Kasparov Clubbed With A Chessboard

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Russian politics is not nearly as polite as Russian chess!

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Kasparov Hit Over Head With Chessboard


Apr 16, 10:13 PM (ET)

MOSCOW (AP) - Garry Kasparov, the world's former No. 1 chess player who quit the professional game last month to focus on politics, said Saturday he had been hit over the head with a chessboard in a politically motivated attack.

Kasparov, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was not injured Friday when he was hit with the chessboard after signing it for a young man at an event in Moscow.

A spokeswoman for Kasparov, Marina Litvinovich, said the assailant told the chess champion: "I admired you as a chess player, but you gave that up for politics."

She said the unidentified attacker - who did not reveal his political allegiance - tried to hit Kasparov again but was hauled away by security guards.

"It was a fairly nasty incident, it was not very pleasant psychologically," Kasparov told the private NTV television.

The 41-year-old Kasparov, a brilliant and aggressive tactician regarded by many as the greatest chess player of all time, has been ranked No. 1 in the world since 1984.

He retired last month, saying he planned to focus on politics and do "everything in my power to resist Putin's dictatorship." He plays a leading role in the Committee 2008: Free Choice, a group formed by liberal opposition leaders.

Putin has been accused of stifling democratic freedoms by placing national television under effective state control and centralizing power by boosting Kremlin control of parliament and country's regions.

[Monte Smith]

Phew! I thought you were going to tell us this happened at a Pistons game.

[hearsay]

Hilarious!

I'm always facsinated by poeple like Kasparav that have gargantuan ego's, and it's so much fun when something like this happens.

[Tom Storer]

Well, if I were the world's best anything for twenty years, I might have quite an ego myself! Besides, you have to give it to him. He knows he's hot shit as a chess player, and also knows that a career in opposition politics in Russia is difficult and dangerous. Retiring from the former to take up the latter takes some gumption.

[John L]

What Tom said. Opposition politics in Russia is dangerous business. Getting hit over the head is no joke.

[Enforcer]

To choose ego as the focus of what Kasparov is about really misses the point. This guy is a warrior, man. You don't have to like him, but it's hard not to respect him.