Garry Kasparov

El mejor ajedrecista de la historia nos enseña a ver la vida como un juego de estrategia.Garry Kasparov, el gran maestro del tablero, explica cómo las soluciones a los problemas cotidianos requieren de las mismas artes y tecnicas que el ajedrez: conocimiento, preparacion, estrategia y calculo de las variantes.En el ajedrez, como en la realidad, es necesario analizar, descartar, organizar el pensamiento, comprender las acciones que pueden ocurrir, tener soluciones preparadas, saber concluir y estudiar todas las variantes posibles, ser capaz de hacer de la necesidad una virtud y entender las facultades del adversario para darles la vuelta en beneficio propio. Para ello es imprescindible contar con una ferrea disciplina, intuicion y logica que nos faciliten el acercamiento a los problemas comunes. Igual que en la vida diaria, el conocimiento de la situacion nos ayuda a vivir y a afrontar los retos con perspectivas de exito.Escrito desde el sentido comun y la profunda inteligencia estrategica desarrollada durante la larga y brillante carrera del autor, este libro muestra la manera de avanzar paso a paso hacia el objetivo final; tambien como convertir una derrota en una futura victoria, como dar la vuelta a una situacion comprometida y como prepararse para los grandes desafios, siempre partiendo de situaciones reales de la dilatada experiencia de Kasparov y extrayendo las lecciones mas pertinentes.

Los problemas cotidianos resueltos con el arte y la técnica del ajedrez. Solo una privilegiada mente estratégica como la de Garry Kasparov podía imaginar que la existencia humana es equivalente a una compleja partida de ajedrez. En la vida, como en el tablero, es necesario analizar, descartar, organizar el pensamiento, prever problemas, preparar soluciones o entender las facultades del adversario para darles la vuelta en beneficio propio. Un libro escrito desde la intimidad y con una voz proxima al lector, para aquellos que buscan un metodo estrategico al abordar los obstaculos de la vida cotidiana.

Tres personajes fascinantes, mucho más allá de su condición de ajedrecistas, fueron las grandes estrellas del deporte mental entre 1975 y 2005. El más joven, Gary Kasparov, radiografía en este libro con su habitual precisión y brillantez la obra de los otros dos, Víktor Korchnoi y Anatoli Karpov, que tanto le enseñaron. Esas tres K tienen en común una vida novelesca, y además representan tres maneras de entender la vida en la extinta URSS: Korchnoi y los disidentes; Karpov y la vieja guardia del Kremlin; Kasparov y la perestroika. Pero si hablamos sólo de ajedrez, los tres son mitos. Nadie cuestiona que Karpov y Kasparov están entre los cinco mejores de todos los tiempos. Korchnoi no fue campeón del mundo porque sus mejores años coincidieron con los de Bobby Fischer y Karpov, pero aún hoy, pelea con la élite en una hazaña de longevidad deportiva. El lector disfrutará en estas páginas de muchos de los combates más memorables mantenidos en el tablero durante el último cuarto del siglo XX, así como de las valiosas aportaciones e interpretaciones de Kasparov. Y, cuando llegue a la última página, probablemente estimará injusto que ajedrez no se escriba con K.

Garry Kasparov gives his first public account of his landmark 1997 chess match with the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue, and explains why, twenty years later, he''''s become convinced that artificial intelligence is good for humans.In May 1997, the world watched as Garry Kasparov, the greatest chess player in the world, was defeated for the first time by the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue. It was a watershed moment in the history of technology: machine intelligence had arrived at the point where it could best human intellect.It wasn''''t a coincidence that Kasparov became the symbol of man''''s fight against the machines. Chess has long been the fulcrum in development of machine intelligence; the hoax automaton ''''The Turk'''' in the 18th century and Alan Turing''''s first chess program in 1952 were two early examples of the quest for machines to think like humans -- a talent we measured by their ability to beat their creators at chess. As the pre-eminent chessmaster of the 80s and 90s, it was Kasparov''''s blessing and his curse to play against each generation''''s strongest computer champions, contributing to their development and advancing the field.Like all passionate competitors, Kasparov has taken his defeat and learned from it. He has devoted much energy to devising ways in which humans can partner with machines in order to produce results better than either can achieve alone. During the twenty years since playing Deep Blue, he''''s played both with and against machines, learning a great deal about our vital relationship with our most remarkable creations. Ultimately, he''''s become convinced that by embracing the competition between human and machine intelligence, we can spend less time worrying about being replaced and more thinking of new challenges to conquer.In this breakthrough book, Kasparov tells his side of the story of Deep Blue for the first time -- what it was like to strategize against an implacable, untiring opponent -- the mistakes he made and the reasons the odds were against him. But more than that, he tells his story of AI more generally, and how he''''s evolved to embrace it, taking part in an urgent debate with philosophers worried about human values, programmers creating self-learning neural networks, and engineers of cutting edge robotics.

