One newsletter I haven't discussed is a monthly effort from the 13th World Champion. I received the first, unsolicited issue at the email address I use on the index page for my World Championship site (m-w.com). I often receive spam at that email address, but this was one piece of email that I was happy to see:-
- The 13th from Garry Kasparov - July 2021 • 'A Message from Garry'
Kasparov's message started,
I'm happy to greet you with one of many new or relaunched projects. On the 13th of every month, this newsletter will send you my most recent op-eds and interviews, recommended reading, and more exclusive content. I’m excited to share my latest work and partnerships, as well as my insight into current events and an inside angle on developing stories that caught my eye. We’ll be making many additions and improvements in the coming months.
The first segment was an excerpt from Yuri Dokhoian, Dear Friend and Peerless Coach (kasparov.com). The second segment was about 'the launch of KasparovChess.com'. I wrote about that site on my main blog in The Second Incarnation of Kasparovchess.com (June 2022). Those segments convinced me that the newsletter was more than just another vehicle for his 'I-told-you-so' diatribes about Putin and was therefore worth keeping for its chess content. The next two newsletters arrived on schedule:-
Skipping over the next half-year we come to the first newsletter after the start of Russia's attack on Ukraine:-
Just so no one misunderstands my sentiments, I first covered the conflict in Yahoos of Madness, Yahoos of Tragedy (March 2022; 'Russia's brutal, barbaric attack on neighboring Ukraine and its impact on international chess'). Kasparov, who has no military experience and even less diplomatic instinct, was not shy about giving advice to Western military, diplomatic, and political leaders. In early March he granted interviews to two CNN news commentators. I saw the original, live(?) interview on CNN's 'New Day Weekend', but had to change the channel after Kasparov said,
[No] boots on the ground is a typical trick when they [NATO] want to cover their weakness. They introduce an argument that was not there. We are talking only about a no-fly zone. If NATO is not ready to confront Russia militarily in the skies, how are they going to defend the eastern flank [of NATO].
A no-fly zone is not considered boots on the ground? Defending non-NATO Ukraine is equivalent to defending a member of the NATO alliance? If anyone in authority had followed Kasparov's advice, we would all be dead now, so let's move on; the latest newsletter was:-
There's some chess in that issue, but there's much more about Putin. When Kasparov discusses chess, I listen carefully. When he disusses almost anything else -- AI included -- I change the channel. Apparently, I'm not alone. See We Need to Talk about Garry, Part 1 (kingpinchess.net; 'Why Life Does Not Imitate Chess'...), and follow the links for the other two parts. Once again we see that hubris is the occupational disease of the professional chess player.
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