Garry Kasparov's Blog, page 32

Garry Kasparov with Alex Vindman, The Common Good, September 22, 2021

Your democracy is still under threat, says our #democracydefenders, @AVindman and @Kasparov63. Watch as they discuss Vindman’s courageous choice to stand up for what is right. #TruthMatters #DefendDemocracy https://t.co/ykQfFcaOan

— The Common Good (@TheCommonGood) September 27, 2021

 

This virtual event was hosted by my partners at The Common Good.

A platform for the world’s tyrants | NY Daily News | 9/21/21

The US and the free world must push back and clean house before the UN and the rest become tools that dictatorships use to target dissidents & strengthen their regimes. With the NBA’s @EnesKanter: https://t.co/0DFcJbus4I

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) September 21, 2021

You can read the original op-ed at the New York Daily News

By Enes Kanter and Garry Kasparov

Our colleagues and families have become regime targets at home, a typical tactic that also includes exiled dissidents from Iran, China and Venezuela. Recently, regimes have become more aggressive about targeting opposition figures abroad, even in the U.S., even hijacking planes. A united effort to protect dissidents inside and out of dictatorships is essential.

We have found allies in this fight in Washington and we also looked to New York City, home of the United Nations. But it turns out that the UN is more likely to welcome dictators than their victims and targets, and today’s General Assembly is their annual showcase.

Erdogan is back this year, at the proverbial scene of the crime where his bodyguards beat up protesters and injured UN security staff in 2017. That was only a few months after a similar incident in D.C. was given a pass by President Trump, an admirer of Erdogan and his autocratic ways. Erdogan is also here to promote his book, sure to be as much a compendium of lies and propaganda as his UN speech.

Putin was forced to address the UNGA remotely last year, missing out on the photo-ops he craves with free world foreign leaders. Lacking any legitimacy from fair elections at home, dictators are always eager to appear on international stages and summits, especially in the U.S.

The United Nations was founded in the aftermath of World War II with the aim of preventing another “war to end all wars” — which, in tragic irony, was the nickname of World War I. While the UN didn’t end war, it did become a useful tool in avoiding a catastrophic clash between nuclear powers.

When the Cold War ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the demise of the Soviet Union, most democratic nations on the victorious side lost interest in the UN and in defending democracy abroad. They turned inward, and to regional and like-minded coalitions like the European Union and NATO. The opposite occurred with authoritarian regimes, who exploited that vacuum to expand their participation and leadership in the UN and other international agencies.

The UN was also created to promote and administer the global recognition of human rights, a mission at which it has failed to the point of now becoming an apologist and platform for some of world’s worst dictatorships.

During the General Assembly, torturers take to the podium to spout about police brutality in the West. Dictators fresh from rigging elections echo Trump’s rhetoric about voter fraud in America. The UN Human Rights Council currently includes Eritrea, Venezuela and even Putin’s Russia, among other leading human rights abusers.

And who is paying for the privilege of being lectured about peace and democracy by war criminals and dictators? Mostly it’s the U.S. taxpayer, as more than a fifth of the UN budget comes from the United States — not to mention the huge chunk of Manhattan real estate used by the UN building and nearby offices.

The response often heard is that otherwise, illiberal regimes will further expand their influence, as they have done with other international organizations, from Turkey hosting the Interpol General Assembly this year to China’s deadly influence over the World Health Organization. But they are doing it anyway, while the U.S. picks up the check.

The second sentence of the UN’s founding charter touts the need for faith “in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small.”

Today, you will see people stand before the General Assembly who make a mockery of those fine words. Erdogan, whose NATO-member nation is also considered “not free” by Freedom House, will talk about peace while his regime crushes dissent at home and bombs U.S.-backed Kurds in Syria. Representatives from China and Russia will lecture about national character and sovereignty, spitting on the “universal” in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It’s not enough to ignore these thugs and let them take over the world’s largest international organization. The UN still performs valuable services that cannot be easily replaced. But unless the U.S. and other nations fight back, the UN will continue its downward trajectory toward becoming what Winston Churchill warned of in 1946, “a sham…a frothing of words…a cockpit in a Tower of Babel.”

Kanter  is a center for the Boston Celtics and human rights activist.  Kasparov  is a former world chess champion and is the chairman of the NYC-based Human Rights Foundation.

The double tragedy of the U.S. failure in Afghanistan | Opinion: Dallas Morning News | September 19, 2021

With the emotions of the evacuation and the 9/11 anniversary past, I wrote about what was lost in Afghanistan—and the losses to come if America cannot find itself. https://t.co/QSeoBS37Kl

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) September 19, 2021

You can read the original article at the Dallas Morning News.

“In chess, there’s an evergreen debate about the proverb that it’s better to have a bad plan than no plan at all. Is a doomed strategy, based on a faulty evaluation of the position, actually better than charging forward and relying on your wits in the moment?

My answer has always been yes, the bad plan is better, because while both circumstances are likely to lead to immediate failure — at least without considerable help from your opponent — you learn from a bad plan. It teaches you about your process, the flawed methods and motives that led to an inferior decision. This is vital information to improve your planning for the next opponent, and for your development as a player and as a thinker.

There are many lessons to be learned from America’s disastrous retreat from Afghanistan. It was a bad plan, poorly executed, the worst combination of all. Now comes the postmortem, the analysis phase where we see what went wrong and why, so we can do better next time. But should there be a next time? What if the best strategy is never to play at all, as many are now suggesting? Is the lesson that using force is always unacceptable, that there is never a military solution that won’t just make things worse?

Not over just yet

Wars don’t always have winners, but they always have losers. The war in, and for, Afghanistan isn’t over just because the United States left. The Taliban are in charge, but internal conflicts and the foreign actors battling for influence and riches in the beleaguered Afghan nation guarantee that any peace will be the silence of a prison and the quiet of the grave. This is the deceptive calm of authoritarianism, so often lauded by isolationists from the comfort of the free world.

As for the other touted “winners,” even should superficial stability return in the form of a Taliban medieval terror state, there is no certainty that China, Russia or Pakistan will benefit any more from their collaboration with the terrorists than the U.S. did from fighting them.

While we cannot yet say who won the geopolitical struggle, it’s easier to say who lost. Foremost this means the Afghan people, women and girls especially, who briefly touched a world in which they determined their own fates. As dangerous as the world’s dictatorships are to their neighbors and the world, remember that it’s their own people who suffer the most.

America did not only abandon Afghanistan, it retreated once again from its role as leader of the free world and its responsibility to protect those in it from its many enemies. While the Afghan withdrawal debacle is the responsibility of President Joe Biden, it’s the continuation of over a decade of American retreat and retrenchment spanning administrations from both parties. Former President Donald Trump made the deal with the Taliban, but Biden was elected to undo the damage Trump did to America’s policies and its reputation, and has tried to do so in many other cases. So why not in Afghanistan?

The obvious answer is the correct one, that Biden agreed with the policy of leaving Afghanistan quickly. I disagree with the decision, but it was also clear that the status quo of a small U.S. force keeping the Taliban at bay was unsustainable. The U.S. never developed a long-term plan that would allow the local government to defend itself, so it’s no surprise that government collapsed as soon as the U.S. left.

Best bad option

Pundits living without accountability — myself included — have no way to know what would have happened in the alternate universe where their recommendations were followed to the letter. Failure cannot mean you don’t keep doing what is necessary. Getting it wrong doesn’t mean you stop trying to do what is right. Sometimes there is no winning move, only the best bad option. We must guide ourselves by principles and strive to do better, not abandon those principles when we falter.

Foreign policy is real life, not a game, especially where military interventions are concerned. It’s life and death, as the 20 years of the American presence and the chaotic days of the U.S. exit attest. Thirteen U.S. service members and over 170 Afghans were killed in a suicide bombing during the evacuation at the Kabul airport.

Those who say it was an appropriately grim finale to the U.S. presence in Afghanistan miss the real symbolism of the horrific crime. Thirteen Americans died while helping people who were desperate to escape brutality and oppression few can imagine. The U.S. was still in Afghanistan, 20 long and costly years after 9/11, to prevent more attacks on Americans, but also to prevent the Taliban reign of terror that those 170 Afghans were trying to escape.

The chaotic and deadly way the evacuation played out was a blow to the American reputation for competence, another significant element of deterrence. To be a trusted partner or a respected foe, it is necessary to have both credibility and capability, the “will you?” and “can you?” of keeping your promises. Also vanishing is any consistency across administrations, commitments driven by principles and national interest instead of political opportunism and the desire to reverse everything done by the opposing party.

The withdrawal from Afghanistan is an unfortunate exception to this trend. The “America first” policy taking hold in both parties is a long-term nightmare for a globalized economy already shaken by the pandemic. A shift to regional spheres of power — Russian, Chinese, American — will force threatened states like Taiwan and South Korea to fend for themselves with potentially explosive results. Abandoning Ukraine to Vladimir Putin’s war on Europe is a small taste of what the world looks like without a robust and united defense of the rule of law.

The freedom of dreams

Whether or not America should have left Afghanistan—and when, and how—will be debated forever. But do not overlook the luxury of being able to leave at all, an option unavailable to those who will suffer the most. Americans will go back to arguing about the “repression” of cancel culture and “stolen” elections while enjoying a level of freedom and self-determination that a majority of the world’s citizens can only dream of. And trust me, they do.

Imagine what it’s like for a Russian to hear Americans talk about rigged elections and voter suppression when anyone opposing Putin is banned from the ballot, jailed or worse. Americans can and must fight for their rights and their democracy, but I wish they would appreciate what they have before burning flags or attacking the U.S. Capitol. The free world has enough enemies without attacking itself from within like a cancer.

Pulling out of Afghanistan was another step toward turning “defund the police” into American foreign policy. That ill-advised slogan came close to returning Trump to the White House for another four years. It turned out that most people like having the police around, even if they have legitimate concerns about abuses and equity.

That holds true in the many places in the world that still depend on the United States to provide security and stability, even decades after the massive military buildup during the Cold War. The world doesn’t become safer when the U.S. retreats. The world’s worst regimes eagerly step into the vacuum.

American investment in defending its allies and global stability was interpreted as charity by Trump, who understood only quid pro quo. The alternative is to see every nation forced to fend for itself against the predations of hostile neighbors and aggressive nuclear powers like Russia and China. The U.S. could abdicate its position, turn in its badge and gun and try to hide behind an “America first” wall for a while, but it wouldn’t last long.

Despite the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush still considered themselves to be the leaders of the free world. The moral clarity of the Cold War was gone, but the U.S. played a part in the calculations of every thug and dictator and was still capable of action, as Slobodan Milošević and Saddam Hussein discovered.

President Barack Obama heeded the U.S. electorate and his own instincts by rejecting George W. Bush’s attempt to restore the freedom agenda. Obama found out that unilaterally declaring peace can be as perilous as declaring war. Iran, Cuba, Russia and China expanded their internal repression and foreign aggression while paying lip service to Obama’s naïve resets and photo-ops.

Trump had no interest in anything beyond his personal interests, and foreign policy was no exception. His striking affinity for Putin and other dictators was already well-established, as were his connections to the global kleptocracy to which most authoritarians belong. The damage caused by Trump’s assault on American democracy is incalculable.

Republican attacks on the electoral process are being met by leftist attacks on the free flow of ideas and calls to meet fire with fire by subverting democratic norms. Biden’s selection in the Democratic primary and his general election victory were mandates to restore normalcy in a time of crisis, not to push an ideological agenda. He has as yet failed to find the courage to break the destructive cycle of backlash and overreach, but he must. A president must represent a nation, not a party, both at home and abroad.

The U.S. cannot lead the free world by example if its citizens cannot agree on what the country stands for, or if American democracy, long held as a model for the world, is worth saving at all. Leadership means more than doing what a majority of citizens say they want at the moment. It means doing what is necessary and what is right for the good of the country, not the good of the polls.

Leadership of the free world is even more: a duty that cannot be cast off without paying a price. The U.S. can walk away from Afghanistan, from Ukraine, from reality for a time. But sooner or later, reality will follow America home.”

Garry Kasparov, a six-time world chess champion and pro-democracy activist, is chairman of the  Renew Democracy Initiative  and the  Human Rights Foundation . He is the author of “ Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped. ” He wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.

Noodle.ai Teams with Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov to Evangelize ‘Human + Machine Intelligence’ to Save the Planet | PR Newswire | September 16, 2021

This post is part of my ongoing collaboration with Noodle.ai. You can see the rest of our projects here.

Read the original press release here.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Noodle.ai, the world leader in Flow Operations, a breakthrough technology that enables the frictionless flow of goods from raw materials to shelf, today announced a partnership with Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov. Together, they will engage business leaders to adopt “good AI” to reduce or eliminate waste in manufacturing, a huge contributor to climate change.

Kasparov, who dominated the chess world for two decades and retired in 2005 while still No. 1, champions the term “augmented intelligence” to describe how machine learning augments––instead of replaces––human intelligence to create good outcomes for companies, workers, and societies.

In a series of virtual events with industry leaders, Noodle.ai and Kasparov will share how the latest breakthroughs in AI can tackle supply chain problems. As in previous virtual conversations between Noodle.ai CEO Stephen Pratt and Kasparov, the upcoming events will focus on real-world applications of augmented intelligence. Noodle.ai and Kasparov will explain how augmenting the human capacity to ask questions with the analytic power of machines to find answers creates combinations that help workers, companies, and the environment.

“At Noodle.ai with Flow Operations software, we focus on how technology and people, working together, can eliminate waste from the factory to the customer-facing distribution channel to better protect the planet and improve the customer experience as well as the bottom line,” says Pratt. “Garry has dedicated a large portion of his life to uncover how human + machine intelligence, working in flow state, can help humanity. We’re thrilled to work with him to do just that.”

After losing a rematch to IBM DeepBlue in 1997, world champion Kasparov became the first knowledge worker to have his job threatened by a machine. But he realized the great potential of partnering with AI instead of competing with it, leading to his creation of human + machine Advanced Chess in 1998, which he described as “augmented intelligence.” This in turn led to his formulation of the equation of human and machine symbiosis that others dubbed ‘Kasparov’s Law.’ In 2017, he wrote Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins.

