MORTAL GAMES with Garry Kasparov

KASPAROV may not be such a formidable force in chess these days as he was at the height of his fame but nevertheless he has made moves on the chess board that has altered the end game in more ways than you can think of in two lifetimes.


Mortal Games: The Turbulent Genius of Garry Kasparov


THE undisputed King of Chess for the past 10 years is Garry Kasparov. In
the smallest territory on earth - all 64 squares in black and white,
Kasparov reigns supreme. From another perspective, the chess emperor rules
a realm that knows no frontiers - the human mind.
So it is with some trepidation that Fred Waitzkin, whose 11-year-old son
Joshua is also a chess prodigy, entered the world of Garry Kasparov for a
short spell in 1990 when the chess champion clashed with his archrival
Anatoly Karpov again for the world championship title.
Waitzkin who also wrote Searching for Bobby Fischer, which was recently
made into a movie, has captured the swirling intense emotions that gripped
Kasparov, his wife, mother and aides. These people celebrated with the
temperamental genius his frequent victories and suffered along with him
during his rare defeats.
Those who may harbour a passing fancy for chess will find Kasparov, as
Waitzkin described him, very much a human like the rest of us mortals,
maybe even more childishly so.
In Mortal Games, we venture into a world where chess is everything and
anybody who is even remotely connected to this cerebral sport would have a
deep respect for a man who can envision 20 moves ahead of any positional
situation on the chess board. Such a feat, calculated mathematically,
produces a combination of moves that are as astronomical as they are
awesome.
The point in this book is clear. Kasparov is not normal. Nobody ignores
Kasparov. Some of his rivals may dislike his haughtiness, which borders on
arrogance but they never regard him with indifference when seated opposite
him, especially when the clock is ticking away.
The way Waitzkin allows Kasparov to describe some of his crucial moves,
when the adrenalin is cruising full flood through his veins, is to catch
the essence of this mastermind.
Says the champion: "In chess, you have general rules to find the best
position for a piece, to fight for the open line, to have a strong centre,
to attack the opponent's king. The real art in chess is to evaluate the
factors because they are so different.
"People think of chess as a logical game and, yes, there is logic, but
at the highest level, the logic is often hidden. In some positions, where
calculation is almost impossible, you are navigating by your imagination
and feelings, playing with your fingers. For weaker players, great moves
often appear to be stupid. But if you feel the unity, you can do what
nobody understands."
A large portion of Mortal Games focuses on Kasparovs mind battles with
Karpov, the man with whom Kasparov clashed in 1984 for the first time for
the world chess title, and who nearly pulverised Kasparov. The outcome of
that bizarre encounter which lasted five months and covered 48 games
propelled Kasparov to the world's stage and eclipsed Karpov's long
glittering career as the toughest and strongest player then.
Just as Waitzkin pries open hidden facets of Kasparov's persona,
Karpov's other face is also revealed. Long associated with the Soviet
Communist Party and a close friend of former Soviet President Brezhnev,
Karpov says much but exposes little to Waitzkin, much akin to the way he
plays chess. The little that the author knows about Karpov and which he
shares with the reader is spellbinding.
But it is always Kasparov who fascinates. Mortal Games is weak in parts,
like Klara's relationship with her famous son Kasparov, or the influence
of his wife Masha on the champions career. These two inseparable parts of
the half-Jew, half Armenian boy wonder from Baku, Azerbaijan, are not
satisfactorily explored.
Waitzkin, however, unlocks Kasparov's mind on Gorbachev whom the chess
king hates, and the communists whom he greatly distrusts.
Garry Kasparov's love for his homeland Baku, his strong attachment to
his family, and the pain that still clutches his heart whenever he talks
about his loved ones who lost everything in Baku's pogroms cast a long
shadow on his life even as he travels to far reaches of the globe to
fulfil his destiny.
Some of the obscure chess greats make cameo appearances to add colour to
this book. Names like Gurevich, Salov, Korchnoi, Gata Kamsky, Dorfman,
Schwartzman and Zilber contribute in some way to 27-year-old Kasparov's
ascension to fame in 1990.
Mortal Games titillates simply because it goes beyond what you read in
the normal 12 paragraphs in the infrequent newspaper reports about
Kasparov's chess battles.
For most of us who cannot trace the origin of the King's Indian Defence
to anything, or may mistakenly associate Ruy Lopez with an American
singer, Waitzkin makes it easy for most chess nerds to understand the
relationship between the king and the queen, or the advantage of a
diagonal attack.
You don't need to be a chess player to comprehend the bloodlust of a
grandmaster as he makes his first 40 moves in two-and-a-half hours.
Waitzkin exposes it all in black and white - the excitement, the drama,
the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
To be sure, Mortal Games is also about the frailty of the mind. A number
of chess notables have met only insanity in their own tragic endgames.
But as Garry Kasparov, the No. 1 gladiator in the arena of this mortal
game, explains: "When you understand the essence of chess, the hidden
mechanisms, you can make something brilliant from what might appear really
stupid. Some positions are so complex that you cannot calculate two moves
ahead. You must use your intuition. Sometimes I play by my hand, by my
smell. At the highest level, chess is a talent to control unrelated
things. It is like controlling chaos."
Perhaps when you too can make sense of that chaos, it may be your turn
to meet Garry Kasparov. Chess, mate?