Few things are as psychologically brutal as chess. — Garry Kasparov

Chess was natural for me; I was extremely successful. — Garry Kasparov

In chess, bigamy is acceptable but monarchy is absolute. — Garry Kasparov

Chess is mental torture. — Garry Kasparov

It’s quite difficult for me to imagine my life without chess. — Garry Kasparov

Caissa, the goddess of chess, had punished me for my conservative play, for betraying my nature. — Garry Kasparov

The public must come to see that chess is a violent sport. Chess is mental torture. — Garry Kasparov

Chess is life in miniature. Chess is struggle, chess is battles — Garry Kasparov

Perfectly correct chess exists only in theory. — Garry Kasparov

Chess is an art and not a spectator sport. — Garry Kasparov

The biggest problem I see among people who want to excel in chess–and in business and in life in general–is not trusting their instincts enough. — Garry Kasparov

The legend of the best player of chess has been destroyed. — Garry Kasparov

I am lucky, .. that the popular sport in the Soviet Union was chess and not baseball. — Garry Kasparov

Throughout my chess career I sought out new challenges, looking for things no one had done before. — Garry Kasparov

With this mistake I deprived myself of the possibility to make a contribution to the treasury of chess art. — Garry Kasparov

Chess strength in general and chess strength in a specific match are by no means one and the same thing. — Garry Kasparov

I feel that my chess strengths are still here, .. I believe I can still improve. — Garry Kasparov

It’s true that in chess as in politics, fund–raising and glad–handing matter. — Garry Kasparov

I learned that fighting on the chess board could also have an impact on the political climate in the country. — Garry Kasparov

Women, by their nature, are not exceptional chess players: they are not great fighters. — Garry Kasparov

The highest Art of the Chess player lies in not allowing your Opponent to show you what he can do. — Garry Kasparov

For me, chess is a language, and if it’s not my native tongue, it is one I learned via the immersion method at a young age. — Garry Kasparov

In chess the rules are fixed and the outcome is unpredictable, whereas in Putin’s Russia the rules are unpredictable and the outcome is fixed. — Garry Kasparov

I organize a chess festival in Hungary. I support chess in schools, and I have my own chess foundation. And I started writing books. — Garry Kasparov

You cannot say, ‘Go! Go! Rah! Rah! Good move!’ People want some emotion. Chess is an art and not a spectator sport. — Garry Kasparov

Putin is like Al Capone. — Garry Kasparov

Vladimir] Putin needs wars to legitimize his position. — Garry Kasparov

Russia is a mafia state today, and Putin is its top godfather. — Garry Kasparov

I have no idea how long Putin will last. The good news is, Putin doesn’t know either. It will be sudden and it won’t be peaceful. He has burned his bridges. — Garry Kasparov

We’ve been saying Putin is a dictator for years who doesn’t care about the law. — Garry Kasparov

I would like to travel to my country again, to a country without a dictatorship, to a post–Putin Russia. — Garry Kasparov

I tried to come up with a definition of this new paradigm in six articles entitled ‘Russia after Putin.’ I would consider Russia’s integration into Europe the most important element of this strategy. — Garry Kasparov

I think we have very steady records of President Putin, who inherited the country with democratic values. — Garry Kasparov

The only successor to President Putin is President Putin himself and we could of course dream about President Putin stepping down voluntarily and picking out successor which would be probably as bad as him. — Garry Kasparov

Putin recognized that if he could get enough money, everything would be under control. — Garry Kasparov

A brilliant strategy is, certainly, a matter of intelligence, but intelligence without audaciousness is not enough. — Garry Kasparov

What kind of strategy (is there) if you can get killed?. — Garry Kasparov

Tactics involve calculations that can tax the human brain, but when you boil them down, they are actually the simplest part of chess and are almost trivial compared to strategy. — Garry Kasparov

Without a goal [maneuvering is] aimless. You might be a master tactician, but you’ll have no sense of strategy. — Garry Kasparov

One does not succeed by sticking to convention. When your opponent can easily anticipate every move you make, your strategy deteriorates and becomes commoditized. — Garry Kasparov

I try to play, always, beautiful games…always I wanted to create masterpieces. — Garry Kasparov

I may play some exhibition games so I don’t want to quit the game of chess completely. I just decided and it’s a firm decision not to play competitive chess anymore. — Garry Kasparov

Weaknesses of character are normally shown in a game of chess. — Garry Kasparov

Nowadays games immediately appear on the Internet and thus the life of novelties is measured in hours. Modern professionals do not have the right to be forgetful–it is ‘life threatening’. — Garry Kasparov

