KASPAROV TO UPPER WEST SIDE
By Chloe Malle
The New York Observer
how-chess-imitates-life-kasparov-captures-penthous e
Dec 2 2009
In 1985, at age 22, Garry Kasparov was the youngest world chess
champion in history. Now, almost a quarter of a century later, Mr.
Kasparov has retired from chess, taking up politics in its stead as a
fierce critic of Vladimir Putin and a public enemy of the Kremlin. (He
once declared of the current Russian government, "The system is not
corrupt–corruption is the system.") The chess prodigy and political
dissident, who, according to an interview with Macleans Canada,
"has no life" due to his choice to enter politics, recently bought
a $3.4 million penthouse apartment on West 76th Street.
The UK Guardian reported in 2007 that Mr. Kasparov spends thousands of
dollars on bodyguards each month to protect him and his family. But,
I wouldn’t worry about him having to sell the family silver as it seems
that the chess grandmaster has money to spend. As well as his recent
$3.4 million purchase on the Upper West Side, Mr. Kasparov keeps
residences in Paris, Moscow, Leningrad and that political hotbed:
New Jersey. The deed for the penthouse condo was filed under the
names of both Mr. Kasparov and his third wife, Daria, with whom he
has a young daughter.
Mr. Kasparov, who was arrested during a protest in Moscow in 2007,
told Playboy in an interview, "If something goes wrong with me or my
family, I don’t think there’s a chance for them [the Kremlin] to say
they aren’t guilty. For many Russians, I’m a symbol of national pride.
I was the Soviet champion even for the left wing, even for the
nationalists. I’m not Garry Kasparov, half-Armenian, half-Jewish born,
but the Soviet champion, the man who was on top of the world of chess,
the pride of the nation."
Mr. Kasparov may soon assume a new role as the international pride
of the Upper West Side.