Lev Khariton

Kasparov in the Flesh



I have not written on Kasparov for a long while. I felt I was getting sick
and tired of this topic. He has become too much of a tabloid hero. However,
quite recently I came upon his interview at www.kasparov.ru Once again I
realized that stupidity and self-conceit have no limit. Here are some of
Garri's nuggets and my short comments.

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"I have never had any doubts as to what I should do and what I should not"


Well, Garri is not a messy guy like, for example, Hamlet:

You can call me even a publicity seeker. But someone should do this job,
swinging people around.

Swinging people around?.. Not too much respect for people, I would say. At
least he calls people people. Not mobs. Thank you, Mr. Kasparov.

"I am older than my father now"

A most profound thought. Me too.

I am a one-blow man. As before, I was obsessed with one idea to become a
world champ, so much more today - only in politics:"

According to Soviet historiography, in annihilating Hitler, Stalin inflicted
ten blows on the enemy. Ten genius moves! Kasparov, however, needs only one
blow. Will that, so to speak, program encourage his electorate?

"Even with my head I cannot earn as much as I would do sitting on an oil
rig:"

And what if we connect this head to that oil rig?

'In 1990 we fled Baku. Then I understood that the city is not just stones.
The city, it's the people"

Oh God! How great! One question, however: were there no people in Baku
before 1990?

"Sometimes I feel that I am French born in Algeria, or I am English born in
India"

The world is big, Mr. Kasparov But sometimes it is not bad to be what you
really are. Actually, it is more than enough.

"In history, I believe, there were three ground-breaking moments that
changed drastically mass conscience. First, the appearance of the alphabet.
Second, book printing. And third, the Internet that globalize the world's
information"

One thing should not be forgotten here. The appearance of Garri Kasparov,
putting it in a nutshell, in its historic significance, is somewhere between
the invention of the wheel and the appearance of the alphabet.

"The person most important for me in my life is Churchill"

And I always thought that Garri's mother was far more important for him.

"My only strategy in politics is the strategy of survival"


Wouldn't it be better to give up politics? To live, and not to survive