Garry Kasparov on Bill Maher
11/17/2018 – On Friday American comedian, talk show host and political agitator had, for the third time at least, former World Champion Garry Kasparov on his show. Kasparov, who lives in quasi-exile in New York, is a ferocious critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and in recent years has been equally critical of the US President Donald Trump. You can watch the Real Time with Bill Maher show on HBO, or catch the section with Kasparov on YouTube.
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How many moves would it take to beat Trump?
You probably know Bill Maher. He is an American TV talk show host and political commentator who in 1993 started a show called Politically Incorrect on Comedy Central (and then on ABC).
In 2003 he switched to HBO and has hosted the political talk show Real Time with Bill Maher until today. Maher is famous for his comedic skills, his sarcasm, satire and political commentary. He is known as a vocal critic of creeping political correctness, of bureaucracy, religion, and currently of Donald Trump and the Republican Party. Maher supports LGBT rights and same-sex marriage, as well as the legalisation of marihuana. In 2010 he received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
You certainly know Garry Kasparov: born in Azerbaijan, 13th World Chess Champion, dominated the chess world for decades, retired in 2005, etc. He now lives in New York and is chairman for the Human Rights Foundation. Kasparov is a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin — which is clear from his book Winter is Coming. Since 2016 his ire has also been directed at US President Donald Trump.
Kasparov has an article in Fight for Liberty, a newly published book (October 2018) that makes an urgent case for liberal democracy — reinvigorating its central values in an age of doubt and discord. You can read the entire article in the Amazon preview section — it starts on page 61.
How I became World Champion Vol.1 1973-1985
Garry Kasparov's rise to the top was meteoric and at his very first attempt he managed to become World Champion, the youngest of all time. In over six hours of video, he gives a first hand account of crucial events from recent chess history, you can improve your chess understanding and enjoy explanations and comments from a unique and outstanding personality on and off the chess board.
On Friday Kasparov was on Real Time with Bill Maher, the last show before a two-month pause. He was quick-witted and eloquent, and displayed an astonishing degree of knowledge about US politics, including the Midterm Elections:
Garry Kasparov's recent appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher
If you want to catch the whole November 16th Real Time show, including Kasparov's interaction with the other guests, you can watch it on HBO or find a relatively good quality post on YouTube (like this one).
We remind our readers that this is not the first time Garry has been on Bill Maher. This satellite appearance eleven years ago has historical value. And here is his May 1st 2015 visit — with his panel interaction. And if you get hooked, like we did, just search YouTube for Bill Maher Garry Kasparov.
Maher portrait | Angela George CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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Discussion and Feedback
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@ MKP1151 - Read my first comment in this thread. It's a front, not to say a scam. (Or -in the absolute best case- not at all as simple as you may think.)
I have tremendous respect for Garry Kasparov, not only as one of the great chess champions of all time, but especially for his stand in favor of human rights and democracy. But I think he really is out of his depth talking about American politics, especially with a gasbag like Bill Maher, for whom I have no respect at all. I think Kasparov demeaned himself by appearing on this show.
As an example: Rex Sinquefield was a support of Trump (cf. for example https://www.rexsinquefield.com/trump-pro-growth-plan-simplifies-tax-code-steers-economy-to-greater-opportunity-for-all/) and nonetheless seems to be quite close to Kasparov; this seems to demonstrate, in my opinion, that it is indeed possible to have quite good "chess relationships" even when disagreeing on political subjects. And I suppose that Sinquefield and Kasparov must talk much more frequently of chess-related subjects than of politics!!
@ fons3:
"@ Petrarlsen (& others): Don't read the comments then. (Or open the article.)"
You don't seem to have read my answer to Zmeu, who expressed - with different words... - the exact same idea than you !!! (He said precisely: "Why click on the article if you're not interested in the topic?".)
I will not put a second time my answer to Zmeu, as you can find it quite easily: it is only 7 posts lower than this comment in the comments section...
"@ Petrarlsen (& others): Don't read the comments then. (Or open the article.)"
You don't seem to have read my answer to Zmeu, who expressed - with different words... - the exact same idea than you !!! (He said precisely: "Why click on the article if you're not interested in the topic?".)
I will not put a second time my answer to Zmeu, as you can find it quite easily: it is only 7 posts lower than this comment in the comments section...
Why bring politics into chess? Maher and his left wing views may receive a pat on the back from Hollywood and Kasparov but they have no place on a chess news site. Characterizing conservatism as the end of democracy is indicative of how little Kasparov and Maher understand about the subject. Neither has a clue. Kasparov should stick to the one subject he is an authority on - chess.
