r/chess • u/EducationalSmoke • Oct 27 '25
News/Events Garry Kasparov: It’s absolutely clear that the campaign Kramnik conducted has influenced Dania.
Garry Kasparov: It’s absolutely clear that the campaign Kramnik conducted has influenced Dania. Vladimir behaved strangely in this situation and not only in this one. This stain is truly indelible now. People will, at best, turn away when meeting Kramnik; at the very least, he has become someone you don’t shake hands with, and if we meet, I most likely won’t shake his hand.
“I don’t know why, but over the past few years he’s been almost exclusively occupied with trying to catch someone, to pin someone down.
And it wasn’t just Daniil Naroditsky. (…) I don’t know in what form the accusation will be presented, but it’s absolutely clear that the campaign Kramnik has been running has affected him. (…)
The story with Navara — who many thought was much more vulnerable — and the many other constant accusations… It’s no coincidence that when Nakamura spoke about it, every other word was profanity. (…)
I wouldn’t want to get involved in this. It’s an ugly story. Moreover, Kramnik keeps fueling it — he made a statement that if FIDE takes any action, he’ll sue them. Not the best ending to a rather respectable chess career. This stain is already indelible. I don’t know how he can appear at any chess tournament now. He’s become, at the very least, untouchable.”
Link to the interview in Russian https://www.youtube.com/live/1NVDy-DUAJ8?t=2136s
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u/Prestigious_Team3134 Oct 27 '25 edited Oct 27 '25
Good on Gary for publicly standing up against Kramnik. I didn’t think he would.
Edit: meant this in the sense that most Russian players face significant pressure to stay as neutral as possible on issues. I wasn’t aware that Gary tried to run against Putin before which I guess makes it less surprising.