KASPAROV speaks

A chess champ's advice: Attack and don't relent
October 12, 2007

NEW YORK -- As a teenage chess prodigy, Garry Kasparov quickly learned to deal with failure.

Twice he clashed with reigning champion Tigran Petrosian, and each time the upstart's aggressive tactics were twisted against him, repelled by "Iron Tigran's" notoriously impenetrable defence.

So on the eve of the their third meeting, the young Mr. Kasparov sought out some advice from the legendary Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky.

"Squeeze his balls," Mr. Spassky counselled, sidestepping the more delicate intricacies of strategy. "But don't rush into it," he cautioned. "Squeeze one, not both."

The message? Pressure is a good thing, but it must be applied steadily and with purpose.

"If you stay aggressive and things don't work as planned, you at least learn something," Mr. Kasparov told a gathering at the World Business Forum in Manhattan yesterday. "Mistakes of inaction, I believe, are psychologically harder to deal with. We always regret missed opportunities more than misplayed attacks."

Mr. Kasparov, of course, blossomed into one of the chess world's greatest competitors, among other things: consultant, political activist, presidential candidate (although this looks increasingly in doubt), and author, most recently, of How Life Imitates Chess, designed to translate his experiences as a player into a guidebook for decision making in the corporate arena.

It was this latter hat he ostensibly donned yesterday, ready to make what he described as "the case for the offence." In Mr. Kasparov's thinking, attacking is as integral to business or politics as it is to chess; those who win do so not only by forcing their opponents into a retreat, but using their newly held advantage to launch further "assaults." A failure to do this can be fatal, he said, furnishing the Wright Brothers, Wang computers and AltaVista as examples of pioneers who ceded their positions to more aggressive rivals.

"In business it means you will give your competitor a chance to catch up and pass you," he warned. "Consider Apple's strategy with iPod. The Mini was incredibly popular when Apple introduced another line, the Nano. Instead of waiting around and counting their money, they pushed their advantage. In business, the best attack is always pre-emptive. An opponent or competitor who is under pressure is more likely to make a mistake."

Like some of his co-speakers, a group that included former Disney chief Michael Eisner and corporate raider Carl Icahn, Mr. Kasparov's lecture was rich in humour and anecdote, but thinner on actionable ideas.

Chess has long been a favoured metaphor for business types, conjuring as it does notions of a defined battlefield, complex strategy, and the need to marshal resources of various potential.

But business is not played on a two-dimensional board, and the metaphors tend to ring hollow when fastened too tightly to corporate strategy ("As on the chess board, if you don't use your initiative, you will lose it" or "In chess we know that a subtle move on one side of the board can have a decisive effect on the other side of the board.")

Even Mr. Kasparov, in response to a question from a moderator, conceded there was "no relation" between life and chess. The real key to his experiences, he added, was not so much the game, but the conceptual frame of mind he inhabited in order to win: the acceptance of failure, the necessity of absorbing criticism, no matter how painful, and the willingness to perform unflinching self-analysis.

"It's critical to understand why we succeed - not only why we fail," he said. "Nobody wants to look at success - we believe we won, because we're great. It's complacency. A good plan can fail with bad implementation and vice versa."

Mr. Kasparov, who has been a stern and persistent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was one of three presidential candidates recently put forward by opposition coalition Other Russia. Yet his candidacy for the December election was blocked this week because Other Russia is not a registered party.

Garry Kasparov on...

Russia's business climate: "It's like a bizarre combination of Adam Smith and Karl Marx. State profits are privatized, while expenses are nationalized."

Emotion in the executive suite: "Emotion is not to be avoided - only to be controlled. Don't whine, don't complain. Instead, plot and conspire."

On perspective: "I was always good at reading what we call in chess the 'demands of the position.' At the end of the day, it's about winning or losing. It's not about displaying your ego."

On striving to win: "Of course it's important to give your best, but no one grows up dreaming about becoming vice-president - at least in the beginning."

On taking the initiative: "When your opponent is retreating, he gradually loses ground, allowing you to extend your lead at his expense. And this leads to a direct attack that cannot be defended against. That's what I call the attacker's advantage."
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