6/13/2010 – He is not so jaded as some may think. Garry Kasparov was recently in Tel Aviv, Israel, as the winner of the "Name your Hero" competition, and did his 30-game simul thing, winning every game as usual. But he was most excited about meeting the famous scientists who had won the Dan David prizes. Like Leonard Kleinrock, who had failed to transmit the word L-O-G-I-N. Big illustrated report.
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Name Your Hero
By Shay Bushinsky / Photos Shulamit Bushinsky
Dan David is a shrewd businessman. He built an empire of companies by spreading
instant "do it yourself" photography machines all over Europe. As
a result, he now controls several successful international companies, some traded
on the London stock exchange, all in all making David a wealthy man. He is 81
years old, loves chess, and says that he keeps his wits about him by playing
two serious chess games every day over the internet.
Nine years ago, David and Tel-Aviv University initiated a fund for a special
prize that bears his name. Every year, the fund distributes three million dollars
to people from around the world who scored outstanding accomplishments. The
winners are selected from four candidates in each category. The selection is
done by a
committee comprising of Nobel Prize winners and prominent figures such as
Dr. Henry Kissinger. Among the previous prize
winners one can find: former US Vice President and Senator Al Gore, England's
Prime Minister Tony Blair, the American cellist virtuoso Yo Yo Ma and Robert
Charles Gallo, the developer of the AIDS HIV vaccine.
[Addendum: Samuel Stolpe of Falls Church, VA, USA, reminds us that Gallo
is not "the developer of the AIDS HIV vaccine," but responsible
for the discover of the causative agent for AIDS. "I'm sure you are aware,
there is no vaccine for HIV," writes Stolpe.]
A special award was added this year. It was given to the winner of the "Name
Your Hero" competition. This unique competition was held between high-school
students from all over Israel. The students were requested to write a composition
in which they name their hero and the reason for their choice.
Garry posing between Dan David and Prof. Joseph Klafter, President of TAU
The winning composition for 2010 named Garry Kasparov as its hero for all
of his accomplishments on the chess board and beyond it. This prompted David,
the chess aficionado and philanthropist, to invite Kasparov as the honored guest
at the 2010 Dan David Prize ceremony which was held last month In Tel-Aviv.
Who is Leonard Kleinrock?
Garry Kasparov looked extremely gratified. He got the chance to hand out prizes
in three categories worth one million dollars each. The first category must
have seemed very appropriate. It was the "2010 Past – March Towards
Democracy" prize and was given to Sen. Giorgio
Napolitano – nicknamed "King Umberto" – the current
President of the Italian Republic.
The second prize category for outstanding literary work, the "2010 Present
– Literature: Rendition of the 20th Century" was shared by Margaret
Atwood and Amitav Ghosh,
Canadian and Indian authors respectively.
The third prize category "2010 Future – Computers and Telecommunications"
was shared by three computer science giants: Leonard
Kleinrock, Gordon Moore
and Michael Rabin.
They earned their place in computer science history and are widely acknowledged
as great "grandmasters" of the field. Moore co-founded Intel. His
observation that computing power grows exponentially – roughly doubling
every two years – was named after him as "Moore's Law".
Michael Rabin is considered one of the forefathers of Computer Science with
seminal work in many computer science sub-fields: in particular, Rabin made
significant contributions to computational theory and to cryptology,
L-O-G I-N
Kleinrock set the mathematical foundation for the way the Internet works.
His work developed queuing theory – which facilitates amongst many other
fields the "packet switching" communication protocols. These protocols
are the digital networking communications methods which group all transmitted
data – irrespective of content, type, or structure – into suitably-sized
blocks, called "packets". The packets are collected and sent in their
correct order and destination to their receivers via special network nodes...
Dasha and Garry Kasparov with Shay Bushinsky
When I met Kasparov on the doorsteps of the Dan David prize ceremony, he was
excitedly telling Kleinrock's story – about the moment he "practically
invented the internet": the first network gateway (a network node known
as a "router") was built and delivered to Kleinrock in 1969. He then
tested his new protocol by trying to send through that router a "logon
message". The "l" and the "o" characters passed through
successfully, but then the letter "g" crashed the system. Kleinrock
and his team fixed the bug and sure enough the
first network logon succeeded.
