(1391) KASPAROV'S CHOICES TO CHALLENGE CARLSEN'S TITLE (TBN-June 05, 2017)

AUTOGRAPH SEEKERS

                   Me and CM Joselito Marcos exchanged favors in the signing of autographs from Eugene Torre and Garry Kasparov. In 2010 Russia Olympiad, he asked Eugene to sign the Chessmates magazine given to me by Almario Marlon Bernardino and in 2014 Tromso, Norway Olympiad, I asked Kasparov to sign his book given to me as gift in Tromso for my BFF Joselito. Eugene had a signed wooden chessboard by Kasparov upon the request of his wife Marilyn.     (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)


     KASPAROV'S CHOICES TO CHALLENGE

                   CARLSEN'S TITLE 

                IN AN INTERVIEW with former world chess champion Garry Kasparov about Artificial Intelligence (AI), Tyler Cowen talks about the chess grandmaster, political activist, and author for a conversation on artificial intelligence, Russia, Putin, how education must change, favorite cities for chess, the most likely challenger to Magnus Carlsen, Tolstoy v. Dostoevsky, the benefits of pressure for performance, and why we should speed up our search for new frontiers and challenges.

            Cowen started the interview with: “I’m here with Garry Kasparov. Garry, of course, is the world’s greatest chess player ever. More importantly, I think of him as a man who has never, ever shied away from a challenge. He is one of the least complacent people I know, truly brave and courageous. He has a new book out. The title is Deep Thinking. Garry himself is an extremely deep thinker in virtually all areas. The subtitle is Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins. Whereas in Garry’s previous book, Winter Is Coming, this time around it’s a little more cheery and, at least in some regards, finally, spring has arrived. Garry, thank you for coming on the podcast.”

            GARRY KASPAROV: Thanks for inviting me. And you’re right, yeah. This book is more cheery than the previous one. I thought it would be a good idea to keep a balance. In both cases, I went against the dominant trend at the moment. When Winter Is Coming was written and published, many people here in this country or in the free world, they had doubts about my strong statements about Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

            Now, regarding this book, Deep Thinking, when I was writing the book, many people tended to believe Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and other pessimists, who predicted a doomsday scenario, when artificial intelligence would inevitably take over our world.

            This time, I took the opposite side, the optimistic side, and this book was an attempt to write a real story of artificial intelligence and its connection to the game of chess: Why the founding fathers of computer science, like Alan Turing and Claude Shannon, had such an affection for the game of chess, and why they believed that solving the game of chess or, more likely, making machines capable of beating strongest players, could help them to solve the problems of artificial intelligence, and why, by the way, they were wrong.

This is a 24-page interview but the last part is more interesting than the previous one….“COWEN: One final question I forgot. Who is the most likely challenger to Magnus Carlsen this next time around? KASPAROV: Considering the logic of the world championship history, Magnus should face opposition from a younger player, or the same age. So I would say there are three players that, I guess, could challenge him. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, I would rate him as least probable among the three. Second, Caruana, and the most likely, Wesley So. The reason I put Wesley ahead of two others is that he has phenomenal concentration, absolutely phenomenal, and that’s very important. These days, concentration trumps everything. I would put it on top of other things, though he’s a very, very good player. I think that he might be the most dangerous for Magnus. COWEN: Because he has nothing to lose, he feels?

KASPAROV: No, because his concentration could overboard Magnus. Magnus’s concentration was always his strength. He was always very concentrated. He could mobilize all his resources for the game. We saw Magnus could feel...despite again I guess So has to qualify for the Candidates; he still has to win it. But against Wesley So, Magnus could have some serious problems in reading his opponent, and also messing up his energy. So could reflect. I think his match with Caruana could be also uncertain, and if Vachier-Lagrave makes some improvements, more psychological improvements, he could be also dangerous. He’s the same age; Caruana is younger. So is even younger than Caruana. So I would bet on these three as one of the Magnus challengers, ranking them in the following order: So, Caruana, MVL. COWEN: Garry, thank you for the chat. It’s been a pleasure. KASPAROV: Thank you.

            Solution to last week’s puzzle No. 4414: 1. …h6+ 2. Kf4 g5+ 3. Ke5 Qe6#

            This week’s puzzle No.    : White to play and mates in 3 (Solution next issue)



Sources: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez
              Tia Belau Newspaper
              Pages 9-10
              Volume 26
              Issue 44
              June 05, 2017

             Chess and Music (Perfect Combination)
             The Beginning of Chess in Palau
             By Roberto Hernandez
             Soon to be published as a book

             Music and Me by Roberto Hernandez
             Tia Belau Newspaper
             March 15, 2012--April 18, 2013
             http://palau-chess.blogspot.com
             April 25, 2013 --June 05, 2015

             The History of Chess in Palau 
             By Roberto Hernandez
             June 09, 2002 -- June 05, 2017