News of Garry Kasparov
24 November 2007: Garry Kasparov charged
The BBC reported today that Garry Kasparov has been charged with resisting arrest and organising an unauthorised protest following clashes with police in Moscow.
14 April 2007: Garry Kasparov arrested
Russian police arrested Garry Kasparov, who leads the United Civil Front group, part of the opposition coalition Other Russia, at a banned anti-Kremlin rally in Moscow.
Police were trying to prevent protesters from gathering at Pushkin Square.
The BBC report, Kasparov arrested at Moscow rally, has additional information.
13 December 2006: Garry Kasparov's United Civil Front offices searched in Moscow
Security and criminal police officers raided the office of the United Civil Front headed by Garry Kasparov, according to his aide, Marina Litvinovich.
An AP article in The Washington Post quotes Garry Kasparov as saying:
"That's an important message not only for people in Russia, but also for the rest of the world to see how new laws, which are supposed to fight extremism, are used against political opposition."
11 March 2005: Garry Kasparov retires from professional chess to spend time on battles off the board.
Dramatic news today as the world's greatest ever chess player Garry Kasparov announced that he is to give up competitive chess and devote his time to writing and to Russian politics, in particular, his opposition to President Vladimir Putin.
Kasparov made the announcement after he had succeeded in winning the famous Linares chess event. He scored 8 out of 12 points as did Bulgarian Veselin Topalov (who beat Kasparov in the last round), but Kasparov took the title as he has scored the most wins with the black pieces.
Kasparov said: "Before this tournament I made a conscious decision that Linares 2005 will be my last professional [tournament], and today I played my last professional game."
Kasparov told the press conference at Linares:
"... by the end of this year my new book will appear ... the tentative title of the book is How Life Imitates Chess. It is a very important project because I want to demonstrate to a mainstream audience how the game of chess can explain the decision-making process in many walks of life."
Kasparov added:
"I devote a certain amount of time to Russian politics, as every decent person should do, who opposes the dictator Vladimir Putin."
It is a blow to the chess world to lose Garry Kasparov, but it is fitting that he went out on a high. After being increasingly frustrated by the chess authorities, Kasparov has proven beyond doubt that he is still the world's number 1 player, officially or not.
Kasparov will be hoping that the title of his new book "How Life Imitates Chess" is prescient. Although he was sitting across the chessboard from Anatoly Karpov when he claimed the crown of world champion, Kasparov was, in parallel, taking the Russian authorities on and defeating them. A feat that he now hopes to repeat.
11 January 2005: Garry Kasparov claims Putin is a 'fascist' and warns of 'popular unrest'; meanwhile taking a swipe at Kramnik
Garry Kasparov is in London again, promoting the latest in his wonderful series of books, My Great Predecessors.
On a brief personal tangent, I was amongst those that queued up outside 'Chess and Bridge' in the Euston Road when he was previously in London to do signings of the first book in the series. I was delighted when he agreed to my rather strange request for him to not only sign the book, but also write a message on the back of a photo of my horse!
Originally it was though I had presented him with an awkward knight sacrifice as he looked totally non-plussed, but I explained that the horse was named Chigorin after the great Russian grandmaster.
He took the bait and now I must now be one of the few owners of a hand-written message by Kasparov writing to a horse wishing him the best of luck!
Back to the point. The BBC website has again done a brilliant job. They interviewed Kasparov and he was not backwards in coming forwards.
He urged the West to stop showing Putin their support: "The democracies are conceding to a brutal dictator. He has abolished the nature of democratic institutions. He will go further."
On the chess front, Kasparov was unsurprisingly scathing about the chaos reigned over by FIDE, the governing body of chess.
And Kasparov also criticised Vladimir Kramnik's attude as the reigning world champion. Since becoming the official world champion Vladimir Kramnik has not had to defend his crown in a meaningful way. Although he nearly got a nasty shock from the under-rated Peter Leko, who had his chances to beat Kramnik last year in what was a fairly dire encounter.
Kasparov provided a mixed message in the BBC interview. On the one hand his confidence shone through: "I'm the number one player in the world, Kramnik is number four."
But maybe his time has passed. Although a great player still, he admitted: "I don't care. I no longer have the same passion for playing the world championship."