Knight's move

This event in the series of current chaos, idiocy, general insanity, vulgarity and just crap is probably not so significant. There is no special heroism in him, there is no excessive pathos in him. But for me this is truly an event and, of course, an act. Karpov came to the detention center to visit Kasparov.

They expected it from anyone, but not from Anatoly Evgenievich. At first, we were here in our own circle and had time to laugh. After all, Karpov has recently been known for constantly giving simultaneous gaming sessions to prisoners in colonies. Well, he came to the isolation ward out of habit. To the prisoner. Kasparov, after all, is a prisoner in our country, whatever one may say. Even if five days is not Khodorkovsky’s nine years, and Moscow is not Krasnokamensk, but here the fact is more important than formal details. And the fact that Karpov came to Kasparov is more important than small details, more important even than the fact that their meeting did not take place.

In our modern history, one can hardly look for such terrible antagonists. They personified two camps: Kasparov conventionally represented everything new, progressive, impetuous, and Karpov - everything that was old, stagnant, party-ceremonial. This is where their confrontation grew, which is why it went far beyond the boundaries of chess, so the whole country watched their games, not understanding a damn thing about the set of Latin letters and numbers, such as “knight H-5 on G-7”, which were sprinkled with screen commentators watched, not distinguishing between the names of the outlandish “beginnings” and “defenses”.

Karpov did not make any angry speeches, did not denounce anyone, he directly said that he did not share the political views of Garry Kimovich, but he also said that he considers it completely wrong that a person is behind bars for an offense that is not even an offense . And not because he is a former world champion and a celebrity, but simply because you cannot put a person under arrest just for taking two steps from the sidewalk to the pavement. Karpov wanted to know how Kasparov was living in the dungeon, what his conditions were and how he felt in this difficult situation. He called his visit “humanitarian”, in the end he could not find any bosses who, like all of us, did not expect such a “knight’s move” and hid somewhere, handed over a chess magazine, and learned that Kasparov himself owns chess. Well, that's all, actually.

Indeed, it seems that there is nothing special, no heroism. But is this really so little? After all, look: when Kasparov’s freedom is demanded by his friends, colleagues from the United Front, “The Other Russia”, like-minded people from the Union of Right Forces or Vladimir Ryzhkov - this is understandable, this is expected, this is probably already the authorities and does not particularly irritate them, because from these people This is exactly what the authorities are waiting for. And here comes a person who is considered the worst enemy, from whom such an act was least expected in this situation. Karpov could sit quietly at home, and no one would say a word - personal hostility, what can you do. Moreover, Karpov seems to be a cautious person, close and friendly with the authorities. But then he came to the isolation ward. In the company of Ryzhkov - and no one else.

None of the chess players said another word, not just an angry one, but at least a human one. I’m not talking about many other influential figures in society, including those who were considered Kasparov’s friends. Of course, he is now an enemy of the people, an agent of the West and God knows who else. Now it’s better to say about such people that he is not your friend, but just a casual acquaintance - so, we saw each other a couple of times.

I’ll say it again: Anatoly Karpov did not do anything heroic. A normal act by a normal person. But such actions are not safe now, they can have consequences. We just lack normal people and normal actions. In general, maybe I didn’t understand something in this story, didn’t see some hidden meaning and the second bottom (go, unravel the plans of the great chess players), but, in my opinion, Anatoly Evgenievich is great!