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First game against Anatoly Karpov, a simul when Garry was 12.
19.01.2010 – Last year Garry Kasparov visited Asia – for the first time since the Philippines Olympiad in 1992. He was in India and in Malaysia, where our reporter Edwin Lam did a Q&A with him. Kasparov spoke engagingly and candidly about Asia, his early career as a chess player, his protégé Magnus Carlsen and his Chess Foundation in America. Not a line of blah in this interview. Must read.
“The interview with Garry Kasparov lasted forty minutes,” Edwin Lam tells us. “If his minder had not stopped us he would have gone on for hours. I can still see his eyes light up when he talked about Carlsen – he just glowed, and I saw so much passion when he was on that subject. I must say that I learnt a lot from the man himself in the Q&A – I learnt a lot about life, work. and coupled with a game theory book I was reading back then, The Art of Strategy, it re-shaped my thinking about work and how best to approach it.”
Bisik-Bisik with Garry Kasparov – Part 1
By Edwin Lam Choong Wai
Garry Kasparov made his first trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, back in mid November 2009, in order to speak at the Youth Engagement Summit (YES) 2009. I had the opportunity to catch up with the best player in chess history, ever, over a “Bisik-Bisik” session for ChessBase at the Putrajaya Convention Center. Our candid 40-minute chat covered a variety of topics. In this first part of the Bisik-Bisik session, Garry talked about his recent speaking engagements across Asia, his fascination with Malaysia, growing up years and most importantly, his collaboration with Magnus Carlsen.
Bisik-Bisik is a word from the Malay Archipelago, and means the act of “whispering” from one person to another. In my interviews I seeks to “whisper” to all our readers out there the previously unknown other side of his interview partners.
Edwin Lam: Is this your first trip to Malaysia?
Garry Kasparov: Yes, this is my first trip to Malaysia. 2009 is my first year that I have been around Asia. Due to the inequality in the distribution of chess events, I have travelled extensively across Europe, visiting many countries, many times. I have also been to the United States, Canada, Mexico and many Latin American countries, but never to Asia, with the only exception of the Philippines for the Chess Olympiad of 1992. It’s hard to imagine and people wouldn’t believe it if I say that before 2009, Philippines is the only Asian country I’ve ever visited. But, it is true! And, in this year alone, I’ve already made two trips to India, once to Delhi and the other one to Mumbai. The Mumbai trip took place only a couple of weeks ago for an all India IBM conference and now it’s Malaysia. I am definitely covering new areas on the map!
You had arrived in Malaysia about two days’ ago with your wife. Have you had the chance to go around Kuala Lumpur?
No, no, not yet. My wife and I liked what we have seen so far here in Putrajaya, the administrative capital of Malaysia. We went to the mall here in Putrajaya yesterday and it is very clean, very organized. We saw a very interesting mix of ethnic diversity in the population of Malaysia. The other thing that we observed in the mall was that 40% of the stores there are catering for kids. This is an interesting, and again, for me someone like me who is into politics, it’s always interesting to see how people behave in public places and the atmosphere of the mall on a Sunday, with a lot of middle class people and their families. It is interesting and the impression is very positive.
We also noticed one other thing: that the colors of the clothes worn by Malaysians are very bright. Again, this is a refreshing change from Europe and the United States, in winter. So far, we have been quite inspired by the overall atmosphere – it’s a very positive atmosphere and the people are friendly. I am sure there are other parts of Malaysia, especially Kuala Lumpur, where we can see more diversity. But, so far, the experience in Putrajaya has been very good. We will go to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow, after the speech and on the 18th of November. We have to see the Twin Towers, no doubt. Otherwise, it will be very strange, you know. Thanks to the flight schedule – the non-availability of daily flights to Moscow – meant that we are stuck here for one more day, and this is good news for us.
All this information is from www.chessbase.com For full report go to their website.