The primaries and Kasparov

For years, Kasparov has claimed that life imitates chess. Until now, I’ve had a difficult time believing this, if only because life was here before chess, and because chess is a model of life rather than the other way around. full story »

Kamsky-Topalov: end of November

The Kamsky-Topalov match will be held at the end of 2008; after Anand-Kramnik. FIDE has scheduled the match between 26 November and 11 December. At the moment of writing, a Bulgarian bid to organize the match is well in the running, and so we foresee problems. full story »

Interview with Garry Kasparov (Part 1)

For everybody who’s looking for a good read during Christmas, we have a special treat. Chess journalist Gert Devreese had an interview with Garry Kasparov in april this year. After he saw our article on Kasparov’s simul in Belgium, Gert made the interview available for ChessVibes too, and it has not lost its topicality. Today part 1 of the interview, which was published before in the Belgian newspaper De Standaard. It is about Kasparov’s political career but also for example about his wife and kids. Tomorrow you can read the part about Kasparov’s chess career (which wasn’t published anywhere before). Enjoy! full story »

Kasparov throws in the towel

Ex-world chess champion and leader of the Russian opposition Garry Kasparov is dropping his presidential bid. Today Kasparov said in Moscow that he’s being hindered too much by the Russian government: “In all Moscow we have not been able to find a hall where our supporters could meet,” he said. His movement had encountered problems obtaining premises for a meeting officially required for his candidacy to be put forward in time. Because of all the problems Kasparov has encountered to promote The Other Russia, Kasparov finishes his electoral campaign tomorrow. full story »

“I didn’t dare eat the food.”

“Of course it is inaccurate to say that the police commander was the one in command. KGB officers in plain clothes were clearly in charge even at the police station, and the arrest itself was as choreographed as the trial to come. When the special security forces known as OMON pushed in past everyone else to arrest me, we could all hear “make sure you get Kasparov” on their walkie-talkies.” Yesterday Garry Kasparov wrote about his five-day detention in The Wall Street Journal. “I have no intention of becoming a martyr.” full story »

Kasparov released

After a five-day detention, Garry Kasparov has been released today. In a brief statement Kasparov called his arrest an example of Russia’s transition into a dictatorship. He also stated that the arrest was meant as a warning and that next time it would be a criminal case. full story »

Kasparov in jail, Fischer in hospital

The two greatest chess players ever are in the news this weekend. Garry Kasparov has been detained during a protest in Moscow, because of “organizing an illegal demonstration and not obeying police orders”. Update: two videos added. Bobby Fischer is hospitalized and he’s not doing well. Update: Fischer has been in a hospital for two months already. He suffers from kidney problems and his situation is said to be critical. full story »

Review: On the Edge of Elista, Topalov-Kramnik 2006

When the editor in chief asked me to review this book, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Almost everything has already been said about the controversial match between Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik, which was held in Elista slighty more than a year ago. For this review I wanted something new to write about. So, let me give a small disclaimer in advance: this review is not about the actual Toiletgate controversy and the arguments from both camps. Instead, I will try to focus on the perspective and the general idea behind the book. In my opinion, it is not at all about ‘Toiletgate’, but about something else altogether. full story »

Results of the Executive Board Meeting at the 78th FIDE Congress

Ilyumzhinov will continue his efforts to make chess an Olympic sports, Kramnik has signed the contract for the match against Anand already but Vishy “raised several points” and the contract between FIDE and Global Chess has finally been signed. These are some of the results of the Executive Board Meeting at the 78th FIDE Congress, held from November 11 till 16 in Antalya, Turkey. The members reviewed the developments of the chess world since the last Olympiad in Turin, examined the work of the FIDE Commissions and offices and communicated their future plans. full story »

What to do with politics?

Often there’s certain, political or otherwise sensitive chess news, and we’re not sure what to do with it here at ChessVibes. Garry Kasparov criticizing Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Kramnik putting Vishy Anand’s world title in doubt, or, like today, Teimour Radjabov expressing hatred against Armenia. We could have ignored the APA interview with Radjabov, because it all came down to just one (admittedly, astonishing) little sentence. We could have grabbed the trumpets and published the interview with a screaming header like “Teimur Radjabov: We all hate Armenians”. Instead, we decided to express our uncertainty. What to do with politics? full story »

Kasparov at CNN’s Late Report

It’s not over yet. Kasparov has now also appeared on CNN, where he told his story against Wolf Blitzer in the program Late Edition. Unfortunately not complete, but still, the interview can already be found on YouTube. You’ll find the transcript provided by CNN below. full story »

Kasparov at The Colbert Report

Yesterday Garry Kasparov appeared on US television. He was a guest in the comedy show The Colbert Report, a satyrical tv program about politics that is pretty big in the United States and is hosted by political humorist Stephen Colbert. Kasparov is on a tour in the US right now, promoting his book How Life Imitates Chess. More info at Mig’s blog. You can watch the Kasparov fragment here. full story »

Turkish Chess Federation has sued the European Chess Union

The Turkish Chess Federation has sued the European Chess Union on October the 3rd, 2007 in Lausanne. The President of the Turkish Chess Federation, Ali Nihat Yazici (photo), invited the President of European Chess Union Boris Kutin to resign his position as soon as possible. An open letter was published yesterday. full story »

Kasparov: “Kremlin obstructs book publication”

How is Kasparov doing these days? Busy with his crusade against Putin and co, of course, but he hasn’t made the headlines for a while. Which isn’t really helping. He still hasn’t left the chess scene completely; I saw he’ll be doing a simultaneous display at the Wch for pensioners, where he might feel at home in a strange way. But now there’s something rotten in Russia again; Kasparov accuses the Kremlin of obstructing the publication of the Russian translation of How Life Imitates Chess. full story »

Henrik Carlsen speaks out

On his increasingly popular blog, Magnus Carlsen’s father Henrik made some interesting statements about the current world championship cycle and the World Cup in December. He analyses the current situation and the privileges that both Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov received. Henrik’s insider’s point of view clarifies the complicated matter a bit more and therefore deserves mentioning. full story »

Kasparov arrested

Garry Kasparov was arrested today by the Russian police at a banned anti-Kremlin rally in central Moscow. It seems the police didn’t wait as long as they did last month in St Petersburg and wouldn’t let Kasparov and his Other Russia spread the anti-Putin word. The Russian President didn’t take half measures and threw in more than 9,000 police men to prevent the rally going ahead. Kasparov wanted to join the rally but was arrested together with other activists as well as journalists. full story »

The grandmaster is to move

The attentive daily newspaper readers won’t have missed it: a citizens riot in Russia, and all this led by ex-chess player Garry Kasparov. Chessvibes brings you – in cooperation with Olaf Koens of the Dutch quality blog Sargasso – a piece of background. Who is Garry Kasparov, and what does he want?

In December I (Olaf) wrote before about the opposition in Russia, a richly coloured collection of all, left-wing and right-wing, who are against Putin. The march in Moscow was clearly not a success, and even in Saint Petersburg – a city that has seen a revolution before – nobody had great expectations. Luckily, the opposite appeared to be true. More than 5,000 people stood up against the broadly shouldered power. Read here the stories of the printed Dutch press that perched down in ‘Piter’ by train.

How strong was Garry Kasparov as a chess player? The answer is quite simple: the best, ever. Because that’s what the experts agree on. Here a short biography, followed by an analysis of his recent speech in New York. full story »