A committed political activist, Kasparov today continues to support RussiaвЂ™s struggling opposition. Although Kasparov is a product of the Soviet UnionвЂ™s formidable chess system, which has dominated the game since the Second World War, he has never played the limited, even passive role traditionally expected of Russian celebrities-far from it. The worldвЂ™s number one player since 1984, Kasparov became the youngest world champion at the age of 22 and is considered today to be the most accomplished chess player of all time. Coutu talked with Garry Kasparov at the Lombardy Hotel in Manhattan. If chess is such a powerful form of competition, is there anything that strategists can learn from chess players about what it takes to win? To find out, HBR senior editor Diane L. Even people who have no personal knowledge of the game instinctively recognize that chess is unusual in terms of its intellectual complexity and the strategic demands it places on players. The image of two brilliant minds locked in a battle of skill and will-in which chance plays little or no apparent role-is compelling. But there is something peculiarly different about chess. Many leaders draw inspiration from poker and team sports, such as baseball and football. Of course, chess is not the only game that businesspeople like to invoke. Chess has become part of the everyday language of many executives: we checkmate our opponents, we are just pawns in a game, or we think three moves ahead.

The lawyer in the courtroom, the general on the battlefield, and the politician on the campaign trail have all at some point described their skirmishes in terms of the 64 black-and-white squares and 32 pieces that make up a chess game. ItвЂ™s hard to find a better exemplar for competition than chess.

Deep blue chess winning move