Thanks Scott, but has he ever said that he is Armenian ?
Is Kasparov Armenian ?
Sort:
From his interview at http://www.armeniandiaspora.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22171
"Kasparov:
Yes I am born in Baku and I am half Armenian-half Jewish but my native
tongue is Russian, my culture is Russian, my education is Russian."
So then what exactly does that make him? Azerbaijani Armenian Russian Jew ?
slish007 - what's your point? Are you upset he just doesn't say he is Armenian? Doesn't mean you have to be nasty.
Wait, you guys got me wrong. I just wanted to know if he feels that his is Armenian, Russian or Azerbajani...... thats all. It wasnt ment to be rude or anything, I just wanted to know.
slish007 wrote:
So then what exactly does that make him? Azerbaijani Armenian Russian Jew ?
Makes him Human.
he was Armenia. He changed his last name from Kasparian to Kasparov.
He sold his crown in action to help Armenian refugees after pogroms in Sumgait and Baku. His actions are more important than words in this case!
He's rather unlikely to feel Azerbaijani, no? 
Different peoples define what someone “is” in different ways. My friend was born and raised in Riga, Latvia in the Soviet era in a Russian speaking Jewish family with origins around Russia.
Ethnic Latvians would consider him Russian. Americans might consider him Latvian. But Russian certainly didn’t consider him Russian. He was a Jew. And not just socially. His passport said Jew, not Russian. Don’t know if modern Russian still does this. And I don’t know if USSR explicitly codified rights based on these designations. But they certainly allocated them that way de facto. Wide scale, profound, insuperable discrimination.
So if GK was Armenian and Jewish by origin, USSR was probably inclined to Classify him by his least desirable category. Probably as Jew. Like the American 1% rule on race. But obviously I don’t know I’d be curious to know what his USSR passport said. They might have “promoted” him if they thought he might represent for them.
fleegens wrote:
Different peoples define what someone “is” in different ways. My friend was born and raised in Riga, Latvia in the Soviet era in a Russian speaking Jewish family with origins around Russia.
Ethnic Latvians would consider him Russian. Americans might consider him Latvian. But Russian certainly didn’t consider him Russian. He was a Jew. And not just socially. His passport said Jew, not Russian. Don’t know if modern Russian still does this. And I don’t know if USSR explicitly codified rights based on these designations. But they certainly allocated them that way de facto. Wide scale, profound, insuperable discrimination.
So if GK was Armenian and Jewish by origin, USSR was probably inclined to Classify him by his least desirable category. Probably as Jew. Like the American 1% rule on race. But obviously I don’t know I’d be curious to know what his USSR passport said. They might have “promoted” him if they thought he might represent for them.
There was no competitive discrimination against Jews in Soviet Union.
Misha Tal, