In the years since his match against Deep Blue, he has become an ambassador for AI, working with security firm Avast and giving TED talks arguing that human and machine intelligence should complement each other, rather than compete. That was the beginning of this kind of merger between chess and computers.” I saw the computers coming in, I gave the idea to my friends in Germany to do ChessBase. What happened during the 15 years of my reign changed the nature of chess – not because of me, but I knew it was happening. “It was probably my blessing that I was the world champion at the time of the most revolutionary changes in the game. In 1989, he had seen off Deep Blue’s predecessor, Deep Thought. His playing career was already entwined with the earliest days of AI and modern computing and as far back as the 80s, he was involved with some of the first attempts to bring computers into the sport, including early database website ChessBase. Playing, and occasionally being bested by, computers is something Kasparov knows all about, having famously lost to IBM’s Deep Blue in 1997 when he was World Chess Champion. It also, of course, has its own playing platform for pitting your wits against other players and its AI. But I also wanted to make sure that we created a global community – that people join our platform and feel a sense of belonging.” “I always wanted to make sure that our contribution to global chess and to our audience would concentrate on educational and entertaining elements. It is entertainment, education and community. “It didn’t go well because the technology was not there to support my ambitions of promoting chess for a global audience, and of creating something that would be financially sustainable.” The relaunched platform, made by Vivendi subsidiary Keysquare, is available via a website and iPhone app and offers puzzles, tutorials, articles and documentaries to subscribers, while limited content is available to non-paying users.Īimed at both seasoned and rookie players, he hopes it can fill a gap in the market for chess content with high production values and a social element provided by a dedicated Discord server. This is his second attempt, having launched an earlier iteration in 1999.
And now, with Kasparovchess, he hopes to compete against incumbent online chess platforms and build on the game’s current popularity.
#GARRY KASPAROV CHESS MOVES PROFESSIONAL#
Having retired from professional play in 2005, he has spent much of his life selling the sport to the public. Alongside current world champion Magnus Carlson and former world champion Viswanathan Anand, Kasparov is one of the chess world’s major statesmen.