“There’s a massive amount of uncertainty and almost boundless variety in terms of the moves you can make in both chess and business. Think about it: after just three opening moves by a chess player, more than 9 million positions are possible, and that’s when only two players are involved in the game. Now, imagine all the possibilities faced by companies with a whole host of corporations responding to their new strategies, pricing, and products. The unpredictability is almost unimaginable.”
Garry Kasparov

Topics
•	Chess as a metaphor for business life
•	Three important principles of chess and their application to business – mental concentration; understanding the environment and the competition; and making the right decisions
•	Why you should never, ever, underestimate your opponent
•	The importance of keeping the psychological edge, both in a strong or weak market position
•	Being comfortable in enemy territory and not allowing oneself to be intimidated by competitors
•	Why working hard is not enough and doing something different is the essential key to being successful
•	The need to be mentally fit and fully prepared at the top flight of business, so as to meet the challenges of the future
•	How to perform better under pressure and improve your decision making
•	Why all you have to do is have the courage to make up your mind

Garry Kasparov was born on April 13, 1963 in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, part of the former Soviet Union. By the age of seven, Garry was a child chess prodigy. At nine, he had already won a semi-final of the ‘blitz’ championship for adults in Baku. In 1976, aged only 12, he achieved his first great victory, thanks to his relentless work, and won the Soviet Junior Championship. He became the youngest player in the history of the competition to win such a title.

In 1979, he celebrated his 16th birthday and for the first time entered a foreign adult tournament. Garry finished first, ahead of fourteen Grand Masters. In 1980, he won the World Junior Championship. At 21, Garry Kasparov was the youngest player in chess history to compete in a World Championship final match.

On November 9, 1985, Garry became the youngest ever World Chess Champion, when he beat Anatoli Karpov. This made him the 13th World Champion and he had already become the number one ranked player in the world. In January of 1990, Kasparov created two milestones in chess history. First, he moved past Bobby Fischer’s best ever rating of 2785 and then broke the magical 2800 sound barrier. ‘He was the first player in chess history to do so’. At that time, it was the chess equivalent of breaking the four-minute mile. In 1999, after winning the three major events of that year, he created a new milestone by topping the 2850 ELO ratings mark (The only player to do so). From December 1981 to February 1991, Kasparov made chess history by not losing a single event for nearly ten years. This was the period in which he created his reputation of invincibility. ‘He successfully defended his title more times than any champion in modern times’.

In 1988, a computer programme was devised to analyse a vast collection of chess statistics, in order to create a ranking of the all-time chess greats. Top of the list, above Capablanca, Karpov, Fischer and the rest, was the twenty-five year old Russian, Garry Kasparov. In 2005, before his retirement, ‘Kasparov was the #1 ranked chess player for twenty years’. 

“We have to push ourselves, create our own criteria and raise them all the time. It can be a bit of a paradox to have the confidence that we are the best and still compete as if we were the outsiders, the underdogs” - Garry Kasparov 

Kasparov’s whole approach is refreshingly no-nonsense. He says. “We may not all be born geniuses. But there is a lot that can be done by sheer hard work, throwing oneself into tough competition, being open to outside view points, constant self-evaluation and a willingness to learn from all this to sharpen one’s skills every single day.”

"Forrceful”, “compelling” and “knowledgeable” are words used to describe a speech by Garry Kasparov.