“Let’s make the right move”

Interview of
Gary Kasparov in
Margarita Manousou

The very interesting Airline Marketing Conference 2024 at Athens International Airport with the clever title
“Let’s make the right move”
, “transported” industry professionals to the top strategy game, chess , and invited members of the Athens Airport community to continue to collectively … “make the right move”. The conference focused specifically on the art of strategy for the next day, on Athens International Airport and the international airport environment, but also on the “big chessboard” of the wider aviation and tourism sector. The conference was attended by more than 200 executives from Greece and abroad.

Many speakers were distinguished guests from the fields of aviation, tourism and finance, high-tech and digital transformation, who focused on the future and sustainable development. A special presence in the “heart” of this year’s Conference, in the Art of Strategic Thinking, was made by the legend of the chess art, Gary Kasparov.

“Making the Right Move: The Art of Strategic Thinking – The Scholar’s Mate” *

Garry Kasparov, Former World Chess Champion – President of the Human Rights Foundation – Author and Public Speaker

Gary Kasparov, born in April 1963, was born in Baku (the capital of Azerbaijan), 50% Jewish from his father Kim Moiseevich Weinstein and 50% Armenian from his mother Klara Shagenovna Gasparova. He grew up in Baku, Azerbaijan (USSR) and at the age of 12, when Weinstein’s father died, he changed his name to Kasparov after his mother’s name. He thought his father’s Jewish name would cause him difficulties in the USSR.

His parents were both engineers, and many members of his father’s family were musicians. From a very young age he learned chess and by the age of 7 his great talent in this game of intelligent thinking was evident. His mother devoted her life to his upbringing and development. Today he lives with his family in New York.

Gary Kasparov became the youngest ever world chess champion in 1985 at the age of 22. He held this title until 2000. He retired from professional chess in March 2005. He subsequently founded the United Political Front in Russia, and has dedicated himself to establishing free and fair elections in his home country. He is a contributing columnist to many newspapers including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, etc.

Kasparov himself travels around the world and gives speeches. Speeches aimed at companies and business audiences with presentations on strategy and leadership. He often appears in the international media to talk about both chess and politics.

In our personal meeting he was simple and polite.

As he told me, he doesn’t travel much for holidays. Most of his travels are in the context of invitations to speak and in support of the books he has written and published.

There should be no restrictions on the countries he can choose to holiday in by Putin and his policies. As he informed me, he is on Putin’s non-admissible list.

He noted that his daughter has informed him that he has visited 104 countries. At home they often play the educational game “World game” and from there they often look for the countries they want to see.

“
Making the Right Move: The Art of Strategic Thinking – The Scholar’s Mate”

In the presentation made by Gary Kasparov on 14 March 2024, in the context of the conference event, on the decision making process, he underlined:

– We need first of all to know, to have discovered our own strengths and weaknesses

– It must be remembered that consistency in data and general acceptances, as well as the optimisation of these, can be the enemy of innovation

– We must learn to ask new questions and not just give new answers to old questions

Pablo Picasso was quoted as saying: Computers are useless, they can only give answers

– He noted that we can’t be in the business of collecting data all the time. Our decisions must be timely. If we want to lead, we have to learn to decide.

In a vivid example, wanting to show the way of thinking of modern man, who is mainly aware of the prevailing trends and choices rather than their history, he posed some questions in contrast to others:

Who are the Wright brothers – Who is Boing

Who are Wang Laboratories – Who is Samsung

Who is Alta Vista – Who is Google

Which is the Blackberry – Which is the iPhone

Regarding the world situation and the wars in Europe and elsewhere, Gasparov believes that those behind these wars must be isolated and only then will there be peace in the world.

Garry Kasparov has been an ardent critic of Putin for more than 15 years and believes that Putin is now a danger hiding in plain sight.