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Garry Kasparov: 'kicking and screaming'

It was a relaxed and good-humored Garry Kasparov who appeared in the live commentary beside hosts Yasser Seirawan and Jennifer Shahade, and to the delight of spectators, he seemed in no hurry to leave. He spoke openly about a variety of topics including opening advice to Nakamura (to not repeat his mistake against Kramnik), effusive credit to Vishy Anand, and chess in the USA.


Opening advice
Jennifer Shahade: If you were working with Nakamura before this game (round eight with black against Magnus Carlsen), in light of the tournament score, what openings would you recommend for Nakamura…against Magnus specifically?

Garry Kasparov: (Instantly) The King’s Indian.

JS: We were speculating that he might try that again.

GK: You have to play your openings. It’s nothing against the Queen’s Gambit Declined. It’s very solid. I think that for Hikaru to play the Queen’s Gambit, it requires a lot of patience. Also, it’s the preparation: you have to know all the details, and Magnus has played it with both colors. Of course Magnus can play the King’s Indian, but there’s always a chance to complicate things, to create some counterchances. And even if you go down, you will be kicking and screaming. While here, you know, you will be just screaming. (laughs).

GK: I think that the moment the queens are off the board, Hikaru is… less enthusiastic, which is natural because he’s a great player, a tactical player, very resourceful, and positions without queens offer less opportunity for him to show his strengths. You always want to make sure that your strengths will be on display, and you don’t want to play into your opponent’s strengths. This was a mistake I made while playing Kramnik.

About Anand
GK: With all due respect, he is not a young man. He is the oldest player in the Grand Prix and he is 46. He was a World Champion in his forties, while the competition is much younger, I think that tells a lot about his chess ability, his strength. Even with his composure, and his ability to deflect the tension, it’s tough, it’s very tough. He’s competing with young boys who are twenty or more years younger than he is, and there are also all the expectations… it’s tough. We have to give him credit, but 46 is a tough age.



YS: What age did you retire?

GK: I was 41.

YS: Wow.

GK: Yes.
YS: So you retired way too early…

GK: That tells you more about the credit you should give to Vishy. For playing and playing so successfully. It’s not so much the success though. Karpov played for quite a long time, but the games were not very educational for professional players. Some tough games that could go on and on, but it was more about Karpov’s technique. Vishy is playing creative chess. There are many games where he comes up with new ideas, so he’s still not just a strong player, one of the top players in the world, he is also a creative force. So you can learn from his games. He’s good with computers, and he’s always looking for new ideas. That’s why when you look at the way he is playing the openings, it’s not just entertaining, but also very educational for other players.

The fall of the Soviet chess armada
GK: In the Soviet Union, chess was a very important factor. A social, cultural, and also political factor. There was a huge investment by the communist state to make sure the great talents were found. That’s why there was the network… Not chess and education, let’s not confuse these two things, but to make sure the talent, from almost anywhere could be noticed and eventually brought into the system, and given the opportunity to realize his or her potential. It is gone with the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it’s happening now in other countries.

(Jennifer and Yasser gesture to indicate the United States)

Absolutely.

YS: like China….GK: But China is more like the Soviet model. Here in America it’s different, but the game is gaining ground. (…) Now, chess has become a factor. So parents are looking at chess as a potential opportunity for their kids, which means more kids, especially from the Asian families, where the parents are looking for every chance for their kids. This is a country with 310 million people, so there is so much talent, and it creates big opportunity. The moment chess is being considered by 5% of this population…



Kasparov noted that England, a force in international chess, currently does not even have
an International Master under 18

YS: …15 million people.

GK: Yes,  the advantage of the Soviet Union was that millions of kids went through the network. If you look at the former Soviet Union, one of the most successful countries was Armenia with only 3.5 million people because chess was mandatory in the schools for a few years. And Armenia with such a small population won three Chess Olympiads, Ukraine won two…. And Russia won none since I left the Russian team. So it just tells you that what’s important is not having a massive population like China, it’s about the number of kids that are interested in the game, and parents that would love their kids to have this extra opportunity.