“With augmented intelligence, we harness both the computing power of machines and the power of human creativity to drive greater results and to free humans to do the creative labor at which we excel,” Kasparov says. “Noodle’s focus on manufacturing will have the biggest impact on solving problems that are damaging our quality of life and produce gains that make our lives better, generation after generation. I’m excited to partner with them to pursue this endeavor.”

Learn More

To learn more about this partnership, please visit: Noodle.ai + Garry Kasparov, Chess Grandmaster for the Win

About Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov is a chess champion, human rights leader, and the author of multiple books on chess, AI, and world affairs. In 1985, he became the youngest world chess champion in history at the age of 22. His matches against the supercomputer Deep Blue put AI in the headlines around the world and turned him into an advocate for getting the most out of the human-machine relationship. Kasparov’s mission has led him to collaborations and events with the University of Oxford, DeepMind at Google, Citi Group, and many more. He is a Security Ambassador for Avast Software, focusing on cybersecurity and digital freedom.

About Noodle.ai
Noodle.ai is the world leader in FlowOps, a category of AI software that aims to eliminate operations entropy across an entire supply chain, from raw materials to consumer. Noodle.ai applies advanced data science powered by Explainable AI (XAI) to take in vast amounts of data, detect patterns, predict outcomes, and restore flow to business. The FlowOps product offering, Asset Flow, Quality Flow, Demand Flow, Inventory Flow, and Production Flow, works together to dramatically improve operator effectiveness in supply chains and manufacturing in order to create a world without waste. www.noodle.ai

SOURCE Noodle.ai

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Related Links

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Garry Presenting “Alexei Navalny: 100 Most Influential People” | TIME Magazine | September 15, 2021

2/ Navalny is risking everything to bring justice to #Russia.

Read HRF Chairman @Kasparov63 presentation of Alexei Navalny for @TIME: https://t.co/VMDrDPQsFh pic.twitter.com/HIjFka65as

— Human Rights Foundation (@HRF) September 15, 2021

You can read Garry’s original introduction for Alexei at TIME Magazine

“In a world increasingly focused on self-interest and self-preservation, Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny did the unimaginable this year: he was selfless and brave. In January, after recovering in Germany from a nearly fatal poisoning, Navalny returned to Russia. Despite—or potentially because of—the considerable domestic and global attention on his attempted assassination and return, he was arrested upon landing. The subsequent protests supporting him were brutally suppressed, and this summer a Russian court banned his political and anticorruption organizations, calling them extremist. Many of his allies have been detained or forced to flee the country.

Navalny now sits in one of Russia’s worst prisons, his life in the hands of a dictator who all evidence says already tried to kill him once for exposing the grotesque corruption of his regime. Navalny saw no alternative to risking everything to make a difference in his country. Even the all-powerful Vladimir Putin recognizes the power of a single man without fear.

Kasparov is the chairman of the Human Rights Foundation”

Chess: Garry Kasparov surges into St Louis lead with three wins in a row | The Guardian | September 10, 2021

You can read the original article here.

By Leonard Barden

Garry Kasparov made a surging and inspired comeback in St Louis on Thursday and Friday nights after the legend, who many consider the all-time No 1, crashed two months ago in Zagreb, where he won only one game out of 18 and lost in seven moves to Azerbaijan’s Shak Mamedyarov. With just the ninth and final round to go, the Kaskparov had 5/8 and was still in contention for first prize.

The 58-year-old’s poor clock management and outdated openings in five-minute blitz contributed to his Zagreb disaster. This week’s format in the $150,000 Champions Showdown is Chess 9LX, also known as Fischer Random and Chess 960, where the back rank pieces start at random squares and the time limit is 15 minutes for the game plus per move increments, so that the clock plays a lesser role and opening knowledge is irrelevant.

It began promisingly for Kasparov as he drew his first game, and should have won the next against Wesley So, the unofficial world champion at this format who crushed Magnus Carlsen 13.5-2.5 two years ago in Oslo.

The former world champion opted for a cautious style with fixed pawn chains more reminiscent of his old foe Anatoly Karpov than of the sharp attacks that fans used to admire. But in round three nemesis struck, again in the shape of Mamedyarov, who calmly gained material and was a safe two pawns up when Kasparov resigned.

Unlike Zagreb, defeat did not derail Kasparov but inspired him to a cameo replay of his long ago legend. In Thursday night’s fourth round he won in fine attacking style in 24 moves against the 2018 US champion, Sam Shankland.

Kasparov’s fifth-round game reached a level ending in which he outwitted the world No 5, Levon Aronian, who is in process of transferring from Armenia to the US, and scored by delicate finessing with king, rook and g pawn against king, bishop and f pawn.

