Garry Kasparov on Chess, the Cold War, and the West's Shameful Appeasement of Putin x`

"I think we've forgotten many important lessons of the Cold war,” says human-rights activist and former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov. Especially when it comes to dealing with Russian leader Vladimir Putin: “You cannot project weakness....Putin's game is [not chess but] poker. And he knows how to bluff."

As the leader of United Civil Front and chairman of the Human Rights Foundation, Kasparov also worries that business and political leaders in what used to be called “the Free World” are no longer interested in backing large, transformative projects similar to landing a man on the Moon and the creation of the Internet. “It is very important that we have these projects to energize society,” he says. “And also that we don’t eliminate risk. Because it seems to me that now we teach kids from school that failure is nothing but failure. If you fail, you are a failure. No, no, I believe that failure is a logical move on the way to success.”

After becoming the youngest World Chess Champion in 1985, Kasparov went on to a career that is among the greatest in the sport. Originally supportive of Gorbachev’s reform, when the Soviet Union collapsed, Kasparov became increasingly outspoken against the failures of Russian leadership, especially under Putin.

Reason’s Nick Gillespie interviewed Kasparov in New York in November at a dinner co-hosted by the Atlas Network, a nonprofit that promotes free-market think tanks in the developing world.





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