How Life Imitates Chess

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I find Kasparov overtly sympathetic, as he is quite conscious of his quirks and idiosyncrasies, stating open-handed his shortcomings, his failures both in chess and in life, against Anatoly Karpov, against Tigran Petrossian, against Veselin Topalov, his defeat against a small child in a real-time strategy videogame. Perhaps you should create your own “happiness index,” which can be as simple as a mental or actual list of things that motivate you and give you pleasure and satisfaction. En alguna medida, supongo que lo logra, pero me parece dudoso que su sapiencia ajedrecística pueda ser de utilidad para otras personas – o siquiera para sí mismo en sus otras actividades.

The truly ironic thing is that Kasparov's chess-infused world view provides a reasonable metaphor to explain what's gone wrong. The last chapter of the book seems particularly poignant at the moment, in which he details his move into politics as a pro-democracy activist and direct opponent of Putin. There is an outrageous stretch - 'We could even make the case that [François Philidor's] memorable phrase "the pawns are the soul of the game" eerily anticipated the French Revolution. He had to work very hard to catch up: mercilessly analyse his own play to find out what was wrong with it, and learn to think like Karpov. Kasparov takes us through the great matches of his career, including legendary duels against both man (Grandmaster Anatoly Karpov) and machine (IBM chess supercomputer Deep Blue), enhancing the lessons of his many experiences with examples from politics, literature, sports and military history.In short, Kasporav does not give any amazing insights in this book that we haven't heard before from the motivational book section in terms of life lessons. This book is no different, but the twist here is that Kasparov on many occasions has used his failures to explain that life is not as straightforward as the rules of chess.

One of the most highly regarded strategists of our time teaches us how the tools that made him a world chess champion can make us more successful in business and in life. The further you get, the more it comes across as a bunch of poorly structured notes that Mig Greengard, his long-suffering collaborator, has tried without success to whip into coherent text. The insights about chess and how the stages of the game apply to business were logical, with the points well made. It wasn't until he found himself 4-0 down that he realised his straightforward attacking strategy wasn't appropriate.Nor is genius sufficient to overcome the problems, as Garry Kasparov proves with How Life Imitates Chess. So I was shocked to find myself thoroughly engrossed by Kasparov's book, which is essentially an anatomy and vivisection of his personal genius, and rules he has generalized from that. Per Kasparov, un grande uomo che certamente spicca per la ferrea determinazione e per una lucidità e pulizia mentale fuori dal comune, i problemi di strategia e di tattica che si incontrano negli scacchi sono terribilmente analoghi a quelli della vita reale. Find weak points in enemy position (available opportinities), strong points in your position (your talents and knowledge).

Kasparov shares his lessons learnt at the chessboard and compares them to historical blunders and business failures e.I have never in my life read a self-help book, and have found all those I've looked at to be utterly trite garbage. The final chapter detailing the final fight of Kasparov with his famous opponent, Karpov, is interesting.