A profile of Garry Kasparov will run on ABC News with Peter Jennings tonight on ABC. It's the last piece of the show, so they said it should be on at around 6:50pm (EST). They did a 25-minute interview that will be chopped into 4-5 minutes. Of course Kasparov wants to talk politics but the producer kept asking about that darn chess thing he used to do.
There was some good stuff, particularly about his childhood and what inspired him to play, but I was too dumb to record it myself. Some choice bits: "At 41 I'm not ready for the social security debate yet." ... "I was on top for 20 years, and not one steroid scandal!" (!) (Maybe he wants to go into American politics, not Russian?) But I did make myself useful by stepping up and switching the black king and queen so they were on the correct squares. (There was a stack of books under the board to put it at the correct height. One of them: "Chess for Dummies." At least they did some homework!)
I'll be doing several interview bits (about chess, I swear) with your questions. That will go up at ChessBase.com in a day or two.
Mig, you deserve some kind of media distinction for making sure the board was set up properly. Of course, you'll never receive any...I trust there was a white square in the lower right hand corner. ;-)
The SS and steroid jokes were surprisingly funny (and I'm far from an unqualified Garry fan)! I hope they don't end up on the cutting room floor.
Mig,
Did your expiditious switching of the black monarchs impress the babe in the red leather skirt? She seems to be a hottie, and no ring on the left hand, too! Perhaps the GF expiring and GK retiring has brought you to this studio for a reason. Go for it, Mig :)
Howard the matchmaker, oy. Actually I gave her my card because they had been looking for teenage photos of Garry for the piece. Upon further review, looking at all the pics from the shoot (most of her are when she was putting powder make-up on Garry's face), there is clearly a ring. Sorry to ruin your career as a yenta.
Mig, I have a question for Garry.
Since world chess since WWII has been dominated by Russia and ex-Soviet satellites and chess emigres, does he think that the tight control of information present in Soviet times forged in the minds of the people of these countries a reluctance to reveal information of any kind, but most particularly information about chess and chess players that would likely generate interest, particularly in capitalistic societies?
I am thinking specifically of the lack of info about appearance fees and major tournament prize funds and the lack of personal info about chessplayers - the same kind of info that is commonplace when reporting on other sports.
Or maybe Fischer isn't the only one not paying his taxes? ;)
I saw theABC report. Garry was the person of the week. A nice piece. The steroid joke didn't make it into the final cut. Not much about Russian politics. They did mention that he is getting married. I love seeing video footage of chessplayers, but I couldn't identify all the games. The ones against the computers were obvious, but the footage with Nigel Short looked like a blitz game or time trouble from the 1993 match. Anyone want to fill us in on the Kasparov-Short footage?
The ABC footage may be found at http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/PersonOfWeek/story?id=594460 and a NPR interview at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4541865.
The interview was too short, of course, but it had some very nice pictures and clips ("The watch, the watch !" "The watch is back on the wrist, folks !").
And beware of those evil Girl Scout cookies. Very scary at 3 o'clock in the morning (BBC News24)...
Martin, are you superstious?
Sorry its superstitious..
I can assure you that I'm not superstitious (keeping fingers crossed)...
The evil cookies were part of the World News Tonight program, and while I can understand the urgency of informing the public in this breaking news story about the dangers of eating those vicious Girl Scout cookies, I would have preferred to see more of the Kasparov interview...
Martin, sorry, I have no TV, and so I dont know what's going on there.Anyway thanks for informing about the dangers of girl scout cookies.
Mig,
How dare you switch the king and queen without immediately challenging Kasparov with the comment he made in 1992 about liking baklava, which clearly means that he thinks Anand should get a world title shot?