Garry Kasparov is esteemed by many as the greatest chess player of all time. Now he’s engaged in a game with far higher stakes: the preservation of democracy.
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When 22-year-old Garry Kasparov became the world’s youngest chess Grand Champion, few could predict his turbulent career in chess or as a dissident. His chessboard wizardry was already the stuff of legend when, in 1997, he made headlines when he lost a rematch to IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer, ushering AI into the public sphere.
Kasparov’s book Winter Is Coming details the rise of Putin’s Russia as well as Kasparov’s persecution and self-exile, and it serves chilling warnings of reactionary forces gathering in the West. He is the chair of the Human Rights Foundation, succeeding his predecessor Vaclav Havel.
