GRI Summit 2025 Checkmate or Stalemate: The Future of Global Stability – Keynote

a presenter sitting on a chair speaking with animated hands

Democracy Activist Warns of Acute Geopolitical Risk in Russia, U.S., Canada

Garry Kasparov, chess grandmaster and democracy advocate, delivered a powerful keynote. Drawing on his own experiences with artificial intelligence on the chess board, Kasparov connected technology’s relentless nature with today’s global struggle between freedom and authoritarianism. Calling the free world to stand with Ukraine, he cautioned that appeasing Russia will embolden other would-be dictators and weaken democratic movements worldwide. He urged Canada specifically to assume a leadership role in rallying support for Ukraine and defending democracy globally. For Kasparov, there can be no stalemate: “Either we win, or we lose.”

Garry Kasparov​​

Democracy Advocate

Born in Azerbaijan, in the Soviet Union, Garry Kasparov became the under-18 chess champion of the USSR at the age of 12 and the world under-20 champion at 17. He came to international fame at the age of 22 as the youngest world chess champion in history in 1985. Kasparov’s famous matches against the IBM super-computer Deep Blue in 1996-97 were key to bringing artificial intelligence, and chess, into the mainstream.

Still ranked #1 in the world, Kasparov retired from professional chess in 2005 to help lead the Russian pro-democracy opposition against the rising dictatorship of Vladimir Putin. In 2012, Kasparov was named chairman of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation, succeeding Václav Havel. HRF promotes individual liberty worldwide and organizes the annual Oslo Freedom Forum. Facing imminent arrest during Putin’s crackdown, Kasparov moved from Moscow to New York City in 2013. In 2017, he founded the Renew Democracy Initiative, dedicated to promoting the principles of the free world through education and advocacy.

In 2016, he was named a Security Ambassador by Avast Software, where he discusses cybersecurity and the digital rights. The U.S.-based Kasparov Chess Foundation non-profit promotes the teaching of chess in education systems around the world.

Kasparov has been a regular contributor to many major publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CNN, and The New York Daily News. His Twitter and Facebook boast over a million followers. Kasparov speaks frequently to business audiences around the world on strategy, decision-making, politics, and artificial intelligence.

Kasparov’s book ‘How Life Imitates Chess‘ on strategy and decision-making is available in over 20 languages. He is the author of two acclaimed series of chess books, ‘My Great Predecessors‘ and ‘Modern Chess‘. Kasparov’s prescient book, ‘Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped‘, was released in 2015. His latest book on AI and the human-machine relationship is ‘Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins’ (2017).