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Garry Kasparov is back in the Big Apple, where in January this year he faced the computer program Deep Junior. This time he was there mainly to promote his book "My Great Predecessors". On Monday, July 14 there will be special appearance and book signing at the giant bookstore Barnes & Noble, 7.30 pm, 2289 Broadway (at 82nd Street). You may want to drop in if you live in the New York area.
But even if you don't, the book signing was not your only chance to meet with Garry Kasparov. A large number of visitors to the Playchess.com server today, when the world #1 took questions about his book and other topics. The chat was conducted from Garry's suite in a beautiful Manhattan hotel. A comprehensive transcript is currently being prepared for publication on this site. In the meantime we bring you a pictorial report on Garry Kasparov's visit to New York and the circumstances surrounding his visit to the Playchess.com server.
Summertime in New York, with this spectacular view over the Hudson
Heart-wrenching: that's ground zero, where the WTC stood
Setting things up in Garry's suite. Jeroen van den Belt, our multi-media specialist,
has hooked up a video camera to his notebook.
The local secretarial pool supplied a high-performance typist named Mig Greengard
Frederic Friedel preparing a digital camera for the encounter
Let the chat begin! Garry Kasparov answering questions on the Playchess.com
server
Really digging into it: Garry talking about his great predecessors
Recording the animated Kasparov chat on Jeroen's notebook
To view this sample you will need Microsoft Media Player 9. With earlier versions of the media player you will only hear the audio. The full Q+A session will appear on a future issue of ChessBase Magazine.
At the end of the Playchess.com chat we were visited by a young lady who took a lively interest in what was going on in the Kasparov suite. She was especially interested in the photographic efforts of the ChessBase team and volunteered to help us in our endeavours.
Learning to use the digital camera equipment
Capturing the first images of the great chess player
Showing the results to the model
Uh-oh, what's with the eyes? He keeps closing one or both whenever I shoot
The reactions of the photographer and the model says it all
And suddenly things click into place and we are getting great pictures
The thirteenth world champion portrayed by his daughter Polina.
Yes, the young photographer is Garry's 10-year-old daughter, a young lady of many talents. She lives in New Jersey, is an excellent fourth-grade student ("almost straight A's", she shyly admits), and speaks fluent Russian and English.
She can do a very competent simultaneous translation when her father talks to
people on the phone in Russian (for the first time we know what he is saying!)
Polina is also a great gymnast, as she graciously proves in Garry's suite.
She does backflips as easily as her father demolishes the Sicilian. Here's a
video clip of this
remarkable gymnastic feat.
Frederic Friedel
