Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov visits Malawi next week
Russian chess Grandmaster (GM) Garry Kasparov is set to visit Malawi next week with a mission of raising awareness regarding the role the game of chess can play as an educational tool.
According to a statement from Chess Association of Malawi (Chessam) the 13th World Chess Champion, who was the youngest player in history to become world champion in 1985 is set to arrive on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 in a private jet alongside six senior business leaders from USA, UK, Australia, St Kitts and Nevis, South Africa and Russia.
The statement from Chessam says Kasparov has requested for an audience with Malawi President Joyce Banda, whom he wants to brief about the key benefits that chess has brought to countries that have embraced
chess as an educational tool.
Apart from the intended meeting with the State President, the Russian chess icon, who will also be in the company of his wife Dasha Kasparova is expected to meet the Chessam executive committee and the country’s sports and education authorities.
Government, says the statement, is yet to respond on Kasparov’s request to meet President Joyce Banda but the chess association has expressed hope that the President will accept the request or delegate the First Gentleman Retired Chief Justice Richard Banda or Vice President Khumbo Kachali.
Kasparov’s Profile
Grandmaster Garry Kasparov became the youngest world chess champion in history in 1985 and remained the top-ranked player in the world for more than twenty years. His five matches against Anatoly Karpov brought the game of chess to new heights as a modern professional sport.
Kasparov’s enthusiasm for new challenges resulted in his famous matches against the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue. Garry retired from professional chess in 2005 to help lead the Russian pro-democracy movement. In 2007 he was listed on the TIME list of the World’s 100 most influential people.
He has also become a popular speaker to business and political audiences on topics of human rights, leadership, technology, and strategic planning. His book on decision-making, How Life Imitates Chess, has been published in over 20 languages.
Both during and after his career as a player, Kasparov has been an active advocate of scholastic chess programs around the world. Garry does a great deal of Charity work from Israel to Brussels and London to New York City. He regularly plays charity exhibition matches and has created his own Foundation in the US, Europe and in Africa based
on his dream of bringing Chess into classrooms everywhere.
