You remember Atari ST? That was the beginning of the chess computer club in Moscow. I had another short-term computer contract with Atari computers. And I thought that could be a big help because I had all these notebooks, so how about bringing everything together? Because I could then look at these games on the screen. We didn't think about it as machines playing and chess engines, but more like a database. And I shared my idea: time to start using machines, computers to help chess players. So in 1985, I spoke to to my new friends in Germany, the future creators of ChessBase. You know Hopper? Remember the game Hopper? So that was definitely the first computer in my town of Baku, and we played all sorts of games. So I eventually asked them to give me one and I remember carrying the monitor with me in an Aeroflot flight back to Russia. That is, wow, I mean they were very primitive, absolute primitive. I was shocked because I came from the Soviet Union. And I am almost sure you haven't heard the name of the company that sponsored my semi-final match against Viktor Korchnoi: Acorn Computers! Acorn Computers, 1983. But going back to my career, the first time I actually saw computers, real computers, that was in 1983. So today, I always say that the difference between Magnus Carlsen and the chess engine you can download on your laptop: it's about the same as comparing Usain Bolt and a Ferrari And, of course, you know, if you have a chess app on your mobile, it's stronger than Deep Blue. I don't know, call them entities, strongest players, you know, if we take computers into account, and of course the gap keeps growing.
BATTLE CHESS ACORN PROFESSIONAL
And in some ways I can claim myself as being the last world champion, because I was the last world champion who was the strongest on this planet! When I left professional chess, clearly the world champions were not the strongest. Garry Kasparov: A great question to start with though it may take a few hours or maybe a few days to actually cover, you know, my career, and the influence of machines! And how the game has changed, how the game was influenced by the gradual machine takeover of many fields of the game of chess. If you have a Chess app on your mobile, it's stronger than Deep Blue When did they start appearing as a tool for serious training? And when did it become clear they were going to become something more than that?
BATTLE CHESS ACORN PC
PC Gamer: Can you talk about the changes you've seen in the chess world over your life in regards to computers? Your career aligns with some pretty remarkable advancements. (Image credit: Garry Kasparov / Louis Germain)