After defeating arch-rival Karpov, Garry Kasparov remained the highest-rated grand master for most of the next twenty years and remains one of the game’s best known names. His matches against IBM’s Deep Blue were a milestone in artificial intelligence and he has continues to examine the rise of machine learning. He also considers how chess contains useful parallels to business – in terms of strategy, decision-making, maximising resources and beating the competition. He also dedicated much of his energy to politics and is an outspoken critic of modern Russia.
A child prodigy, Garry Kasparov qualified as an international chess grandmaster at sixteen. He was world champion for fourteen years, during which his attacking style and faultless strategy proved invincible. Famously, he pitted his talents against IBM’s Deep Blue computer, which could analyse 50 billion moves in three minutes. The series still stands at one match each and inspired Garry’s book Deep Thinking, an examination of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Aside from a look at the differences between human and machine thinking, Garry’s presentations highlight themes that are as pivotal in the corporate world as they are in chess. He shows how the most complex challenge in either arena can be distilled down into strategy, decision-making, use of resources and the desire to beat the competition. Where appropriate Garry is happy to demonstrate the parallels, by playing up to twenty-five simultaneous games of chess with conference delegates.
Although still participating in exhibition matches Garry now also devotes much of his time to politics and campaigning. Years after his rivalry with Karpov was seen as a show of opposition to the authoritarian Soviet state, he has become a vocal opponent of the Putin regime and its policies at home and abroad.
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