I don't like the ChessBase now playing with politics. I love chess but be care full to mix chess and politics. That being said I'm a Latino who live in America and I support our president Donald J Trump! I don't care what Kasparov think about our great president, Kasparov is another pawn been using for wrong purpose. If Kasparov don't like our president he can go back where he came from. Don't try to change America. LATINOS FOR TRUMP!!!! TRUMP 2020!!!
@ Petrarlsen (& others): Don't read the comments then. (Or open the article.)
The main reason why this article exists is because Kasparov is one of the all time greatest players of the game and whatever he does gets attention by chess journalists.
That being said, I would also appreciate it if chess journalists adopted a more prudent approach when it comes to matters like this because for the most part chess players are no better than any random person on subjects other than chess. Kasparov for his part is just abusing his fame for political activism. Very nefarious activism if you look into it.
I also find it hard to justify this article. What's the purpose? It's not just some chess player on a TV show, there's a little bit more going on here. The video is nothing more than Putin & Russia bashing. Does ChessBase see itself as a propaganda outlet for the US? Do they want to stoke the conflict, a conflict that might lead to war? Do they realize they have Russian customers? Maybe they should ask them what they think about all this.
Who Are These Russians And Why Do We Hate Them?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw_nPUI6wwk
[Cue sockpuppet that pretends to be Russian & hates Putin & loves the US war machine.]
The main reason why this article exists is because Kasparov is one of the all time greatest players of the game and whatever he does gets attention by chess journalists.
That being said, I would also appreciate it if chess journalists adopted a more prudent approach when it comes to matters like this because for the most part chess players are no better than any random person on subjects other than chess. Kasparov for his part is just abusing his fame for political activism. Very nefarious activism if you look into it.
I also find it hard to justify this article. What's the purpose? It's not just some chess player on a TV show, there's a little bit more going on here. The video is nothing more than Putin & Russia bashing. Does ChessBase see itself as a propaganda outlet for the US? Do they want to stoke the conflict, a conflict that might lead to war? Do they realize they have Russian customers? Maybe they should ask them what they think about all this.
Who Are These Russians And Why Do We Hate Them?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw_nPUI6wwk
[Cue sockpuppet that pretends to be Russian & hates Putin & loves the US war machine.]
Decredico's last post is a perfect example of what I explained on this page.
Now there will be a Trump or Putin supporter who will answer by an equally excited post (...or someone who doesn't agree either with the Trumpophiles or the anti-Trumpophiles...), and this is exactly what I think we could very well do without on ChessBase...
Now there will be a Trump or Putin supporter who will answer by an equally excited post (...or someone who doesn't agree either with the Trumpophiles or the anti-Trumpophiles...), and this is exactly what I think we could very well do without on ChessBase...
What is with all the Trumpy bear supporters here and the lies that he is not in cohoots with Putin? Trumpy has been kept afloat by Rusian mob money for close to 40 years. He is a full-time criminal and Kasparov is as spot on here as he was in deciding games against Karpov.
Out of the 14 commentators giving an opinion about this article:
- 6 are unfavorable to political articles on ChessBase;
- 5 disagree with Kasparov;
- 2 are favorable to political articles on ChessBase;
- 1 agrees with Kasparov.
So the most represented opinion (at least for the moment) ISN'T an opinion favorable or unfavorable to Kasparov's views, BUT an opinion unfavorable to political articles in general, on ChessBase. And I think that this is rather significant.
- 6 are unfavorable to political articles on ChessBase;
- 5 disagree with Kasparov;
- 2 are favorable to political articles on ChessBase;
- 1 agrees with Kasparov.
So the most represented opinion (at least for the moment) ISN'T an opinion favorable or unfavorable to Kasparov's views, BUT an opinion unfavorable to political articles in general, on ChessBase. And I think that this is rather significant.
@ Zmeu:
"Why click on the article if you're not interested in the topic?"
But yes, I am interested in politics and I don't think that anyone said the opposite. It is just simply that politics, contrary to nearly ANY other subject, create "ideological agitation", and contribute to separate the ChessBase public in two (or more...) camps, and I think that it is a pity. It is normal that the chess audience can form camps around chess subject, but I don't think that it something positive to contribute to form camps around non-chess subjects.
You will probably say that these camps already exist, and that this isn't a problem, but no, I don't think that these camps exist "automatically"; people have their own opinions about politics, but, if these subjects aren't detailed in some articles, these subjects aren't discussed, and it is quite possible to have very good relations with people having very different opinions about politics than you. Whether, when people have been harshly opposed on political subjects (...and more or less every political article on ChessBase ends up with harsh oppositions between commentators...), good relationships between these people will be MUCH more difficult. So I think that this sort of article is rather creating problems were it wouldn't be necessary to have any problems...
As some say, "there is a place and a time for everything", and I don't think that a ChessBase article is the place for harsh political disputes...
"Why click on the article if you're not interested in the topic?"