For readers of Putins People by Catherine Belton comes the stunning story of Russias slide back into a dictatorship led by Vladimir Putin - and how the world is now paying the price. Brave, trenchant and convincingSunday TimesFerocious and unforgivingFinancial TimesThe ascension of Vladimir Putin - a former lieutenant colonel of the KGB - to the presidency of Russia in 1999 was a strong signal that the country was headed away from democracy. Yet in the intervening years - as America and the worlds other leading powers have continued to appease him - Putin has grown not only into a dictator but an international threat. With his vast resources and nuclear arsenal, Putin is at the centre of a worldwide assault on political liberty and the modern world order.For Garry Kasparov, none of this is news. He has been a vocal critic of Putin for over a decade, even leading the pro-democracy opposition to him in the farcical 2008 presidential election. Yet years of seeing his Cassandra-like prophecies about Putins intentions fulfilled have left Kasparov with a darker truth: Putins Russia, like ISIS or Al Qaeda, defines itself in opposition to the free countries of the world.As Putin has grown ever more powerful, the threat he poses has grown from local to regional and finally to global. In this urgent book, Kasparov shows that the collapse of the Soviet Union was not an endpoint - only a change of seasons, as the Cold War melted into a new spring. But now, after years of complacency and poor judgement, winter is once again upon us.Argued with the force of Kasparovs world-class intelligence, conviction and hopes for his home country, Winter Is Coming reveals Putin for what he is: an existential danger hiding in plain sight.

'In this book, chess is a teacher, and I aim to show it is a great one' - Garry Kasparov. Here Grandmaster and World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov shares the powerful secrets of strategy he has learned from dominating the world's most intellectually challenging game - lessons about mastering the strategic and emotional skills to navigate life's toughest challenges and maximise success no matter how tough the competition. 'Unfortunately, the number of ways to do something wrong always exceeds the number of ways to do it right.' Drawing on a wealth of revealing and instructive stories, not only from the most intense and decisive moments of his greatest games, but also from his wide-ranging and perceptive reading, Kasparov reveals the strategic ways of thinking that always give a player - in life as in chess - the edge.We learn about the great figures of the game, and how their contests have shaped chess history; from Capablanca and Alekhine to Bobby Fischer and Kasparov's nemesis, Vladimir Kramnik. 'It's much better to be a little over-confident than the opposite. As Churchill wrote, "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference." If we trust in our abilities they will repay us.' With a raconteur's engaging charm, Garry Kasparov takes us inside a brilliant strategic mind. As Sun-Tzu distilled the secrets of the art of war and Machiavelli unveiled the lessons to be learned from courtly intrigue, Kasparov - a player whose record is likely never to be rivalled - reveals how and why the game of chess is a fitting and powerful teacher of how to be prepared for, and how to win in, even the most competitive situations. 'I used to attack because it was the only thing I knew. Not I attack because I know it works best.'

One of the world''s most highly regarded strategists uses his mastery of the world''s most ancient and subtle game to show listeners how chess''s tools can make them more successful in business and i

Un genio, Gary Kasparov, analiza minuciosamente a otro genio, Bobby Fischer, en uno de los libros más interesantes que pueden escribirse sobre ajedrez. Son dos de los jugadores más carismáticos y revolucionarios en mas de quince siglos de historia documentada, pero muy distintos entre si. Fischer tuvo una infancia muy dura en un pais, Estados Unidos, donde el ajedrez se cuida mucho en los colegios pero no es popular como profesion. Sin embargo, sus triunfos apabullantes contra las estrellas sovieticas llegaron en plena guerra fria, y eso le convirtio en un heroe nacional, que ademas conmociono el deporte mental: millones de personas se iniciaron en el juego de reyes gracias a el. Cuando Fischer se proclamo campeon del mundo, en 1972, Kasparov era un niño de nueve años, destinado por su madre a ser campeon del mundo de ajedrez, y educado especialmente para ese fin con un entorno muy favorable en un pais donde ser ajedrecista era una profesion muy honorable. Es casi imposible que un jugador, cualquiera que sea su nivel, no disfrute de las partidas de Fischer. Por tanto, resulta logico que el autor de este libro se esmere al glosar la obra del genial campeon en el volumen IV de Mis Geniales Predecesores. Un libro imprescindible que incluye tambien 64 paginas de fotografias.