There are fixed rules in chess, and no one knows how the game will end. — Garry Kasparov

A grandmaster needs to retain thousands of games in his head, for games are to him what the words of their mother tongue are to ordinary people, or notes or scores to musicians. — Garry Kasparov

The Kremlin is constantly changing the rules of the game to suit its purposes. We are not playing chess, we’re playing roulette. — Garry Kasparov

Of course, if people do not want to do any work then it is better to start the game from a random position. — Garry Kasparov

A game of chess holds many secrets. Fortunately! That is why we cannot clearly state whether chess is science, art, or a sport. — Garry Kasparov

I want to serve chess through games, books that are works of art. I would like to bring the game closer to many people all over the world. — Garry Kasparov

When I was preparing for one term’s work in the Botvinnik school I had to spend a lot of time on king and pawn endings. So when I came to a tricky position in my own games I knew the winning method. — Garry Kasparov

Russian Parliament today is a bunch of puppets that just fall in with the instructions from Kremlin. — Garry Kasparov

There’s the blazing Russian Caucasus, with an ongoing war all against all, which is not to be neglected. — Garry Kasparov

The Russian Dept of Tourism has declared Ukraine its most dangerous destination. Many Russian tourists have disappeared there. — Garry Kasparov

I now have Croatian citizenship, but I only accepted it because Croatia allowed me to keep my Russian passport. — Garry Kasparov

I think Russian people are learning that democracy is not an alien thing; it’s not a western invention. — Garry Kasparov

I don’t really like discussions about a supposed Russian national character. — Garry Kasparov

I reckon that there won’t be an intervention in the near future, because Georgia’s military adventure revealed the weakness of the Russian army. — Garry Kasparov

I think Russians today have a distorted picture of capitalism, liberal democracy and market economy. — Garry Kasparov

Furthermore, a large portion of the assets of leading Russian figures is mixed, meaning that it is not quite clear how to counter this development. — Garry Kasparov

There is no democracy in Russia. Dictators do not go away through the vote. Putin relies on riot police, thousands of them, with heavy equipment, fighting Russian youngsters from opposition. — Garry Kasparov

Dictatorships sometimes fall unexpectedly and quickly. And [Vladimir] Putin knows that for him, the loss of power doesn’t mean a comfortable retirement, but something completely different. — Garry Kasparov

It was not about losing my mental power; it’s about not feeling good about my contribution to the game. — Garry Kasparov

There are many facts showing that Putin’s people enriched themselves by using power mechanisms so that’s why for them losing power means losing their fortunes. — Garry Kasparov

Putin can’t afford to leave the office because he will be in real danger of being prosecuted for things he and his people did during their stay in power. — Garry Kasparov

There can be no finer example of the inspiring powers of competition to shatter the status quo than Hungary’s Judit Polgar. — Garry Kasparov

The downfall of democratic institutions in Russia doesn’t add to the self–confidence of either [Vladimir] Putin or his friends, as the loss of power could lead to repercussions in Russian society. — Garry Kasparov

In Armenia, the power de facto belongs to those who opted to take violent action in Karabakh. We are dealing with a military dictatorship that utilizes some kind of democratic procedures. — Garry Kasparov

Right, left, Greens, Baathists, whatever: it comes down to grabbing and holding power and using ideology–or religion, race–as a justification. — Garry Kasparov

It is quite clear, however, that there won’t be any real changes with the current clan structure having seized power in the course of the Karabakh conflict. — Garry Kasparov

It didn’t take long to recognise the shortcomings of the Soviet regime and to see the values of the free world. — Garry Kasparov

All that now seems to stand between Nigel and the prospect of the world crown is the unfortunate fact that fate brought him into this world only two years after Kasparov. — Garry Kasparov

The growth of violent extremism is partly a consequence of how the developed world has become complacent and defensive about its own greatness and ambition. — Garry Kasparov

In Syria, Vladimir pUTIN sees the chance to make millions of refugees and weaponise them. The US has to take a lead in defending the values of the free world. — Garry Kasparov

Values–oriented foreign policy of the free world would be much better, supported by the self–awareness of being on the right side of history. — Garry Kasparov

I’m not in favour of a regulation–free world. I align myself with Teddy Roosevelt, who broke up the trusts. Regulation is necessary, but it should be in favour of the consumer, the citizen, and freedom. — Garry Kasparov