Aryeh Davidoff: Lev Khariton's in-depth portrayal of G.Kasparov as an
opportunist and political bucaneer (at www.pakchess.com)

Kasparov vs. Putin: Tug of War, or Bringing Russia to Abyss

I suspect that those who read me will start saying again, ‘Lev,
please don’t mix chess politics”. Or, more rudely,
‘Mr.Khariton, mind your business’, etc.! But how can a
journalist keep silent when a chess player, and an-ex-World Champion
into the bargain, is permanently dabbling with high politics? An
adequate reaction, at least some consistent response, stands out as a
sheer necessity.

Just yesterday, owing to www.chessbase.com I read Kasparov’s
comments given to CBS News on March 15, 2004. They address the present
day political situation in Russia, and more particularly,
Mr.Putin’s elections and his unlimited power in the present-day
Russia. Kasparov, as is well known, with a group of certain public
figures opposed to Putin’s regime formed a few weeks ago a
committee that is planning to resist President Putin’s
reelection in 2008 This is all very nice and splendid if we did not
know Kasparov’s dictatorial and ruthless character, his own
passion for underlings and backscratchers, his own political and, I
would say, chess-political background.
Kasparov is the head of this committee, which is going to battle down
Putin in 2008. Naturally, it is no mistake to presume that Kasparov
has far-reaching ambitions to become in the not too distant future
another Russian President.

I would like to ask all chess players, all chess journalists, all
those people who have been following chess life in the last two
decades: has Kasparov done anything for the chess movement, either in
his country or in the world to improve chess as a profession? True, he
promised a lot. Suffice it to remember all chess organizations and
associations, all these PCAs, GMAs or whatever their names were. All
of them were total failures and failings. Kasparov got terrific funds
from various sponsors and all these organizations went bankrupt. The
same happened to his own sites, www.Kasparovchess.ru and
www.worldchessrating.ru . Last year the- ex-World Champion was about
to be sued by US and Israeli banks for embezzlement of their funds
invested in these mega sites.

More than that, Kasparov has done everything possible to destroy the
system of World Chess Championships. It is well documented that in
1993, together with English grandmasters Raymond Keene and Nigel
Short, by breaking away from the official FIDE World Championship and
going into conspiracy with these grandmasters he first undermined FIDE
as the world’s chess leading organization which later crumbled
under Mr.Ilyumzhinov’s authoritarian rule. Incidentally, today
Kasparov is criticizing President Putin as he used to criticize quite
recently President Ilyumzhinov. Later he became Ilyumzhinov’s
friend and signed with him the notorious Prague Agreement, another
poisonous blow to the world chess movement. Is there any guarantee
that one day Kasparov will not become Putin’s buddy? Suffice it
to remember Kasparov’s pendulum in his relations with
Campomanes, the former FIDE President, the most corrupt figure in the
chess world for almost two decades when Kasparov either attacked
Campomanes or made business deals with him.

As regards Russian politics, we all know Kasparov’s wide-ranging
spectrum of political sympathies in the last 20 years or so.
Gorbachev, Eltsin, General Lebed… At the tender age of 20
Kasparov joined the Communist Party of the USSR. Already at that time
many people understood all the implications of the words
“communism” and “communist”. Kasparov needed
his communist membership to advance more in his chess career in the
USSR. Today he says that he has become a “confirmed
anti-communist”. As the English expression goes, confirmed are
only old bachelors! We always hear from him the word
‘democracy’, which is actually a red herring in the mouths
of all politicians since the time of ancient Greece to distract the
people from real problems and to promise them the Garden of Eden on
Earth. Hopefully, more and more people are beginning to understand
today the true meaning of the word ‘democracy’, I would
say, the danger of this word as pronounced by those who are in power.

As far back as 1992 I wrote an article for “La Pensee
Ruses” in Paris entitled “Kasparov and Karpov: Are They
Enemies?” In that piece I expressed my view that both champions
had come from the same political systems, both were opportunists ready
to sacrifice any principle to achieve their goals. The difference
between them was only a matter of temperament: one, Karpov, even when
quarrelling with someone was always quietly closing the door, while
the other, Kasparov, was slamming it! Life has shown that I was right:
in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union both grandmasters
have been invariably changing their political affiliations as if they
were shirts to be sent to the laundry.

My question which I address both to the chess world and the Russian
people is: do you believe that one day, if Kasparov ever comes to
power, he will fulfill his democratic promises? Will he allow all
these freedoms and rights that he is ardently professing today? I
advise all and everyone to be vigilant! Russia as a country has been
suffering immeasurably in the course of almost ninety years, and the
Russian people in electing their leader have no right to make new
mistakes!

It would not be out of point here to consider some of the comments in
the CBS report. Here are a few quotes.

“Putin and Kasparov are symbols of the two paths Russia could
take, but the Russians, though masters of the subtleties of chess,
usually select the option of crude power.” Does the author of
these words think that chess makes Kasparov a soft politician? And is
he sure that Putin and Kasparov represent “two paths” and
not one?

“And it seems to me that within a few years, it will be fully
authoritarian state with elections just being called for the sake of
the rest of the world, just to show window of democracy, while the
country will be under severe KGB control”. Kasparov is not
saying anything new. About five years ago one of my Russian readers
after reading my article “KGB and Chess”commented that now
Russia has thrown off the yoke of KGB and is no longer a big
concentration camp. ‘Don’t you think, -I responded, - that
the small concentration camp Russia has become today will one day
become as big as before?’ This is obviously what is happening
today under Putin. But does Kasparov know how he will do in Russia
without KGB, without censorship, without all those institutes of
suppression that were not born in Russia and unfortunately exist
throughout the world, even in the so-called democratic countries? In
other words does he have a clear-cut program that envisages
eradicating all these ‘necessary evils’ of the
contemporary world? If he doesn’t, why should anyone believe his
promises that are no better than any pre-election promises of any
politician scaling political Olympus?

Kasparov says,"I don't want my son to grow up in such atmosphere, and
I believe that… and I believe it all the time, that there is a
moment for a person, who has certain substance and importance and is
known across the land, to take a stand. Or, just to leave the place."
I believe that the next best thing for Kasparov is to leave; moreover
he has so many friends in the West who still believe his demagogy. As
to his son, I think that being Kasparov’s son he will always
enjoy all the privileges in Russia. In general, it is praiseworthy
that Kasparov is thinking about children. I don’t know though
whether he was thinking about children when he advocated in his
articles in “Wall Street Journal” the bombing of Iraq and
other countries from the ‘axis of evil’. I would call
Kasparov a ‘well-proportioned humanist’. He knows in what
countries children deserve pity and in what countries they
don’t!..

“Chess is a highly personal duel between individuals but
Kasparov's latest "game" is being fought on behalf of the Russian
people”, the author of the CBS report assures the readers. Did
the Russian people entrust Kasparov to speak on their behalf? I
don’t think so. And the explanation is simple: knowing
Kasparov’s credentials (I have dwelt upon them above), they do
not want to find themselves in a stalemate.

BAH! Kasparov is just ticked because Putin isn't intimidated by him.
So he's gonna try to intimidate Putin. For a (former?) world chess
champion that sounds like a bad move to me.

EZoto

"EZoto" wrote in message
s.com...

BAH! Kasparov is just ticked because Putin isn't intimidated by him.
So he's gonna try to intimidate Putin. For a (former?) world chess
champion that sounds like a bad move to me.


Lev Khariton and Co. treat every move by Garrik as a bad move. Probably they
believe that only they don`t make mistakes ;-)

Regards,
Jerzy