The 13th world champion capped a fine night with a sixth-round draw against the world No 2, Fabiano Caruana, then continued where he left off in round seven on Friday evening with a sparkling 24-move victory with the black pieces against his training partner and eight-time Russian champion Peter Svidler.

An early eighth-round draw by repeated position against the five-time US champion Hikaru Nakamura put Kasparov at least temporarily at the top of the table with 5/8 . There was just the ninth and final round, where he was due to meet France’s world No 10 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, still to come late on Friday night.

The veteran’s comeback coincides with the relaunch of his Kasparovchess website, aimed at ambitious and improving players and where the legend’s efforts to regain his old spark in St Louis can be watched on Friday evening.

Fide’s 150-nation online Olympiad is heading for its climax this week as 40 teams battled in four all-play-all groups from which the top two qualify for next week’s quarter-finals. The format, teams of six players of whom three must be female and two must be under-20 juniors, favours Russia and China as the strongest nations in women’s chess.

By contrast the traditional four-board open and women’s Olympiads, scheduled to be revived post-pandemic at Moscow 2022, are more competitive. In 2018 Poland went close to causing a major upset, while England finished fifth. The United States, who won gold in 2016, silver in 2018, and will be a favourite again in 2022, fielded only second line grandmasters this week.

At the end of the group stage on Friday night, Kazakhstan, China, India, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine, USA and Poland qualified for Monday’s quarter-finals.

There are still some excellent individual match-ups, and the clash in Russia v Ukraine between Daniil Dubov and Vasyl Ivanchuk, two GMs renowned for creativity, did not disappoint as the veteran won with a well-timed exchange sacrifice.

England fielded their top quartet of Michael Adams, David Howell, Gawain Jones and Luke McShane, but were below strength on the womens’ and junior boards. They finished ninth of 10 in their group, defeating Colombia, drawing 3-3 with Cuba and Turkey, and losing their other six matches.

One of the few bright moments in the English performance was a victory for Adams against the rising US star Jeffery Xiong.

Norway chess at Stavanger, a six-player double-round tournament which continues until 17 September, is most likely the final time that Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi will meet across the board until their $2m, 14-game world title match at Dubai in November. Draws in the classical game are immediately followed by an Armageddon game where White has 10 minutes, Black seven, but a draw counts as a win for Black.

These rules favour a bold approach by White in the Armageddon, and Nepomniachtchi won the most visual early game when he caught Alireza Firouzja with an old-style King’s Gambit which looked straight from the 19th century, and induced a losing blunder as early as move 10.

3780: 1..Qxe5! and Nakamura resigned in the face of 2 dxe5 Ne2+ 3 Kc2 Bg6+ 4 Qe4 Bxe4 mate. Other replies leave White at least a piece down.

Chess 9LX 2: Kasparov is back! Dominguez leads | Chess 24 | September 10, 2021

You can read the original article here.

By Colin McGourty

“The rumours of my chess death probably have been slightly exaggerated!” said Garry Kasparov as he stormed back to defeat Sam Shankland and Levon Aronian on Day 2 of Chess 9LX in Saint Louis. After being one of just two players not to win a game on Day 1, he was now one of just two players to remain unbeaten on Day 2. The other, Leinier Dominguez, took the lead with a perfect 3/3, defeating Peter Svidler, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Hikaru Nakamura.

After everything went wrong for Garry Kasparov from the end of his game against Wesley So on the first day of Chess 9LX, the first game of Day 2 acquired great significance. Would the downwards spiral continue, or would Garry hit back?

It was the latter, as Garry was winning within 10 moves and made no mistake in what followed — in fact the commentators felt Garry was having too much fun!

 

And he’s done it! Garry Kasparov has his first win of #Chess9LX: https://t.co/TRSOFjgwkt #c24live pic.twitter.com/koAmR54hdb

— chess24.com (@chess24com) September 9, 2021

It would be an excellent day at the office…

…and it was great to see Garry relishing the experience in the interviews after it was over.

Perhaps the move of the day came against Levon Aronian, when the world no. 5 went for an exchange sacrifice on d5 in order to push his c-pawn.

It looked powerful, but Garry was delighted to find 36…d4+!, when 37.Kxd4? gets hit by 37…Rc2! and the black pawn is faster if White takes the rook. In the game after 37.Kxb3 Garry had 37…Rxg3+ 38.Kc4 Rc3+ 39.Kxd4 Rxc6, and then he went on to squeeze out a win in the Rook vs. Bishop endgame.

A 2nd win in a row for Garry Kasparov, this time against Levon Aronian! https://t.co/TxtE8ZtY14 #c24live #Chess9LX pic.twitter.com/xMQhsBA8iK

— chess24.com (@chess24com) September 9, 2021

Garry’s final game of the day was against Fabiano Caruana, who started the day in the sole lead and almost got off to the perfect start against Hikaru Nakamura. Fabi said 24.a4!? was an amazing resource by Hikaru in a lost position, but there was a spectacular refutation — 24…Qe5!!

