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Date Posted: Fri, November 14 2003, 14:08:09
Author: Peter van der Hoog
Subject: Lev Khariton: Where are you going, Garri

On November 2nd Garri Kasparov gave an interview to the Spanish newspaper "La Vanguardia". I would like to comment on certain views and ideas expressed by the 13th World Champion in this interview.

"I am an anti-Communist, and a Communist can never become my friend". A very interesting declaration! Obviously, Kasparov has his own way of choosing friends. I guess that on meeting anyone for the first time he inquires whether his particular person is a Communist!

Speaking seriously, I would like, however, to know why Kasparov, whenever he appears in public, focuses on communism. True, very few people including the author of these lines would find any good word for communism, especially knowing the dictatorial, totalitarian system
that reigned supreme in the Soviet Union for many years.

However, Kasparov was one of these few who exploited the communist system in the USSR and, more particularly in Azerbaijan to the fullest. Right from the very start of his chess career he received all the benefits of the communist system for free. He did not have to pay the best chess coaches, his trips to international tournaments were covered by the USSR Sports Committee, he enjoyed the support of the Azerbaijan Government, namely the support of Geidar Aliev, Brezhnev's right-hand man.

More surprisingly, Kasparov joined the Communist Party when he was twenty! What for did he do that? Actually, he has never openly admitted that, but when I was translating into English his biography for a special booklet for his first match with Karpov in 1984, I was really shocked to find that information. Was it necessary for him to be a communist to defeat Karpov? Or did he really believe in
communism? Or, in a broader sense, when should we believe Kasparov:
when he says that his political convictions and ideological views are the same today as they were twenty years ago? In other words, is he what he used to be when he got an all-round support from the communist leaders being himself a member of the Communist party, or is he an anti-Communist as he claims to be today?

The same questions should be put as regards Kasparov's political affiliations. Nowadays he speaks with disgust about Russia's President Putin. Kasparov maintains that Putin has always been a KGB agent. Is it a curse or a compliment knowing that Kasparov was propelled to chess Olympus owing to KGB involvement in his matches with Karpov.
Kasparov's trainer Alexander Nikitin was unequivocal on that score in his book "Kasparov's Biography", praising those who had helped Kasparov and his team to prevail in the World Championship matches.

In his interview to the Spanish paper Kasparov speaks about his loneliness, that he has to take decisions in his life himself. Well, I cannot believe Kasparov. I always judged people by their friends. But who are Kasparov's friends? Mostly people rolling in money, people changing their ideas and ideals as easily as one can change gloves.
Rich tycoons and businessmen. And first and foremost, those who flatter him day and night. Suffice it to mention some names: Averbakh, Roshal, Swarzenegger,Rotschild, Friedel, Bilunov, Shipov, Mig (Greengard), Fetisov.Very few people dare to criticize him. However, I would not be objective if I did not cite some names: Ed.Winter, T.Kingston, Wolff, Watson. who write critical articles regarding Kasparov's book "Predecessors". As a case of outrageous injustice I can qualify the decision of the British Chess Federation to award Kasparov's "Predecessors" the prize of the "book of the year". The book full of analytical mistakes, an outright compilation outshadowed in the eyes of the British jury the excellent books of their compatriots Watson and Miles. Besides, nobody awards prizes to separate volumes (this year it was Volume One, and next year, may be, Volume Two or Three?!).

Yes, Kasparov calls Putin a KGB agent. For years this has been a derogatory cliché. We know how these agents devastated the Soviet Union arresting and killing millions of people. But Kasparov is just using well-known clichés. His friend Yuri Averbakh some years ago pronounced now notoriously proverbial and cynical words:"What is the
shame in being a KGB agent?"

I would not like to leave Kasparov's political views unheeded. Again he is using another political cliché: double standards. But all his, so to say, political philosophy is based on double standards! Why is he defending the Israeli army and government wiping out Palestinian civilians under the pretext of anti-terrorist retaliations (oh! the "innocent theory" of collateral damage) and at the same time he is criticizing Russia's army carrying out an aggressive war against Chechnya? In my opinion, we can equate these two wars qualifying them as genocide of small and innocent nations. Why does the word "Islam" in Kasparov's interpretation sound as a curse of millions of Muslims?
He cannot forgive the Palestinians or Iraqis their Islamic
fundamentalism but he does not seem to remember that the same Islam is the religion of the Chechens. No, fulfilling the political and ideological orders of certain political tycoons Kasparov is ready to pass Black for White, something that he never does in chess!

I remember how ten years ago just before the Kasparov-Short match Lev Polugayevsky told me that he was going to London to annotate all the games of the match. "I want to show to the world, - Polugayevsky said,- how wrong Kasparov sometimes is in his chess evaluations.".
Yes, Polugayevsky was justly called by Spassky "the greatest chess critic of our time". However, I believe it was not easy to find errors or inaccuracies in Garri's chess games. His evaluations and moves outside the chess board, in the world of politics, or if you like, chess politics are not only erroneous. They are absolutely amateurish!

I again return to Nikitin's book on Kasparov: "Garri was dying to find himself in the center of Russia's political life (that was after the August putsch in Russia in 1991 - L.K.). He often appeared on television, he was interviewed by the media, he wanted to create various political parties. The role of Cassandra, the prophet, suited
him perfectly. He was throwing himself in the political life unwilling to admit that serious political activities and the title of the World Champion excluded each other. As to the organization of chess life, he often proposed interesting, profound ideas. However, when his ideas
were accepted by his chess colleagues, it was always for him a sign of his infallibility. His mother saw a Messiah in him, and he considered himself as a unique person. This provoked the animosity of even his friends who were turning away from him"
"Chess victories almost always stimulated World Champions to desire tobe the first in other domains. This desire transforms often into a habit, even an obsession, - continues Nikitin.- For Kasparov his title became a challenge to his self-esteem. Now he is running, sometimes
without knowing where he is moving, without even noticing that his friends and colleagues are staying behind and even leaving him. He is running without knowing WHERE, but convinced that he will will win.
Where are you running, Garri?"

Really, where?

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