The Jerusalem Post
May 25, 2005, Wednesday
Checkmating the Kremlin
by Kim Murphy La Times With Reporting By Sam Ser Of The Jerusalem
Post.
Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov will need to make some sharp moves
as he leads an effort to unseat Vladimir Putin as Russia’s president
MOSCOW – As a seven-year-old chess prodigy Garry Kasparov was already
beating opponents several times his age. When he was 22 he became the
youngest world chess champion in history and went on to become an
undefeated champion for nearly 10 years. Even his two matches against
an IBM supercomputer capable of analyzing 50 billion potential moves
in three minutes ended in a 1-1 tie.
In the end it can be said that Kasparov has defeated all of his
intellectual adversaries but one: Vladimir V. Putin. And now Kasparov
is making his move against the Russian president.
Announcing his retirement from chess recently the 42- year-old master
declared that his new vocation is politics and vowed to take on the
increasingly autocratic power structure ruling Russia. He wants Putin
to step down in 2008 as the constitution mandates and a
democratically elected ruler to take his place.
“I think we have more than enough data today to figure out where
Putin is heading. His record from 1999 to the spring of this year is
very consistent. Everything has been part of a positive plan of
eliminating the democratic state in order to protect the power base
that helped him to stay on top Kasparov said in a recent interview at
his Moscow apartment.
Our goal now is just to make sure we have an election. It’s not even
about winning said Kasparov, who refuses to say whether he would run
in 2008. It’s about making sure that we restore the election
mechanisms because the trend in Russia now is all negative. In 2004
the presidential election was a farce a sort of appointment… And
there are no doubts that it was just the beginning. Because they
can’t stop.”
KASPAROV IS thought by many to be the best chess player in history.
He was born in Baku in the then-Soviet republic of Azerbaijan as Gari
Weinstein son of a Jewish father. After his father died when he was a
teenager he took on a Russian version of his Armenian mother’s maiden
name.
Kasparov’s chess talent was apparent at an early age. At 12 he became
the youngest ever player to win the USSR Junior Championship. Four
years later he won the World Junior Championship and achieved the
title of grandmaster on his 17th birthday.
His first title match from September 1984 to February 1985 against
Anatoly Karpov was the longest in chess history. After 48 games the
psychological and physical strain on Karpov who was leading but
appeared likely to lose caused chess authorities to end the match
inconclusively amid controversy.
Kasparov won a rematch six months later becoming the youngest world
champion ever. He defended his title against Karpov in 1986 1987 and
1990.
But Kasparov’s toughest opponent was Deep Blue a chess-playing
computer program. His defeat by Deep Blue in 1997 was seen as a
watershed moment in technological advancement but in 2003 he averted
a similar defeat when he agreed to a draw in the last game of his
series against Deep Junior which could process 3 million chess moves
per second.
“Kasparov has the most incredible look-ahead and memory capabilities
I have ever seen said Shay Bushinsky, the Deep Junior programmer,
after the match.
For years, though, Kasparov has been an outspoken supporter of Israel
in the international arena. He has visited the country several times,
especially to strengthen the Tel Aviv chess club established in his
name.
Kasparov told the Jerusalem Post earlier this month that believed
that Israel’s Russian immigrant population should speak out to draw
the West’s attention to the dangers that Putin’s regime poses.
Western leaders don’t care at all about Putin and his record on
democracy as long as he can provide them with some sort of stability
in Russia he said, but Putin is not providing stability at all. The
Chechen war is spreading with Islamists joining what was once a
nationalist separatist fight and increasing terrorism dramatically…
so Russia is actually less safe today than it was before Putin took
office he told the Post.
There are widespread doubts that the powerful circle of business and
bureaucracy around Putin will be willing to cede power when he is
obliged to leave office at the end of his second term. Some predict
that an heir apparent” will step forward and simply take Putin’s
place as figurehead. Others believe that Putin and the party that
backs him United Russia may try to manage the 2007 parliamentary
elections to such a degree that it will enable power to be shifted to
the parliament with Putin as prime minister.
Putin has repeatedly said he will not run again in 2008 but recently
declined to rule out coming back in 2012
Kasparov has been quietly raising his political profile since the
2004 presidential election when he co- founded a nonpartisan
pro-democracy organization aimed at giving Russia a “free choice” in
its leadership.
Then facing continuing battles with the international chess
federation over administration of the world chess title he announced
in March that he was abandoning the game professionally to pursue
politics and write full-time.
“I felt that I could use my resources to apply my philosophy my
strategic vision in my native country because it’s such a crucial
decisive moment in history and I felt my presence could make some
difference said Kasparov, who claims that he has been banned from
state- owned television because of the threat he poses to the
government.
I don’t have any negative record in the eyes of the Russian people. I
don’t have any ties to oligarchs or to Yeltsin’s Russia. I’m a person
who’s been defending Soviet national colors Russian national colors
he said. People listening to Garry Kasparov who is independent and
saying all the things I’m telling you in Russian and very
passionately may cause a collision in the eyes of Russians who have
had no chance to hear opposite opinions.”
KASPAROV BELIEVES he brings another important quality to the table in
his political duel with Putin: a chess player’s rationality.
He is finishing work on a book scheduled for publication in 2006
titled How Life Imitates Chess. In it he asserts that the sharp
reasoning and brilliant intuition that guide a chess player’s moves
are the same elements that determine all effective decision-making.
“I have a strange idea that the decisions made by the housewife and
the president of the United States consist of similar ingredients he
said. And at the end of the day a lot of it is intuition.
In Kasparov’s case intuition tells him that Russians are losing
patience.
“I have been traveling around the regions and in St. Petersburg in
January I was accused of being too conformist he said. I mean some of
my statements were considered as being too accommodating to Putin’s
regime. So you see within the Garden Ring (of central Moscow) I’m an
extreme radical. But the moment you move outside I’m more at the
center of the debate.
“People are ready to talk to you about action. I can see a huge
difference between now and six months ago. And it’s not only elderly
pensioners. It’s students. In the last six months and I’m a
professional chess player I can sense it. There’s a huge change in
their mind. They want action. They’re losing faith in their future.”
For all the opposition the big focus is not on 2008 but on the next
parliamentary elections in 2007 when Russia’s future most likely will
be determined.
Kasparov said his task will be to convince the public that forfeiting
democracy is too high a price to pay for the promise of stability
that Putin undoubtedly offers. But he believes that the public no
longer sees democracy as the threat it did when Russia’s fledgling
freedom in the early post-Soviet years brought widespread poverty and
social collapse.
“It’s a very painful educational process he said. But people are now
recognizing that maybe democracy is not as bad; it’s not an alien
invention sent by Western intelligence but it’s something that could
help them guarantee their own security.”
GRAPHIC: 2 photos: KASPAROV SAYS he brings an important quality to
the table in his political duel with Putin: a chess player’s
rationality. (Credit: Ap. Brian Hendler)