After that move White can’t play 25.Rxe5 since it runs into 25…Rd1+ 26.Kc2 Rc1#, but there’s also no good way to defend the attacked rook on e1.

That would have been the second time in two days Hikaru had fallen for such a crushing tactic (as he did against Shankland) and would have meant four losses in a row, but instead after 24…Qa5? 25.Bxg4 Hikaru was on top and went on to win. Fabiano talked about that game afterwards.

Here, for instance, Caruana played 32…Qd4+ and after 33.Qc3 Garry began to believe again that he could escape. Instead it was a killer idea to play 32…Bxd5! 33.exd5 and only now 33…Qd4+! This time 34.Qc3 could be met by 34…Nd3+!!, with the point that after 35.cxd3 there’s 35…Re2+.

That might be asking too much for a rapid game, but there were also easier ways to convert after exchanging bishop for knight. Instead Garry’s hustle worked, until Fabiano decided not to risk more and accepted a draw.

The tournament leader, meanwhile, is Leinier Dominguez, who had an amazingly good day at the office, winning all three games, which made it four in a row.

It wasn’t just the results, but the play, with Dominguez winning all three games in completely convincing style. His day was perhaps summed up by the final move of his game against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Shakh unleashed 23.Rxg7+!?

23…Kxg7 runs into 24.Nf5+ and 23…Bxg7 loses the queen to 24.Qxh4. Even in those cases Leinier would be no worse, but he’d seen in advance that he had an icily cool response — 23…Kh8! Down a huge amount of material, it was time for Shakh to resign.

Leinier then spotted a blunder by Hikaru Nakamura and ruthlessly exploited it.

That means Dominguez leads Caruana by half a point, with MVL, Kasparov and Shankland another half point began.

It seems Chess 9LX has barely begun, but it already ends on Friday, with just three rounds remaining.

Vargas Llosa firma carta abierta a Díaz-Canel donde se pide liberación de los presos en Cuba | el Nuevo Herald | September 3, 2021

Vargas Llosa firma carta abierta a Díaz-Canel donde se pide la libertad de los presos políticos en Cuba. Firman también Rosa Montero @BrunaHusky Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63 y una larga lista de artistas cubanos https://t.co/qt7ysL21Ge #Cuba #PresosPoliticos pic.twitter.com/VZ8EKnkqtO

— Sarah Moreno (@SarahMorenoENH) September 3, 2021

You can read the original article here.

By Sarah Moreno

Mario Vargas Llosa es la personalidad más reciente que suma su firma a una carta abierta al gobernante cubano Miguel Díaz-Canel que pide la liberación de los presos políticos. Conocido por su condena a las dictaduras, una vez más el escritor peruano ofrece su apoyo a los cubanos que defienden las libertades en la isla y que han hecho popular en el mundo el grito de “¡Patria y Vida!”

El Premio Nobel de Literatura 2010 se unió a figuras de rango internacional como los escritores españoles Rosa Montero, Fernando Savater y J.J. Armas Marcelo, el campeón mundial de ajedrez ruso Garry Kasparov, el actor cubanoamericano Andy García, el psicólogo y escritor canadiense Steven Pinker, el escritor venezolano Alberto Barrera Tyszka, el boliviano Edmundo Paz Soldán, el músico dominicano Michel Camilo y el cineasta salvadoreño Jorge Dalton, que dieron su firma solidarizándose con la larga lista de personalidades de la cultura y el arte nacidos en la isla y de cientos de cubanos que han entrado a la plataforma Change.org para mostrar su repulsa a quienes reprimen el deseo de los cubanos de expresarse libremente.

“Hemos visto con preocupación y disgusto la respuesta brutal que usted y el gobierno que representa han dado a tales manifestaciones, negándose a oír los sencillos reclamos de su pueblo y llamando directamente a la violencia y la represión de unos ciudadanos contra otros”, dice la carta dirigida a Díaz-Canel con más de 700 firmas.

La lista de los artistas cubanos incluye creadores de distintas disciplinas y generaciones, algunos residentes en Cuba y otros en múltiples países del mundo. Paquito D’Rivera, Alejandro de la Fuente, Gustavo Pérez-Firmat, Carlos Eire, Armando Lucas Correa, Legna Rodríguez Iglesia, Manuel Díaz Martínez, Daína Chaviano, Carlos Manuel Alvarez, Achy Obejas, Alexis Romay, Ramón Fernández Larrea, Amaury Gutierrez, Carlos Pintado, Amir Valle, Reina María Rodríguez, Tania Bruguera, Flavio Garciandía, Francisco Gattorno, Myrka Dellanos, Eglise Gutiérrez, León Ichaso, Fausto Canel, Iván Acosta y Lynn Cruz se cuentan entre los firmantes.

“Desde el pasado 11 de julio no tiene sentido hablar de unión monolítica entre su gobierno y su pueblo como no tiene sentido negarles la patria a los que protestan y ofrecerles en cambio muerte, represión y silencio”, continúa la carta.

No se engañe ni nos trate de engañar. Es hora de que Cuba avance por caminos diferentes a los que usted y su gobierno les han trazado a los cubanos. Para ello es imprescindible que se les respete su derecho a manifestarse y a elegir su destino, en lugar de buscar nuevas maneras de reprimir al pueblo cubano y silenciarlo. Para demostrar su respeto por los derechos de sus compatriotas debe empezar por liberar al más de medio millar que a un mes de las protestas siguen en prisión o están siendo procesados por participar en ellas y, junto a ellos debe liberar a todos los cubanos que están en prisión por manifestar su desacuerdo con su gobierno”, pide la carta.

DETENIDOS EN CUBA

Después de que miles de cubanos salieron a las calles en diferentes ciudades de la isla el 11 de julio para pedir libertad, la ola de arrestos desatada por las fuerzas de seguridad del gobierno cubano deja aún un saldo de 405 detenidos, según documenta la organización de asesoría legal Cubalex.

Casi dos meses después de las protestas, muchos detenidos continúan hacinados en precarias condiciones en cárceles de la isla, en medio de la pandemia de COVID-19 que azota al país. Algunos de los detenidos se cuentan como “desaparecidos” porque sus familiares no han tenido noticias de ellos, como es el caso del líder opositor José Daniel Ferrer, quien lleva 50 días desaparecido.

[image error]Fuerzas represivas del gobierno sofocan una manifestación de cubanos que salieron a las calles a pedir libertad el 11 de julio, en La Habana. Ramon Espinosa AP

Amnistía Internacional reconoce a seis detenidos como “presos de conciencia”: los artistas Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, líder del Movimiento San Isidro, Hamlet Lavastida y Maykel Osorbo; el periodista independiente Esteban Rodríguez y la activista Thais Mailén Franco Benítez, que participó en la protesta de la calle Obispo en abril; y José Daniel Ferrer, líder de UNPACU.

La carta abierta de artistas a a Díaz-Canel, coordinada por un grupo de exiliados residentes en Nueva Jersey, S.O.S. Cuba, no solo pide la libertad de los presos sino el respeto a los derechos humanos y a la libertad de expresión y el derecho de reunión para todos los cubanos.

“Estamos dando voz, coherencia y consistencia al rechazo a la represión”, dijo el escritor Enrique del Risco, uno de los encargados de reunir las firmas. “Para que el gobierno cubano sepa que la gente que está presa no está sola, que los cubanos que se expresan en las calles no están solos, que hay un apoyo internacional a esos cubanos para que se expresen por sí mismos”.

El objetivo es invitar a todos los cubanos interesados en firmar a hacerlo a través de Change.org, dijo Del Risco, explicando que la carta se está enviando a universidades e instituciones de todo el mundo como una forma de crear consciencia sobre la situación de los presos.

Desde mediados de agosto, los cubanos se enfrentan a más control por el decreto ley 35, que puede acusar de “ciberterroristas” a quienes critiquen al gobierno en redes.

“A partir del 11 de julio estamos ante la evidencia de que hay un rechazo masivo al gobierno cubano”, concluyó Del Risco, indicando que el silencio de muchas personas no significa apoyo a la represión sino que no había habido oportunidad de expresar públicamente ese rechazo, y ahora esta carta seguirá su curso.

“Debate: AI is In/Compatible With Human Freedom” | The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Nostos Conference | August 27, 2021

Is #AI compatible with human #freedom and prosperity? Lively debate by @n_miailhe @thefuturesoc at @SNForg with @Kasparov63 @WendellWallach @IEEEorg @Anasuyashh on how to direct AI to serve the public good. pic.twitter.com/PJovHD10t3

— The Future Society (@thefuturesoc) August 27, 2021

View the original clip at the Nostos Conference’s website.

Garry debates: “AI is In/Compatible with Human Freedom” from 2:48:00 to 3:41:00.

“Garry on Lockdown” Episode 8: Ransomware Takes Center Stage | Avast Security | August 5, 2021

 

This is part of my ongoing partnership with Avast Security. To see the original blog post, visit their website HERE

 

@Kasparov63 interviews @nicoleperlroth about the state of ransomware market for @avast_antivirus here: https://t.co/b5iVaTCV1N

— Ⓓⓐⓥⓘⓓ Ⓢⓣⓡⓞⓜ (@dstrom) August 5, 2021

 

 

Garry Kasparov explores the growing role of ransomware in today’s digital landscape and talks tech and geopolitics with New York Times reporter Nicole Perlroth

It’s often bad news when an obscure tech term becomes mainstream. Think about “spam,” the plague of unsolicited mass email that threatened to “destroy the internet” twenty years ago. Or even the whole field of cybersecurity, a good example of a massive industry that barely existed when most of today’s workforce was born. Avast was founded in Prague in 1988 after analyzing a virus on a floppy disk, in case you don’t feel old already!