But yes, I am interested in politics and I don't think that anyone said the opposite. It is just simply that politics, contrary to nearly ANY other subject, create "ideological agitation", and contribute to separate the ChessBase public in two (or more...) camps, and I think that it is a pity. It is normal that the chess audience can form camps around chess subject, but I don't think that it something positive to contribute to form camps around non-chess subjects.
You will probably say that these camps already exist, and that this isn't a problem, but no, I don't think that these camps exist "automatically"; people have their own opinions about politics, but, if these subjects aren't detailed in some articles, these subjects aren't discussed, and it is quite possible to have very good relations with people having very different opinions about politics than you. Whether, when people have been harshly opposed on political subjects (...and more or less every political article on ChessBase ends up with harsh oppositions between commentators...), good relationships between these people will be MUCH more difficult. So I think that this sort of article is rather creating problems were it wouldn't be necessary to have any problems...
As some say, "there is a place and a time for everything", and I don't think that a ChessBase article is the place for harsh political disputes...
To all those posting negative comments:
Why click on the article if you're not interested in the topic? Unless you've been living under a rock, you already know Kasparov's political views.
Why click on the article if you're not interested in the topic? Unless you've been living under a rock, you already know Kasparov's political views.
Let's leave all politics out, Frederic.
I agree with those who expressed the opinion that Politics should NOT be referenced in Chessbase website posts.
Chessbase has been reporting on the activities of famous chess-players for some time. The political ambitions of the commenters is unfortunate.
And why the distaste for the intersection of chess with politics, but not such distaste for the intersection of chess with any other subject?
And why the distaste for the intersection of chess with politics, but not such distaste for the intersection of chess with any other subject?
Cue anti-Russia propaganda. Oh dear. Trump is accused of colluding with Putin. (Patently absurd, but let's not digress.) Kasparov is anti-Putin. So Kasparov is anti-Trump. Interview in a nutshell.
The reality is that it makes no difference which party or president wins the election, the policies remain the same. Instead of discussing these pointless elections what should really be discussed is how to fix this rotten to the core political system.
Kasparov has for a long time already become a neocon shill. Not sure how this happened but he may have started out with good intentions, fighting the now defunct Soviet Union. But the SU does not exist anymore & Putin did not turn out to be the bad guy the US driven propaganda makes him out to be. (Putin’s real "crime" is that he serves Russia’s national interests rather than the interests of global capital & that he rejects Washington’s uni-polar world model.) So Kasparov has become a useful idiot for the US establishment & the neocons, a puppet that fits perfectly into their anti-Russia campaign.
Kasparov is a writer for the Wall Street Journal & you don't get to write op-ed's for the WSJ unless you support right-wing viewpoints or the neocon agenda.
Kasparov's Other Russia was funded by Western NGOs like George Soros’ Open Society & oligarchs like Leonid Nevzlin & Boris Berezovsky who fled or were kicked out of Russia for corruption & looting the country. Berezovsky in an interview with The Guardian declared that he was plotting the violent overthrow of President Putin by financing & encouraging coup plotters in Moscow. (BTW it has been demonstrated that Russian opposition in general has been funded by the US State Department’s National Endowment for Democracy.)
Kasparov attended the 2012 Bilderberg Conference.
Kasparov has given speeches for neocon think tanks like the Hoover Institution or the Hudson Institute.
Kasparov received the Keeper of the Flame award from the Center for Security Policy, a far-right think tank. Past recipients include neocons such as Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz & Dick Cheney.
Kasparov served on the CSP’s National Security Advisory Council, a neocon hub with close ties to the Pentagon.
Kasparov supports Bill Kristol, a neocon warmonger (who hates Trump).
Kasparov is CHAIRMAN of The Renew Democracy Initiative, a neocon think tank with members like Max Boot, a Council on Foreign Relations member who supported the war in Iraq & who calls for war with Iran & Richard Hurowitz, another CFR member, & Anne Applebaum, another neocon who is anti-Russia, pro globalization & pro war.
Garry Kasparov is CHAIRMAN of the HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION. They organized "PutinCon" in New York's Hell’s Kitchen this year, a gathering of Putin haters.
The HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION also organizes the Oslo Freedom Forum conference, founded by Thor Halvorssen Mendoza, who is anti-feminist, anti-environmentalist, anti-Arab, far-right activist & member of a politically-connected family tied to Venezuela’s US-backed opposition supporting US-led regime change & calling Chavez an anti-Semitic dictator.
Some of the donors to the HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION are:
* Donors Capital Fund & its affiliate Donors Trust, Inc. which channeled $60 million to various conservative causes & from 2009 through 2011 a whopping $21,318,600 "to groups promoting Islamophobia," according to the Center for American Progress.
* The Sarah Scaife Foundation which contributed a staggering $7,875,000 to the Islamophobia industry between 2001 & 2009.
