Kasparov, Karpov to Replay 1984 Epic Battle

Former chess world champions Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov will meet this September again on the anniversary of their first match for the crown:

Chess legends to play again 25 years after famous battle

MOSCOW (AFP) — Chess legends Garry Kasparov and Anatoli Karpov are to relive their epic 1984 world championship duel 25 years on by contesting a new match this September in the Spanish city of Valencia.

"It will be 25 years since the start of the matches (against Karpov), there is nostalgia about this unique event," Kasparov, now a Russian opposition politician and Kremlin critic, told AFP. "This is where modern chess began."

The September 21-24 match is not expected to reflect the suspense of their first encounter and will be more of "a ceremonial tournament", Kasparov said, explaining there would be a time-limit on moves. . . .

Full article here.

Kasparov Interruptus

In a slight departure from our usual PG-rated policy, we bring you this excerpt from a speech given by former world chess champion Garry Kasparov over the weekend, at which his critics, presumably loyalists to former Russian President Vladimir Putin, opted to express their displeasure with Garry in a decidedly puerile fashion.

Propriety prevents us from glossing further on the event, but you can go to the Belfast Telegraph for details.

If you think the U.S. is the only place where politics have descended into juvenile depths, perhaps you'll want to reconsider.

Kasparov Elected President of Russia

In a stunning development that has sent shock waves through the capitals of the world, the Supreme Court of Russia has overturned the country’s recent presidential election and named former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov Russia’s new head of state.

The court’s decision represents a 180-degree reversal of the original election, which installed Dmitry Medvedev as the hand-picked successor to Vladimir Putin. Though doubts about the integrity of the election were widespread outside of Russia, calls for greater openness fell on deaf ears, and Putin’s grip on the country’s institutions appeared solid.

[**Exclusive photos of Kasparov's first day in office**]

That solidity began to unravel, however, when it was learned that the voting machines used in the election were the same ones used in Florida for the U.S. presidential election of 2000, and that the vote count in Russia had been secretly overseen by former Florida Secretary of State and Bush campaign official Katherine Harris.

The revelations created a scandal that quickly devoured the country's ruling elite.

“Our political system has a high tolerance for corruption,” said a senior Russian official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “But even we have our limits, and a connection to the 2000 debacle in Florida was too much of an embarrassment even for us. Bringing in Katherine Harris to count the votes was pretty outrageous. Medvedev had to go.”

Kasparov, who was a declared candidate for president, even though his name wasn’t on the ballot, immediately took the oath of office and moved to consolidate power and reform the country. To motivate citizens of the world’s largest nation, he ordered copies of his recent book, How Life Imitates Chess, air-dropped in large quantities onto Russia’s major cities. He sent Moscow police to raid the hookah club reported to be operating in the basement of KGB headquarters. To quell jittery financial markets and prove that he was in control, Kasparov took to the airwaves his first night in office and delivered a nationally televised lecture on the Sicilian Najdorf.

And in an attempt to inject vitality into the ossified Russian chess establishment, Kasparov appointed the young Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk to Commissar of Chess.

World reaction was mixed. In Washington, President Bush was cautious. “I trusted Vladimir Putin because I had looked into his soul,” Bush said. “I don’t know much about this Kasparov fellow except that he hangs out with Mig Greengard and Paul Hoffman, which worries me.”

Sen. Barack Obama said he hoped Kasparov could bring much-need change to Russia. He invited the new president to Chicago and his Hyde Park home, promising to introduce the former world champ to the chess hustlers outside Starbucks and at the 53rd Street Borders. Sen. Hillary Clinton expressed doubts about whether Kasparov had been fully vetted and wondered if he had the experience to be commander-in-chief of Russia on day one.

“You mean when I make a call to the Kremlin at 3:00 a.m., a chess player’s going to pick it up?” she asked.

Presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain said the volatility in Russia proved that we must keep American troops in Iraq for a hundred years.

“Make it two hundred,” he added as an afterthought.

There was reaction from the chess world as well. Though initially declining comment, GM Judit Polgar said that “as long as Garry remembers the touch-move rule, he should be okay.”

FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who’s now in the awkward position of having Kasparov as his boss, could not be reached for comment immediately, though a spokesperson in Elista said the president of the Kalmykian Republic was “conferring with his space chums.” Western diplomatic sources said this was code, interpreting it to mean that Kirsan had undergone another alien abduction.