The latest term threatening to become the ominous word of the year is “ransomware,” which, like spam and viruses before it, is only new in the mainstream headlines. Experts in fields like cryptography, security, and even corporate insurance have been monitoring and dealing with it for many years. Like more widely known malicious hacking endeavors like stealing credit card information, ransomware attacks flew under the radar because they were quickly incorporated into the targets’ business models. You get attacked, you pay, and you try to move on quietly so the scandal doesn’t hurt your brand image. After all, resetting passwords and refunding stolen money to customers (money sometimes coming back to you from insurance), is cheaper than customers realizing that your company is incompetent and unsafe.

Paying the costs of being attacked was also seen as cheaper than hiring cybersecurity experts and implementing the reforms and maintenance that good security requires. Managing public relations after even the most massive hacks became nearly routine, and it becoming so common also helped the companies. “It happens to everybody” would not be an acceptable response to an armed bank robbery, or, for a more accurate comparison, to a crime spree hitting millions of shops and banks at once.

Negotiating with cybercriminals triggers more attacks

Decades of this shoulder-shrugging may be slowly coming to an end today, as the real-world impacts are becoming more severe and the ransoms are getting higher. The criminals risk putting themselves out of business by demanding so much that the headlines can’t be ignored. Under national scrutiny, the corporate tendency to pay off the crooks looks bad, especially since this money funds more and bigger attacks. There’s a reason you aren’t supposed to negotiate with terrorists and kidnappers — it encourages more terrorists and kidnappers.

The other element coming to the surface is geopolitical, forcing politicians to respond all the way up to the US president. It’s been hard to generate consumer outrage against unseen hackers. But when they cause gas shortages and threaten hospitals and the food supply — during a pandemic, no less — that changes quickly. And when there’s a face, or in this case, a flag, attached to the attacks, the framing shifts.

Far too late, if better late than never, the US admitted that Russian hacking isn’t just going after political or intellectual property targets. Ransomware isn’t just about the money when it can disrupt vital infrastructure. We have to be careful about using the phrase “act of war,” and the consequences it can trigger, but it’s clearly well past time to start taking cyberwarfare much more seriously — at the national, corporate, and individual levels.

My own views are clear, if admittedly a little simplistic without deeper explanation. As with other types of hybrid warfare, when it comes to cybercrimes that are easily denied and often “extra-governmental,” deterrence is the only real solution. Trying to arrest every hacker and bring them to trial is a nearly impossible task, especially when they are protected by their governments, or directly supported by them.

While law enforcement shouldn’t be abandoned, regimes that host and protect hackers should be treated like they are hosting any other kind of terrorist. Shutting down a fuel pipeline by hacking can be just as dangerous for national security as blowing one up. Waiting for a truly catastrophic event before responding strongly is foolish. Make the consequences clear, early and often. The “REvil” group, based in Russia according to experts, has gone dark in recent days, possibly to rebrand and wait for our guard to drop like it did every other time.

Cyberweapons arms race

For all of these reasons, I was delighted when New York Times cybersecurity reporter Nicole Perlroth agreed to come on the latest episode of Garry on Lockdown. Along with dozens of recent stories from the front lines of hacking attacks around the world, Perlroth released a book this year on the subject, “This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race.”

So my expectations were high for our conversation, and I had many questions about the nature of the threats we’re facing and what we can do about them, especially when it comes to the public/private divide that is so effectively exploited by hostile nation-state actors. When is it appropriate for the government to step in and what levers, what regulations, can they apply to improve security without inflicting high costs on the private sector? Is “hacking back” unethical?

I must say that all my expectations were blown away by Ms. Perlroth’s direct and informed responses and lively explanations. Not every expert can communicate well and not every good communicator has the depth of knowledge and willingness to state things bluntly instead of choosing more delicate phrasing. Indeed, such candor is an accusation I’ve always been happy to confess to myself!

We covered a wide range of topics from tech and geopolitics in our half-hour of Lockdown, and if it hadn’t been well past midnight where I was in Zagreb, we might have gone on for another hour. The origins of the Western, especially American, difficulties in the cyberwarfare sphere despite its many technological and expertise advantages is a tragic tale, and one that must be understood if we’re to do anything about it.

I have no doubt that you’ll want to pick up Perlroth’s excellent book after you watch this episode, and, unfortunately, I’m sure this theme is one we’ll be continuing to look at in these pages as well.