Kasparov: 'A game designed for me'

Garry Kasparov: 'A game designed for me'

Acknowledged by many as the greatest chess player of all time, Garry Kasparov has been marching to his own algorithm his whole life. Born in Baku in 1963, Kasparov has taken on the greatest champions and won. And since retiring from the game, he has been involved in a political battle with one of the most powerful and controversial men alive – Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia.

Sir David Frost travels to Abu Dhabi to join Kasparov on his mission to promote chess in the Gulf. Kasparov shares his secrets of the game, discusses milestones in his life and expands on why chess should be compulsory in school curriculum. He even offers a few tips to some of the young chess players.

Kasparov impressed his parents at a very young age, when he finished a chess game they were struggling to solve. "I knew it was a game designed for me," he tells Sir David. After losing his father when he was only seven, Kasparov's mother dedicated her life to nurturing her son's talent. In 1990, Kasparov and his family, who are of Armenian descent, were caught up in the vicious pogroms against Armenians in Azerbaijan, forcing thousands of ethnic Armenians to flee. And that is when Kasparov escaped to Moscow. "The psychological trauma was awful – this thought is still painful" he says.

Following his move to Moscow, Kasparov engaged against a new partner – IBM's super computer, Deep Blue, which created huge interest worldwide. But most recently, having retired from the game of chess, Kasparov has embarked on a new mission – to bring democracy and justice to Russia and to see Putin ousted from power. He tells Sir David of his treatment at the hands of Russian police, of being arrested and his time in a Russian prison, and why he was keen to stand up for the members of the rebel pop group Pussy Riot, who were jailed after an anti-Putin video.

Kasparov finishes his conversation with Sir David by telling him why he is now too old to play competitive chess and the show ends with an extraordinary twist on Garry Kasparov's future – he will no longer be returning to Russia.

Full unabridged report on Al Jazeera here.

Sir David Paradine Frost, OBE, born 7 April 1939, is an English journalist, comedian, writer, media personality and daytime TV game show host. Frost is known for hosting several hit programs, including That Was the Week That Was (1962), The Frost Reports (1966), The David Frost Show (1969) and Frost on Sunday (1984). His series of interviews with President Richard Nixon in 1977 formed the basis for Ron Howard's Academy Award-winning film Frost/Nixon (2008). In 2009, he was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Frost spent two decades as host of Through the Keyhole. From 2006-2012 he hosted the weekly programme Frost Over the World on Al Jazeera English, and since 2012 he has been hosting the weekly programme, The Frost Interview.

Sir David died unexpectedly on September 1st 2013, at the age of 74 after a suspected heart attack while on board a cruise ship. British Prime Minister David Cameron said: "My heart goes out to David Frost's family. He could be – and certainly was with me – both a friend and a fearsome interviewer."