Garry Kasparov for President

Now retired from competition, Garry Kasparov, the greatest chess player of the last thirty years, has turned to politics. He is one of the leading voices of opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia, and in a Times article today, he refuses to deny the possibility that he will run against Putin's chosen successor with the aplomb of a politician who has already decided to run.

I particularly like the always-whirring chess-mind that is evinced in this article, as Kasparov begins by diagramming a recent protest through the streets of Moscow as if it were a great game he'd just played, and then goes on to analyze his movement's chances for success with the razor's edge of a true gambler: "I am absolutely objective. I think we can lose badly, because the regime is still very powerful, but the only beauty of our situation is that we don’t have much choice.”

Kasparov, Building Opposition to Putin (nytimes.com)