In the premises of the Pyramid in Tirana, the book “How Life Imitates Chess” written by the great master and former world champion in chess, Gary Kasparov, was presented, pronounced by the deputy Eduard Shalsi.
Shalsi’s friendship with Kasparov began in 2014 as a gift from Prime Minister Edi Rama, and a few years later the deputy, with the authorship of his friend, began translating the book, which was promoted in the presence of Kasparov himself.
The book “How Life Imitates Chess” is often considered a book of advice, it is more about deep self-analysis, understanding who you are, what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are and how you can address them to improve your decision making.
“There is no universal advice and it always bothers me when I hear motivational speakers saying you have to do this and then that and you will get better. Meaningless for a simple reason, decision-making is as unique as fingerprints or DNA, we are different,” Kasparov said.
The author, known for his unwavering confidence and dominance on the chessboard, told for Euronews that even a chess titan like him has moments of insecurity.
“I’m intimidated by good or bad moves. So if you play now with an unknown player on the Internet and you don’t know who the player is, and this player plays phenomenal chess, then you suspect that either Magnus Carlson is hiding behind the screen or someone is cheating using a machine,” said Kasparov.
He also paralleled the chess game war with the current Ukraine-Russia war, stressing that the current war is being played without any rules.
“War is always more uncertain, it’s very foggy because we don’t know what’s happening at the moment and also Putin doesn’t play by any rules. We all know that there are certain rules that must be respected by all war fronts, but Russia does not care, so they are deliberately attacking civilians, believing that this is the best way to break the will of Ukrainians to resisted. Therefore it is a game, but it is not like chess, because in chess we can have one winning side and the other losing side or it can be a draw. There is no draw in this game. Either Putin wins or we win. When I say we I mean Ukraine of course, but it is all of us who are helping Ukraine, because if God forbid Putin wins, which means he controls a Ukrainian territory, it will send a signal to every dictator in the world that they can to break the rules,” Kasparov analyzed.
Since retiring from chess in 2005, Kasparov has devoted his time to writing, politics, with his strong convictions turning him into an enemy of the Putin regime, and human rights advocacy.
