Garry Kasparov: Trending quotes (page 2)

Garry Kasparov

2010s, Interview with Bill Kristol (2016)

Success

“This obligation to move can be a burden to a player without strategic vision.”

Garry Kasparov

Part I, Chapter 3, Strategy And Tactics At Work, p. 36
2000s, How Life Imitates Chess (2007)

“As for polling, when an anonymous caller reaches a Russian at home to ask his opinion of the man who controls every aspect of the Russian police state, it would take great courage to report anything less than enthusiastic support. It is a testament to the bravery of many of my countrymen that Putin does not yet receive the 99 percent approval scores that Saddam Hussein and Muammar Qaddafi enjoyed up until the minute they no longer had the power of life and death over their own citizens.”

Garry Kasparov

2010s, The Truth About Putin (2018)

Life , Death , Home , Courage

“Russia’s election spectacle on March 18 isn’t only a domestic distraction. It provides Putin’s defenders in the free world with rhetorical ammunition, as do the approval polls and fake controversies over the fake opposition candidates. There is no form of democratic process or opposition in Putin’s Russia. Pretending otherwise makes you complicit in his propaganda. Stop calling them elections. Stop calling Putin a president. Stop calling to congratulate him on his victories. Let us begin the fight against Putin’s lies with the fundamental truth about what he really is.”

Garry Kasparov

2010s, The Truth About Putin (2018)

Truth , World , Victory , Fight

“It's not common, in our age, for someone to retire while still at the top, but I'm a man who needs a goal, and who wants to make a difference.”

Garry Kasparov

Source: 2010s, Winter is Coming (2015), p. 136

Age

“The NSA is to the Stasi what a bad hotel is to a maximum security prison.”

Garry Kasparov

Source: 2010s, Winter is Coming (2015), p. 223

“The old joke about the two main Soviet papers, Pravda (“Truth”) and Izvestia (“News”), was “There’s no news in the Truth and no truth in the News!””

Garry Kasparov

2010s, The Truth About Putin (2018)

Truth

“[I]t's very important to understand that this is the dictators always operate short-term, and democracies must operate long-term because it’s not about one individual who’s currently running the country, whether it’s president or prime minister. It’s about the success of the country. It’s about the success of the system. It’s about pressing, you know, all advantages and their strategic, lasting institutions that could make the difference even when the president or prime minister is no longer in the office.”

Garry Kasparov

2010s, Interview with Bill Kristol (2016)

Democracy , Understanding , Success , Country

“Since ’91, it was more of poker because again, it’s America, even today is much more powerful than all the enemies combined. It’s probably the first time after the collapse of the Soviet Union that the forces of freedom, the free world, had overwhelming military and economic advantage. And also politically, it dominated the field because even the worst dictatorships now they’re trying to pretend that they have elections. Not pressing it’s advantages looks quite odd because it again create this vacuum, and also I think it affects ordinary people in these countries. Whether it’s Iran, Arab countries, Russia, because they used to look at America as a beacon of freedom and the country that stood firm defending the free world. And now it’s quite odd because America is there, but America is not there. The whole stories about current political climate here and elections, they’re for the eroding reputation of the United States, and I think the damage caused by this administration to the prestige of the country, and especially to the prestige of the presidency, this damage could take years to recover and rebuild.”

Garry Kasparov

2010s, Interview with Bill Kristol (2016)

People , World , Thinking , Freedom

“Like any bully, Putin only picks fights that he is sure he can win. History tells us that sooner or later, he will become so overconfident, so accustomed to his opponents folding their cards against his weak hand, that he will overstep, potentially resulting in a catastrophe on a global scale.”

Garry Kasparov

2010s, The Truth About Putin (2018)

History , Fight

“[C]hess was treated by the Soviet authorities as a very important and useful ideological tool to demonstrate the intellectual superiority of the Soviet communist regime over the decadent West.”

Garry Kasparov

2010s, Interview with Bill Kristol (2016)

“It's not enough to be talented. It's not enough to work hard and to study late into the night. You must also become intimately aware of the methods you use to reach your decisions.”

Garry Kasparov

Part I, Chapter 1, The Lesson, p. 14
2000s, How Life Imitates Chess (2007)

Decision , Study , Night

“This is not to say that a dictator or his policies cannot have popular support. The problem is defining what support means after 18 years of a personality cult and 24/7 propaganda that portrays Putin as a demigod protecting Russia from deadly enemies without and within. A year of fake news trolling and half-baked social media memes had half of America and its vaunted media running in circles in 2016. Imagine what it does to a population when that’s all there is, every hour, every day, for nearly two decades.”

Garry Kasparov

2010s, The Truth About Putin (2018)

Imagination , Support , Problem , Personality

“"Socialism with a human face"?… Frankenstein also had a human face.”

Garry Kasparov

2010s, Interview with Bill Kristol (2016)

“We have to always look ahead enough moves to be well prepared, even for victory!”

Garry Kasparov

Part III, Epilogue, p. 204
2000s, How Life Imitates Chess (2007)

Victory

“There are an infinite number of ways to lie and only one truth. Propaganda today is not a wall, not a dike holding back information from reaching the people. It is a flood, overwhelming our critical thinking. The concept is not to promote a particular narrative or agenda but to create doubt and to make people believe that the truth is unknowable. There are no Russian forces in Ukraine. Russia didn’t meddle in the U. S. election. The popular Vladimir Putin was reelected on March 18, 2018.”

Garry Kasparov

2010s, The Truth About Putin (2018)

People , Truth , Lie , Way

“Having spent a lifetime analyzing the game of chess and comparing the capacity of computers to the capacity of the human brain, I've often wondered, where does our success come from? The answer is synthesis, the ability to combine creativity and calculation, art and science, into a whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts. Chess is a unique cognitive nexus, a place where art and science come together in the human mind, and are then refined and improved by experience.”

Garry Kasparov

Opening Gambit, Why Chess?, p. 4
2000s, How Life Imitates Chess (2007)

Art , Game , Science , Success

“It’s easy to lose your reputation, it’s easy to lose your friends, to lose their confidence, than to regain it.”

Garry Kasparov

2010s, Interview with Bill Kristol (2016)

Confidence

“Great leaders are formed only by taking on great challenges.”

Garry Kasparov

Source: 2010s, Winter is Coming (2015), p. 190

“Putin is willing to poison bodies in the free world, not only minds. Why would he do this? Why would he call attention to his murderous ways now? Well, I’ll turn that around and ask instead, why wouldn’t he? Dictators don’t ask “Why,” they ask “Why not?””

Garry Kasparov

2010s, The Truth About Putin (2018)

World , Way