In New York, chess blogger Elizabeth Vicary called Kasparov a “right winger,” prompting angry denunciations from Boston Blitz Manager Matt Phelps, who said her USCL Blogger of the Year Award should be rescinded. Phelps was soon joined by Blitz players Chris Williams and Ilya Krasik for a torrent of online invective. League Commissioner Greg Shahade appealed for calm, but at last count there were 618 anonymous comments on the blog thread, not counting 277 profanity-laced messages that had been removed by Vicary’s cats, who serve as the site’s administrators during the day, while she’s off teaching at Brooklyn’s I.S. 318.

Having rooted out corruption and put the machinery of reform into high gear, Kasparov repaired to his dacha in the country with Greengard to begin work on his new book about recent Russian political history. Tentative title: My Lousy Predecessors.

Was Fischer Planning a Comeback?

Not surprsingly, the media and blogosphere have been abuzz over the death of Bobby Fischer. Much of the outpouring has been the predictable ritual hand-wringing about the tragedy of a genius gone mad, but there have been a few deeper and more provocative reports that I think are worth reading.

For the record, I yield to no one in my disgust over the late world champion’s conduct and bigotry in the later years of his life, but I am not so bound to political correctness that I cannot at the same time appreciate the pathos and bathos of the Fischer story. It seems necessary to state this because I have heard people say that to spend any time reflecting on Fischer is unseemly. I disagree. One does not have to like or approve of Fischer to find his biography fascinating, and finding it so, I would add, does not constitute a weakness of character or indifference to his failings.

You are of course free to disagree, and if you do you may wish to read no further in this post, lest you be seduced into finding unwonted titillation in a tale you have already foresworn on moral grounds.

One of the more interesting stories to emerge in the past two weeks said that at the time of his death Fischer was looking to end his 35 years of exile from chess and return to the board. The Associated Press reports that GM Helgi Olafsson, acting on Fischer’s behalf, had exchanged e-mails with World Champion Vishy Anand about a match in which the two would play Fisher Random Chess, also known as Chess 960, a chess variant invented by Fischer in which the pieces in the back rank are scrambled, forcing players to be creative and rendering memorization of opening sequences moot. Fischer had said on a number of occasions that he was no longer interested in traditional chess.

Would such a match really have happened had Fischer lived? I doubt it. He was known for expressing interest in such meets in the past—just last year there was talk of one between Fischer and Anatoly Karpov—but he always pulled out at the end, often claiming the prize money was inadequate, even when it was in the millions.

If you’re looking for just a few pieces to read about Fischer that round things out, I’d recommend New York Times articles by chess writer Dylan Loeb McClain, Bruce Weber, and the always-excellent Ed Rothstein. Good blog posts include Chessdad64 and Streatham & Brixton.

There is also this sad story about Fischer’s estrangement from his mother, Garry Kasparov’s reactions here and here, and this item about the looming fight over Fischer’s estate.

Postscript: Speaking of Fischer Random Chess, thanks to the miracle of blog widgets you can now play a truncated version of that game (30 squares, 20 pieces) right here on this page, near the bottom of the righthand column.

(Revised Tuesday morning, 01/29/08)

Kasparov Released

Former chess world champion Garry Kasprov has been released from jail, apparently unharmed, after serving the five-day sentence meted out to him by a Moscow court in a spurious trial earlier in the week. Kasparov was arrested and sentenced for leading a demonstration against the Russian government. Details from The Other Russia and Mig.

In an odd twist, former world champion Anatoly Karpov, Kasparov's longtime rival and personal nemesis, tried to visit Garry in jail but was turned away. It was a welcome gesture from Karpov, who as far as I know supports the Putin government.

Too bad he didn't get in. Mig speculates that since Kasparov had a chess set with him in his cell, the two could have played the greatest game of jailhouse chess of all time.

Is the Internet Killing “Real” Chess?

From the northern suburbs of New York City, the epicenter of American chess, comes a cri de coeur from veteran tournament player Polly Wright, who laments the decline of two local chess clubs in her area. According to Polly, the culprit is the Internet, which has made it so easy to play online that fewer people are venturing out to chess clubs.

