Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Russian chess champion, writer, and political activist, widely acknowledged as the finest player of all time.
On the island
Eight records
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:28Do you miss winning?
Winning is not just moving the chess pieces. You just mentioned making the difference. And that's one of the most valuable lessons from my childhood, from my mother. And I'm very happy with my chess experience, with the knowledge of the game helping me to meet these challenges.
Presenter asks
5:38What were your feelings about the whole enterprise in your first match against Deep Blue in 1996?
If we are looking for the watershed moment in history, actually it's nineteen ninety six, not nineteen ninety seven, because though I won the match, match of the six games, I won three games, I lost one, but I lost game one in the match. And basically, if you want to have this YouTube milestone, that was the moment because the rest... From the scientific perspective, it was just a matter of time. It's like writing on a wall. If the machine could win one game, the rest... Could come one year later, two years later, three years later. It was the biggest challenge ever. I remember the cover of Newsweek, The Brain's Last Stand. I mean, no pressure.
Presenter asks
12:47You said that your mother decided not to remarry and devoted her life to you and your chess. What do you make of that decision?
There was a big moment, I learned about it later, when I played Anantoli Carpo the first match and it in 1984. And it's at the beginning it was a total disaster. I lost four games out of first nine and uh the winner had to take six games. So Carpo was so close to a big, big triumph. And uh it's my game just it was... It looked bleak, so just I couldn't actually find the right algorithm. So it's just somehow I failed to show what was my real strength. And some of my coaches have been influenced by the outsiders, and they tried to talk to my mother to convince me to give up. So basically to stop playing and just, you know, to resign to avoid the total disaster because losing six to nothing would be too painful. And she said, uh-uh, no, he has to go through everything. So just if this is his fate, to lose the match so badly, let's see what happens with him because this is the only way to temper his character.
The keepsakes
The luxury
Telescope? Sure. Um double use. I could watch the stars. And it's I always wanted to spend time, never had enough time. And it's I assume the desert island is in the in the south, southern sea, so there's plenty of stars there to watch. And also you can use it just looking for potentially for for a ship.
Presenter asks
17:43Take me to the moment you won the World Championship against Karpov. What was going on in your emotions at that moment?
It's very hard to squeeze everything in just in few words because the title of World Chess Champion in the Soviet Union, it was more than just a world champion. It was something absolutely unique. Many people who supported me they said it's the moment that Garry Kasparov has won this game and won the title and became the world champion, and Karpov lost, they realized that the whole system may one day collapse. Because, explain that to me. Because Karpov was, he became so close to the establishment. It's not only close to the establishment, it's part of the establishment. And the fact is that he was received by Brezhnev and he got all the awards, and it was the system. And I was not a rebel, so I just played by the rules. I didn't want to be seen as somebody who was challenging the system. But he was a Russian world champion, darling of the system, received by the top officials, including Leonard Bredin himself. And I was half Armenian, half Jewish from Baku, though enjoying support of local party officials who gave me some protection to organize preparation. I mean, not to be deprived of coaches and certain help that I needed to challenge Karpov. But still, it was a, I wouldn't say David and Goliath, but it's there. And I didn't feel it so distinctively as many other people, all the people, because I heard it. And only many years later, I just realized that it's a moment of revelation. Karpov lost. Maybe the whole system. Who knows? Maybe the whole system could one day go bust.
Presenter asks
25:25Your straightforward accusation is that the Russian regime is a criminal regime and a police state. Would that be fair?
It was fair, now it's much worse. It's a one-man dictatorship. It was a police state ten years ago, and I've been shouting in the desert, trying to bring attention to the fact that this regime was on the way of turning into an open dictatorship that would go after other countries. That's what happened with other dictators. They destroyed opposition in their own countries. They were in charge, in total control, but eventually they all needed new targets to justify their endless stay in power. And I knew that Putin would go elsewhere first to the neighboring countries, former Soviet republics, and eventually he would defy the biggest, the most powerful countries in the world. And that's why what's happened during US elections and many elections in Europe and all these now renowned facts of Russian interference has been predicted. I don't want to. I'm tired saying I told you so, and I just want one day just to be proven wrong.
Presenter asks
27:24Do you worry for your own safety, given that people who make enemies of Vladimir Putin often come to sticky ends?
My safety... At the end of the day, it's the only good answer. Would it help? I do what I believe is right. I will keep doing that. I'm here talking to you here in the studio London. I live in New York, so I travel mostly in the free world. There's still many people in Russia who are the front line and they have no protection at all. So look, I think I'm the only one who can help by just talking about Putin's regime and explaining that the keys to the freedom of my country are here in the banks and in financial institutions that are keeping and investing these enormous fortunes of Putin's cronies and henchmen.
“Winning is not just moving the chess pieces. You just mentioned making the difference. And that's one of the most valuable lessons from my childhood, from my mother.”
“If the machine could win one game, the rest could come one year later, two years later, three years later. It was the biggest challenge ever. I remember the cover of Newsweek, The Brain's Last Stand.”
“She said, uh-uh, no, he has to go through everything. So just if this is his fate, to lose the match so badly, let's see what happens with him because this is the only way to temper his character.”
“Karpov lost. Maybe the whole system. Who knows? Maybe the whole system could one day go bust.”
“It was fair, now it's much worse. It's a one-man dictatorship. It was a police state ten years ago, and I've been shouting in the desert, trying to bring attention to the fact that this regime was on the way of turning into an open dictatorship that would go after other countries.”
“I do what I believe is right. I will keep doing that. I'm here talking to you here in the studio London. I live in New York, so I travel mostly in the free world.”