Ken Rogoff on chess addiction and why he had to give up the game
Kenneth Saul Rogoff is the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Professor
of Economics at Harvard University. He has served as an economist at the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), and at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System,
and has also been an advisor on the team of a recent presidential candidate.
As a former chess grandmaster, who at the height of this career he was ranked
number forty in the world, Ken has not been able to abandon his love of the
game. Last year and this year again he visited the London Chess Classic, and
in fact even joined in the live commentary of games. In the VIP room he was
consulted by practically everbody, especially at a time when the world economy
seems to be in serious trouble and the European monetary union on the verge
of collapse.
Rogoff explaining things to GM Nigel Short and Pakistani women's champion
Dr. (Med.) Nida Siddiqui, who was playing in the Open
On the free day the sponsor give a private dinner for special guests: organiser
Malcolm Pein,
Ken Rogoff, sponsor Peter Davies, Garry Kasparov and Natasha Rogoff, a film
producer in New York
Every year Harvard Economics Professor Ken Rogoff says he recieves an unsolicited
letter from one of the world's top chess players. It is a different one every
year but the question is the same: how can I get out of chess.
Because Ken Rogoff is one of those exceptional people who has managed to excel
not just in one field but in two.
Professor Rogoff has been chief economist at the IMF, he's worked the Federal
Reserve, but he had a life before economics. As a child Ken developed an all-consuming
passion for chess. He left home - and school - at 15 to pursue this passion
and he did very well indeed. He became an international grand master -- the
highest title in chess and was once ranked 40th in the World.
Justin Rowlatt asks Ken Rogoff why was forced to decide to stop playing the
game he loved.
Other recent stories
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Newsmax:
Harvard’s Rogoff: Gold Sales Won’t Solve Europe’s Woes
It has been suggested that European governments unload some of their massive
gold holdings to shore up their shaky finances. So what does Harvard economics
professor Kenneth Rogoff, who has studied official gold reserves, think
of the idea? It’s a no go, he says. First and foremost, they don’t
have enough gold to do the trick. A few statistics are telling. In Greece,
government debt totals 143 percent of GDP, while gold amounts to 2 percent
of GDP. In Italy, it’s 119 percent for debt and 7 percent for gold.
In Spain, it’s 60 percent for debt and 11 percent for GDP.
-
Rogoff:
Is capitalism sustainable? (reproduced in CNN)
"I am often asked if the recent global financial crisis marks the beginning
of the end of modern capitalism. It is a curious question, because it seems
to presume that there is a viable replacement waiting in the wings. The
truth of the matter is that, for now at least, the only serious alternatives
to today’s dominant Anglo-American paradigm are other forms of capitalism."
-
Rogoff:
Technology and Inequality – parallels in chess
When a leading economic thinker happens to also be a strong chess
grandmaster, his explanations of financial matters tend to draw allegories
from the game he loves. Prof. Kenneth Rogoff periodically sets out his views
in TV interviews and newspaper columns. Here is one from Project Syndicate
that has appeared in many news sites. Includes a warm birthday greetings
to ChessBase.
-
Grandmasters
and Global Growth
Professor Kenneth Rogoff is a strong chess grandmaster, who also happens
to be one of the world's leading economists. In a Project Syndicate article
that appeared this week Ken sees the new decade as one in which "artificial
intelligence hits escape velocity," with an economic impact on par
with the emergence of India and China. He uses computer chess to illustrated
the point.
-
Rogoff: Things
are not going to get better soon
Are you baffled by the global financial crisis? Are the contradictory statements
put out by various experts confusing you? Then listen to this interview
with one of the world's leading economists, Kenneth S. Rogoff, who very
lucidly explains the current situation, its causes and its possible remedies.
Ken is also a chess grandmaster, and in 1972 he played a jewel of a game.
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