Leonard Kleinrock describes the birth of the Internet – whatever
you do, do not miss this central moment in computer history
A surgeon at work
The following day, Garry Kasparov arrived at the Tel-Aviv University's Smolersh
auditorium, fully alerted, accompanied by his wife, Dasha. He was prepared to
deliver a 30 board simultaneous exhibition in front of a crowd of hundreds of
people. Admittedly, the playing field was not that strong. Nevertheless, Kasparov
must have had both pleasant and frustrating
memories of the previous simuls he held in Israel. One of them, in 1998
(as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the State of Israel's independence),
was perhaps one of the highlights of Garry's career: He demolished the Israeli
national squad 7-1 (a team averaging above 2600 Elo, including: Alterman, Smirin,
Huzman and Sutovsky) in a clock simul. Yet on other occasions, when delivering
simuls to lower rated Israeli players, Kasparov suffered a few unexpected losses…
Dasha Kasparova paced around the stage concerned about the lighting. "Garry
needs good light!" she exclaimed. After making sure that all was well,
she withdrew to one of the front seats watching the show on the wide television
screens set up in the background. The simul was broadcast live on TV as well
as webcasted and supervised by veteran international arbiters Mordechai Sorek
and Yedael Stepak.
He takes these things very seriously: Kasparov before the start of the simul
The opening remarks were made by Prof. Joseph Klafter, President of Tel-Aviv
University. Klepter delivered warm greetings to Kasparov, saying that he is
a good and loyal friend of Israel – Kasparov might actually start teaching
in the University's business school next year! Dan David emphasized Garry Kasparov's
achievements in chess as a model of excellence and talked about his own personal
experiences as a chess player and about the key role he believes chess should
play in education.
Dan David speaking at the start of the simul
Then the games begun: Garry approached the boards with his usual stamina and
varied the openings methodically. "The relatively higher ranked opponents
made a strategic mistake by starting too aggressively" Garry remarked afterwards.
On the other end, one of the students, the talented Mohammed Nashef, started
building a fortress out of the opening which was eventually cracked by Kasparov
at a later stage of the Simul. The crowd was enjoying every minute – observing
anxiously in particular little Drori's game where Kasparov seemed to pay more
attention than on other boards.
Adjusting the pieces before games begin
Ready to make a move
Garry watches his opponent making a move
The players already were seated. They comprised an interesting mix. Dan David
insisted that most of the competitors be young. They were divided by David into
two teams; the first one included the prominent managers of Israel's Gas companies
Yona Fogel and Moshe Spitzer as well as David himself. The other 20 players
were a mix of Tel-Aviv University students and children. One of them, Saar Drori
was only eight years old and recently became Israel's Under Nine Years Old Champion.
Commentary: "Garry Kasparov was for many years the irrevocable World
Champion of Chess. At Tel Aviv University in Israel, he made an extraordinary
comeback. Kasparov played against thirty students from the university and children
from a scientific research group. After four hours of suspense, Kasparov defeated
the last player. Some of the children that participated in the game were under
the age of nine. The youngest player was eight-year-old Saar Drori, a chess
champion. He used to play with older children, but playing against Kasparov
was a memorable experience. Saar Drori: "He was very aggressive during
the game. I was able to resist him until I failed." The young player did
his homework before the game. "My trainer and I watched a lot of Kasparov’s
games from the past to learn his technique." Saar’s dream is to play
chess with Kasparov once again. – NTD
Tel Aviv, Israel.
A line-up of chess thinking opponents
How old is this kid?? Kasparov against eight-year-old Saar Drori
The lineup: second from left is Yona Fogel followed by Mohammed Nashef and
Saar Drori
As the games progressed, some of the spectators got the wrong impression that
Kasparov might be in trouble in a few. Some doubted that he was in good shape,
mentioning the five years that have passed since he retired from professional
chess... But this was a misconception. He told me the day before that his session
with Carlsen concluded with a 3-3 tie in blitz… Observing Kasparov closely
at work, one realized that he had all boards under his control like in the good
old days. He maintained equal-plus positions on every board, knowing exactly
when to put the pressure on his opponents. It was just like watching a surgeon
at work. Kasparov methodically won on every board up to the last of the thirty.
Garry in a typical state of concentration
Hard aw work in the simul at Tel-Aviv University
A surgeon at work – Kasparov won all thirty games
For the crowd of spectators and for the players it was a tremendous experience
and a great event. This may be normal for such simuls. However, to Kasparov
it felt very special, not because he won 30-0 (I think he didn't expect anything
else). "The mere presence of the great David prize winners observing my
games was inspirational and worth it all to me", Kasparov concluded.
Simul game
Enclosed is a game from the simul against the young and talented Oz Tal. The
game ended with a neat Kasparov queen sacrifice…
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