* The Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation which helped pay the salaries of some of America’s most virulent anti-Muslim agitators.
* Peter Thiel, a right-wing libertarian who declared "I no longer believe that freedom & democracy are compatible."
Garry Kasparov's Human Rights Scam Exposed:
youtube.com/watch?v=fhhyNm5rhHc
The reality is that it makes no difference which party or president wins the election, the policies remain the same. Instead of discussing these pointless elections what should really be discussed is how to fix this rotten to the core political system.
Kasparov has for a long time already become a neocon shill. Not sure how this happened but he may have started out with good intentions, fighting the now defunct Soviet Union. But the SU does not exist anymore & Putin did not turn out to be the bad guy the US driven propaganda makes him out to be. (Putin’s real "crime" is that he serves Russia’s national interests rather than the interests of global capital & that he rejects Washington’s uni-polar world model.) So Kasparov has become a useful idiot for the US establishment & the neocons, a puppet that fits perfectly into their anti-Russia campaign.
Kasparov is a writer for the Wall Street Journal & you don't get to write op-ed's for the WSJ unless you support right-wing viewpoints or the neocon agenda.
Kasparov's Other Russia was funded by Western NGOs like George Soros’ Open Society & oligarchs like Leonid Nevzlin & Boris Berezovsky who fled or were kicked out of Russia for corruption & looting the country. Berezovsky in an interview with The Guardian declared that he was plotting the violent overthrow of President Putin by financing & encouraging coup plotters in Moscow. (BTW it has been demonstrated that Russian opposition in general has been funded by the US State Department’s National Endowment for Democracy.)
Kasparov attended the 2012 Bilderberg Conference.
Kasparov has given speeches for neocon think tanks like the Hoover Institution or the Hudson Institute.
Kasparov received the Keeper of the Flame award from the Center for Security Policy, a far-right think tank. Past recipients include neocons such as Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz & Dick Cheney.
Kasparov served on the CSP’s National Security Advisory Council, a neocon hub with close ties to the Pentagon.
Kasparov supports Bill Kristol, a neocon warmonger (who hates Trump).
Kasparov is CHAIRMAN of The Renew Democracy Initiative, a neocon think tank with members like Max Boot, a Council on Foreign Relations member who supported the war in Iraq & who calls for war with Iran & Richard Hurowitz, another CFR member, & Anne Applebaum, another neocon who is anti-Russia, pro globalization & pro war.
Garry Kasparov is CHAIRMAN of the HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION. They organized "PutinCon" in New York's Hell’s Kitchen this year, a gathering of Putin haters.
The HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION also organizes the Oslo Freedom Forum conference, founded by Thor Halvorssen Mendoza, who is anti-feminist, anti-environmentalist, anti-Arab, far-right activist & member of a politically-connected family tied to Venezuela’s US-backed opposition supporting US-led regime change & calling Chavez an anti-Semitic dictator.
Some of the donors to the HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION are:
* Donors Capital Fund & its affiliate Donors Trust, Inc. which channeled $60 million to various conservative causes & from 2009 through 2011 a whopping $21,318,600 "to groups promoting Islamophobia," according to the Center for American Progress.
* The Sarah Scaife Foundation which contributed a staggering $7,875,000 to the Islamophobia industry between 2001 & 2009.
* The Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation which helped pay the salaries of some of America’s most virulent anti-Muslim agitators.
* Peter Thiel, a right-wing libertarian who declared "I no longer believe that freedom & democracy are compatible."
Garry Kasparov's Human Rights Scam Exposed:
youtube.com/watch?v=fhhyNm5rhHc
I don't think Garry's analysis of US politics is as good as his analysis of chess positions.
Garry's insight into politics is as bad as his chess insight was good.
I am quite interested in politics, and Garry Kasparov is without any doubt a "chess giant", but I must say that I would rather prefer to discover his (quite numerous) political activities elsewhere than on ChessBase...
This is chess?? Kasparov knows why there was no Izvestia in Pravda and no Pravda in Izvestia. In the United States there is freedom of speech, which just means everyone has the right to lie. Enough voters realized that applies to Maher and the rest of the "free" media. It took longer to realize than in the USSR, because with 95% instead of 100% conformity, there appeared to be a free and honest press. The more voters understand this, and being called names every day alerts them, the more they vote against their self-anointed inquisitors. Kasparov has used a book title designed to sell in this climate.
Garry was/is a great chess player.
But chessbase should not be a platform for his political ambitions.
But chessbase should not be a platform for his political ambitions.
Like all of you, I come here to read about chess. I'm always pleased to read about Gary K. and chess, just not politics.
Please see “rules for reader comments”. Thanks.
Simply a different game. Trump plays 5D-chess.
well any respect I had left for him just went down the toilet
Please keep the politics to a minimum here.
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