Child prodigy; Garry Kasparov qualified as an international chess grandmaster at
the age of sixteen. He was world champion for fourteen years, during which his
attacking style and faultless strategy proved invincible. Most famously, he pitted
his talents against IBM’s Deep Blue computer, which could analyse 50 billion
moves in three minutes. The series still stands at one match each.
Though not in business himself, Garry’s presentations highlight themes that are
as pivotal in the corporate world as they are in chess. He shows how the most
complex challenge in either arena can be distilled down into strategy, decisionmaking,
use of resources and the desire to beat the competition.
Where appropriate Garry is happy to demonstrate the parallels, by playing up to
twenty-five simultaneous games of chess with conference delegates.
Garry Kasparov now devotes his time to politics. Years after his rivalry with
Karpov was seen as a show of opposition to the authoritarian Soviet state, he has
become a leading member of Russia’s Free Choice group and a vocal opponent of
the Putin / Medvedev regime.