My mother was Armenian, my father Jewish. My father died when I was seven and my mother never remarried. She lived the rest of her 50 years for me. It’s the greatest thing that happened to me – I had a mother who dedicated her entire life to her only son.
I grew up in Baku, Azerbaijan, in the deep south of the USSR. Everybody spoke Russian because it was an imperial city. At 10, I was sent to the Young Pioneer Palace in Baku to learn how to play chess. It didn’t take long for me to see the gap between reality and propaganda.
I was the first from my class to take a trip abroad, to France, when I was 13. Travelling was a big deal, even inside the Soviet Union. Travelling to other, capitalist countries was unheard of.
Whether you spell Garry with a G or an H in Russian, you still pronounce it with a strong G. I was named after President Truman – Harry – whom my father admired for taking a strong stand against communism. It was a rare name in Russia, until Harry Potter came along.
I stayed on top for 20 years because of my desire to be at the cutting edge – it was a never-ending process of exploration. This was my mother’s wisdom: as long as you challenge your own excellence, you’ll never be short of opponents.
Was it painful to lose against [super-computer] Deep Blue? I’d never lost before, so I was furious. But 25 years later, I’d say it was a blessing. I became a pioneer. Though now more people know me as a consultant for The Queen’s Gambit than the man who lost to the IBM machine.
The thing about jail that sticks in my memory is the sound when they lock the door. You understand you’re alone then, in a cage. I was lucky that I was arrested in what we now call the “vegetarian” times of Putin, when people ended up in jail for five or 10 days. For the same peaceful protest against Putin’s dictatorship, you might now end up in jail for five or 10 years.
Running for president in 2007 was just a message. I was trying to demonstrate that the official Russian campaign was under the control of criminals. Putin is a dictator with blood on his hands.
I’m retired, but I’m probably the strongest amateur chess player in the world. I still feel the responsibility. Chess gave me so much – global fame, publicity – and it helped me forge my character. Giving back to chess is somehow my duty.
Chess still takes up about 25% of my time. I live in New York with my wife and two of my kids. For me, relaxation comes in shifting intellectual activities. My daughter, 15, has a great interest in literature – I help her with her debate topics. I’m doing a jigsaw with my six-year-old son: 600 pieces – a big one.
When did I last cry? That’s easy: 25 December 2020, when my mother died.
How Life Imitates Chess by Garry Kasparov is out now in paperback from Penguin. Buy it for £10.99 at guardianbookshop.com
