In Hamburg with Beckmann
On Friday, March 16th, Kasparov arrived from Moscow in Hamburg, going straight
from the airport to the ChessBase offices to start recording
his Najdorf 3 DVD. He was joined two hours later by wife Dasha, who flew
in from New York. After a truly memorable dinner that night at the Hotel Vier
Jahreszeiten, recordings at ChessBase continued the next day, Saturday, March
17th, until we were picked up at five p.m. and taken to Studio Wandsbek, where
Kasparov appeared on Beckmann, a very prestigious national TV show.

Garry Kasparov vs Reinhold Beckman in a very lively talk show

Kasparov spoke about his book "How Life Imitates Chess" and Russian
politics

Ina Ruck, Russia correspondent of the national TV channel ARD joins Kasparov

Garry with Ina and Reinhold after the show

Portrait of Russia's leading opposition politician [all pictures above
copyright Morris Mac Matzen]

Garry's charming wife Dasha, who now helps him manage his life and career

After the TV recording the debate continues, with wine and dinner in the
studios

Reinhold Beckmann was so impressed he invited Kasparov for a September repeat
Cologne
On Sunday, March 18th Kasparov took a (rare) train ride to Cologne –
exactly four hours, from city center to city center, making it easier than flying.
We were put up in the amazing Hotel
im Wasserturm, which ranks amongst the best designer-deluxe hotels in the
world.
The 130-year-old building, which used to be the tallest water tower in Europe,
has two-storied suites with circular outside walls, a welcome change from the
box construction you get in regular hotels.

Porthole windows and rounded forms are the trademark of this hotel

Junior suites in two stores, with an upstairs sleeping area
On the ground-floor of the Hotel is Harry's Lounge, a meeting point for locals
and guests alike. Here two journalists from the leading German newspaper Süddeutsche
Zeitung, Lars Reichardt and André Behr (who also writes for the Swiss
Tagesanzeiger in Zürich) were waiting to interview Kasparov.

Kasparov speaks to Lars Reichardt (left) and Andi Behr

Kasparov's bodyguard in Germany: Nico Nehez
Nico is an awe-inspiring fellow, friendly and helpful with everything we do,
but definitely not someone you want to mess around with. In Europe and the US
it is not really necessary to have a bodyguard – in Cologne the publishers
had arranged Nico as a special courtesy. In Moscow he has to move around with
two bodyguards, in the rest of Russia with four or five.

The German editor of Kasparov's latest book, Dr Klaus Stadler
Kasparov told the story of how his book, "How Life Imitates Chess",
was commissioned and then rejected by a US publisher, who wanted something more
folksy, when the first draft of the manuscript was delivered (a kind of "How
to Take Decisions for Dummies"). Then he met with Klaus Stadler of the
German Piper Verlag, incidentally immediately after the recording of his Najdorf
1 DVD in Berlin in December 2005. The two got on famously, and the German publisher
was delighted with the book as it was.

The German version of How Life Imitates Chess was released last week,
and sticks closest to the original manuscript. All versions of Kasparov's book
– 18 different languages are currently being prepared – are tailored
to each country, with stress placed on different aspects and examples taken
from the national context (e.g. less Bloomberg, Clinton, Kerry and Bush in the
Chinese version). The US version, now being prepared by a different publisher,
will be the most hard-nosed and direct; the Russian version the most biographical
and philosophically inclined.
Talkshow in lit.Cologne
Sunday, March 18th, 9 p.m. After dinner in the Wasserturm restaurant, where
we got to know Rick Moody, the very successful American novelist and short story
writer (The Ice Storm), and a number of other more-or-less famous people,
we proceeded to the Rhine river to board the "Literature Ship" MS
Rheinenergie. Over a thousand people attended the lit.Cologne
debate featuring Kasparov and well-known critical journalist and anchor
Klaus Bednarz.

Debate on decision making and on Russian politics on the literature ship

Kasparov with investigative reporter Klaus Bednarz (right) and translator Patricia
Stöcklin

A moment of levity when Bednarz speaks about Kasparov's "dual citizenship"
(Russia and US). "I think they gave you the wrong KGB file," Kasparov
said. He has only one citizenship – Russian.

The session lasted two hours, the public savoured every minute of the lively
debate

Outside the city of Cologne, with its famous cathedral on the right, glides
by

Afterwards a few hundred visitors stayed behind to get books signed by the author

Garry meets and recognises someone he has chatted with on Playchess

...and an adoring fan who wants her book personally dedicated.
Report and pictures (unless otherwise specified) by Frederic
Friedel
Kasparov's further schedule
-
On Thursday, March 22nd, there will be public talks, at 3 p.m. in Leipzig
at the "Blaues Sofa" (organized by Süddeutsche Zeitung and
ZDF-TV); at 4:30 p.m. in the "LVZ-Arena" ” (organized by
Leipziger Volkszeitung, newspaper); and at 8:15 p.m. at Lehmanns Buchhandlung,
Grimmaische Str. 10.
-
On Friday, March 23rd, there will be TV (Austrian National Television)
and radio (SWR 1) interviews.
-
On Saturday, March 24th, at 4 p.m. there will be a book signing at the
mega-bookshop Dussmann in Berlin.
-
On Sunday March 25th, Kasparov will appear on the Christiansen talkshow,
from which he had been uninvited
some months ago after pressure had been exerted on the host by the Russian
ambassador. Sabine Christiansen was widely criticised for succumbing to
the wishes of a foreign government and this is a bit of an contrition show.