“If you think about it, what is Russia’s real threat, it does not come from the West and from China. Only need to look at a map”.

Now remember that Russians love chess because they develop strategic thinking. Love of chess, Putin noted.

Helsinki is only 300 kilometers from St. Petersburg. It is not safe to live in Finland?

“At least it’s safer than St. Petersburg. I find it hard to imagine that Putin could take any decisive step against this country, but personally I’d feel safer if Finland were a NATO member”.

Kasparov recalls that, according to Putin, Finland is a region that can be influenced not only by military force.

“I want to remind you that Putin chesnik. He is committed to cyber warfare and operations cover, which weakens your ability to repel the attack. He uses the political system and some political parties, because these forces were more effective than military operations.”

Kasparov recalls his visit to Finland in the fall of 2015. He says he was trying to make a joke during his speech at the opening of the event, Nordic Business Forum that Russians have always considered Finland’s idyllic territory in the North-East of the great Empire. In the hall reigned ringing silence.

“Then I apologized for being so much frightened by the Finnish listeners.”

Kasparov with great precision can tell you how many Finns died in the years of the Winter war and the continuation War, but says that Finland lost fewer victims than the Baltic countries.

“They are 50 years old become the slaves of communism. Estonians to Siberian camps was 30 thousand.”

“When you are being attacked, it is better to deal: when you resign, the price of losing only increases.”

Each hero has a tough opponent. What would David without Goliath, Winston Churchill, without Adolf Hitler, Luke Skywalker without Darth Vader?

Garry Kasparov fought against three major opponents: the Soviet Union, it company IBM and Putin’s Russia.

Ultimately, Karpov was broken. Champions was found in four matches, but each time Karpov gave up at the crucial moment.

Now Karpov 65 years, in recent years, he enjoys collecting postage stamps and the Belgian believes it is important to add iodine into salt. And he supports Putin’s actions — for example, in relation to the seizure of Crimea.

Rival Kasparov, the supercomputer Deep Blue, is the National Museum of American history in Washington. IBM dismantled the computer immediately after the match, according to some — in order to conceal the fraud. However, Deep Blue can be considered a forefather of modern cars with the autopilot and development of artificial intelligence.

And the third enemy is Kasparov?

Ten years ago, Kasparov gave Vladimir Putin two years respite. He’s guessing about when the power will change, but considers that this point is closer than we think.

“I don’t know how and when it will happen, but Putin’s power will suddenly collapse. It is a pity that the end will be violent. Can’t imagine the quiet coup.”

“The dictatorship has collapsed in the Wake of a major defeat. This can be, for example, a significant geopolitical setback. When the dictator looks weak, blame him. So it will be overthrown Putin: it makes him look weak”.

Kasparov is not going to judge who could run the country after Putin, because “if it were known that this man would long ago have been dead”.

Does the chess champion to return to Russia and into politics?

“Yes and no. Will I come back to Russia? Yes. Will I be a politician? No. I know the world, and could help his country with the help of tips and contacts, but don’t want to get involved in political battles. I’m more of a thinker and strategist”.

“I believe that Russia can be a very significant role in the world. It can be a problem as it is now, but it could be part of any solution. If I return to Russia, my goal is to make the country part of the solutions to the problems of the free world”.