Gary Kasparov era todavía un niño cuando Mijail Botvinnik (19111995), el patriarca del ajedrez soviético, vio en él a un futuro campeón y a un revolucionario, y lo acogió como alumno favorito en su escuela especial para grandes talentos. Por muy clarividente que fuera Botvinnik, no podia imaginar que aquel inquieto mozo azerbaiyano diseccionaria 30 años despues las partidas de todos los campeones del mundo con una profundidad ejemplar. En este segundo tomo, Kasparov analiza el estilo cientifico que definio a su querido profesor, la armonia casi poetica de Vasili Smyslov, la mente volcanica en permanente erupcion de Mijail Tal y la coherencia y disciplina mental del unico campeon no nacido en la URSS (o Rusia) de quienes reinaron entre 1927 y 1972, el holandes Max Euwe. La obra se completa con un tributo a la justicia: Paul Keres, David Bronstein y Efim Geller fueron campeones sin corona, no alcanzaron el trono por mala suerte o por haber nacido unos años antes o despues, y es justo que figuren en esta galeria de reyes diseccionados, cuyos rostros pueden observarse en 64 paginas (¡una por cada casilla del tablero!) dedicadas a fotos.

In May 1997, the world watched as Garry Kasparov, the greatest chess player in the world, was defeated for the first time by the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue. It was a watershed moment in the history of technology: machine intelligence had arrived at the point where it could best human intellect. It wasn''t a coincidence that Kasparov became the symbol of man''s fight against the machines. Chess has long been the fulcrum in development of machine intelligence; the hoax automaton ''The Turk'' in the 18th century and Alan Turing''s first chess program in 1952 were two early examples of the quest for machines to think like humans -- a talent we measured by their ability to beat their creators at chess. As the pre-eminent chessmaster of the 80s and 90s, it was Kasparov''s blessing and his curse to play against each generation''s strongest computer champions, contributing to their development and advancing the field. Like all passionate competitors, Kasparov has taken his defeat and learned from it. He has devoted much energy to devising ways in which humans can partner with machines in order to produce results better than either can achieve alone. During the twenty years since playing Deep Blue, he''s played both with and against machines, learning a great deal about our vital relationship with our most remarkable creations. Ultimately, he''s become convinced that by embracing the competition between human and machine intelligence, we can spend less time worrying about being replaced and more thinking of new challenges to conquer. In this breakthrough book, Kasparov tells his side of the story of Deep Blue for the first time -- what it was like to strategize against an implacable, untiring opponent -- the mistakes he made and the reasons the odds were against him. But more than that, he tells his story of AI more generally, and how he''s evolved to embrace it, taking part in an urgent debate with philosophers worried about human values, programmers creating self-learning neural networks, and engineers of cutting edge robotics.

"Este es, probablemente, el libro de ajedrez que con más placer he leído", ha escrito el británico Nigel Short, derrotado por Gary Kasparov en la final del Campeonato del Mundo de 1993, en su crítica para el Sunday Telegraph. En esta edicion española, que corrige los errores de las anteriores publicaciones, rusa e inglesa, el lector quedara impresionado por la sabia mezcla que logra Kasparov entre su condicion de numero uno indiscutible desde 1985 y su pasion por la historia. En su profundo analisis de los campeones del mundo y de los jugadores que dejaron honda huella sin lograr el trono el autor situa a cada uno en su epoca y disecciona los rasgos psicologicos que influyeron en sus partidas. Y al glosar estas, Kasparov fusiona todos los analisis que el aficionado pueda desear, los efectuados en su dia por los protagonistas y sus contemporaneos, los posteriores de los Grandes maestros, los de las computadoras mas potentes de nuestros dias, y los del propio Kasparov, quien pone un especial cuidado en distinguir las fuentes para un mayor disfrute del lector. El pasado, el presente y el previsible futuro, se funden en este primer volumen de esta magna obra que constara de cinco tomos.