Chess is an effective means to educate and train the human intellect.
My challenge when I came back was to face the young talent, dissect their games, and show them maybe that they needed to learn more about the game than just the money aspect.
No, I've never had a job other than being a chess player.
In Kansas I have a chess school.
In an age when schools are facing significant budgetary restraints, there is a greater need than ever to make chess available to as many students as possible. We've assembled the very best in chess education to develop a complete chess curriculum - K through 12. We've designed a program that encourages creativity, instills self-discipline and offers hope and a feeling of accomplishment to millions of children.
Chess is changing. I hope chess is getting more popular, more spectacular.
I organize a chess festival in Hungary. I support chess in schools, and I have my own chess foundation. And I started writing books.
I am thinking about chess in schools in particular. In the USA more than 3200 children competed in an event.
I see myself more as an ambassador of the game. And I hope to bring chess to a higher level in the United States. Making bigger tournaments, more interesting events. Making it a respectable profession for young people to be able to pursue in the future.
After that, Kasparov stepped back from chess which is, and I want this to be clear, not good for chess in general at all. As a whole, the current situation in the chess world leaves a lot to be desired.
Everyone mentions the fact that I am the first African GM. I think it means nothing unless you impact people in Africa. That's what we're trying to try to continue to do - impact the game and make an impact on people over there.
We want more women players to take up chess. There are few participants at the national level and hope it will grow.
The place of chess in the society is closely related to the attitude of young people towards our game.
In Gujarat, we had the world record of largest number of chess games in a single venue - 20,500 - and in Tamil Nadu, I have been emphasizing on the positives of chess to the authorities.
It's certainly an honor to have kids who are looking up to me, but at the same time, I'm just trying to do what I can to raise the profile of chess.
I try to help developing junior chess. When I lived in USSR, I got a lot of free help from very good coaches - now I am trying to repay that debt.
It's very encouraging that the game of chess is growing in the U.S. and is becoming more popular.
I wanted to start a proper academy and recruit juniors from all over Pakistan following my retirement after the World Open in 1993 but there was no support.
If the kids get a good grasp of what the main lessons are for chess after two or three years of staying with the game, then you've given them brain food and you've given them a skill that can last them a lifetime.
I was very lucky that while I was a chess player in a country where chess was not a big deal, I happened to be in the one city where there was a sprouting chess team: Chennai.
I think for me the main goal that I have, or at least what I really aspire to, is to raise the level of chess.
My idea is to make moves to bring chess back to the world's map, to make it part of the world's geography again.
I want to serve chess through games, books that are works of art. I would like to bring the game closer to many people all over the world.