Players from the past
JS: If you could take any player from the past to play in the Sinquefield Cup, who would it be?

GK: Look, Karpov in his prime. He was a very strong player.

YS: (laughs) Yes, he was.

GK: I would say Karpov from 1974-75, when he played Spassky. For fun, Tal from 1959.

YS: Of all your predecessors, who would you like to have dinner with and maybe play a blitz game.

GK: Dinner? Lasker. Blitz? Maybe with young Tal.

It isn't a normal game of Chess !

It isn't a normal game of Chess !

CHESS LEARNING MADE EASY AND IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

Recently, lots of students have asked me to adapt my courses for IPad/IPhone, tablet computers, etc. I’ve just found a good way to do so easily and really nicely. Moreover, it will simplify and improve thelearning process for you in many ways.
I’m going to move my courses to the “Udemy” learning platform. So, what is Udemy?

Udemy is the world’s online learning marketplace, where 7 million+ students are taking courses in everything from programming to yoga to photography – and much, much more.

I’ve already moved the FREE mini-course “The Secrets of Strong Chess Players” here: LINK

Therefore, now you can get the following benefits:

• Learn my courses on virtually any device (computer, mobile phone, tablet, etc.)
• NO technical issues – at all! You learn the courses online. Hence, you don’t need to download them, decompress them or do anything else.
• The course is with you anywhere. You access the course through the internet, from any location.
• The course is with you forever. Even if something happens to your computer, you can’t lose the course – it’s on the internet. 
• You can communicate with other like-minded students who are studying the same course.
• A nice design and smooth transition between the lessons make it easy and enjoyable to study.

You may give it a try yourself here: LINK

Even if you have studied this mini-course in the past, I always recommend that you repeat studyingimportant lessons a few times. Only then do you develop a real SKILL that you can apply in a practical game.

These lessons are one of the most popular things I’ve ever done – they have already collected around500,000 views on YouTube. It’s definitely worth giving it a go, as it contains powerful information. 
Let me ask you two quick things.

• Please let me know your opinion of this new way of presenting my lessons – the Udemy platform. Do you like it? Would you prefer to have all my courses work like that? Feel free to share your opinion in comments below.
• If you enjoyed the mini-course “The Secrets of Strong Players”, please rate it on here (LINK). It will take only a few seconds to leave some feedback, and I’ll really appreciate it. Thank you! 

There is a famous quote by the ‘endgame-expert’, Capablanca:

“To improve at chess, you should in the first instance study the endgame.”

- Jose Capablanca

I’ve often said that the endgame stage is like an ocean – there are a lot of things that you can learn about endgames, like theoretical positions, fundamental positions, endings with different pieces, checkmating patterns and lots more.

To help you UNDERSTAND and surf this ocean easily, we’ll be adding a new premium video about endgames to our shop. 
Talking about chess openings, we conducted a survey few weeks ago to hear your requests for our future opening courses. Many of you preferred courses on the “Sicilian Defence” opening and some1.d4 openings.

Recently, we released the course the “Bogo-Indian Defense” (LINK) as a way of fulfilling your wishes for 1.d4 openings.
For the “Sicilian Defence” opening, we’ll be adding a premium video which is about a famous variation of the Sicilian. It is the “Grand Prix Attack”.

Therefore, extending our duty to provide the BEST lessons and courses for you, the two new products from GM Simon Williams we’ll be adding to our shop are “Killer Endgames” with GM Nick Pert and “Killer Grand Prix” with GM Gawain Jones. 

They will be released on Thursday 27 August. Stay tuned, as I may be providing you with some huge offers!

Finally, I’d like to confirm one small but important point. In recent times, we’ve been providing you with video lessons and courses from our guest coaches and partners. At the same time, I take part in everything that RCA produces. Even if a lesson is recorded by another author, I supervise this process, making sure that you get a high-quality lesson.