It’s not the first time the Internet has been linked to the downfall of over-the-board (OTB) chess. Glenn Panner sees the trend here in the Chicago area, Jack Le Moine raised the issue in a forum on Susan Polgar’s blog, and someone named The Parrot claimed as long ago as 2004 that the Net had killed adult OTB chess. Two summers ago I chatted with some of the regulars at the North Avenue Chess Pavilion about this. These were players who had been going there for years, and some of them were convinced that the Internet was hurting attendance at the popular lakefront chess venue.

Polly’s ambivalence is palpable. “The Internet sucks!” she says, then adding: “Not really. I love the Internet, but at the same time I hate what has happened to local chess clubs that have lost players to Internet chess.”

I too have mixed feelings. The Internet is a great boon to chess. It enables anyone with online access to play anytime of the day or night, something that would have been impossible in the past. I play at several Web sites, and I enjoy it.

Yet as seems to happen with so many technologies that improve our lives in certain respects, the Internet also “bites back,” as it were, triggering unintended adverse consequences that make things worse in other respects. The problem isn’t limited to chess: We humans are simply better at developing new technologies than we are at controlling those technologies and making sure they serve our conscious and considered human needs. No one wants the Internet to hurt traditional chess, yet it may be doing just that, and our prospects for reversing the trend don’t look good at the moment.

What do you think? Feel free to leave comments below.

Postscript I. I haven’t been following the World Youth Chess Championships in Turkey, where a number of American kids are competing and holding their own. Fortunately, Chessdad64 is covering it, so I don’t have to.

Postscript II: The whole world is watching as Garry Kasparov remains in custody in Moscow. In an unusual twist that has his wife and mother extremely worried, his jailers have not allowed anyone to visit him.

“Of course we are very worried, especially after hearing the police at the court say they had been ordered in advance to arrest Garry specifically,” Dasha Kasparova, Garry’s wife, told The Other Russia. “Who knows what they have planned for him? And why can’t we visit him? We are asking everyone to get this story out and to let Putin know that the world is watching and that he will be responsible if any further harm comes to Garry.”

To paraphrase Tom Lehrer: Garry’s family gets worried, I get worried. See our previous post about how to contact the Russian consulate in New York to lodge a protest. The Other Russia and Mig Greengard’s blog seem to be the places to go for updates.

tournament photo: johhnyscars via flickr

Kasparov Jailed Again

For at least the second time this year, former world chess champion Garry Kasparov has been arrested in Moscow for leading a protest against the government of the Vladimir Putin.

After his April arrest, Kasparov was fined and released. This time he was sentenced to five days in jail. The Associated Press has details and photos. The video clip below is from an earlier protest at which Kasparov spoke.



Since retiring from competitive chess in 2005, Kasparov has stepped up his opposition to the Putin regime. As a leader of the dissident group The Other Russia, Garry is running against Putin for the Russian presidency, and although he has no chance of winning the government apparently regards him as a serious enough threat to harrass him continually.

You can protest Garry’s arrest by writing to the Russian consulate, calling them at (212) 348-0926, or sending snail mail to 9 East 91st Street, New York, NY 10128.

A Novel Defense

I just finished reading Paul Hoffman’s excellent book King’s Gambit. In it he interviews GM Nigel Short, touching on Short’s 1993 defeat by Garry Kasparov for the world championship. Hoffman reports that unlike many grandmasters, who make noise and carry on at the chess board in attempts to unnerve their opponents during games, Short’s over-the-board behavior is always professional and respectful.

But has Paul seen this?



(Hat tip: Streatham & Brixton)

Kasparov Detained

This just in. Former world champion Garry Kasparov has been arrested at a demonstration in Moscow. Let's hope it's over quickly. If you have any friends in the Kremlin, please call and raise a stink. I don't suppose the Russian consulate in Chicago is open today, but it might be worth a try. Maybe they have an answering machine, though I suspect that's unlikely. Anyone with more info please post it in comments. Thanks.

Police detain Kasparov at Moscow march

By MIKE ECKEL, Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW - Police detained Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion, and at least 100 other activists Saturday as they gathered for a forbidden anti-Kremlin demonstration in central Moscow.

The so-called Dissenters' March increased tension between opposition supporters who complain the Kremlin is cracking down on political dissent and authorities who vow to block any unauthorized demonstrations.

A similar march planned for St. Petersburg on Sunday also has been banned.

Full text here.

Update (Saturday night): CNN is reporting that Garry has been fined and released. Incidentally, it appears there is no Russian consulate in Chicago at the moment.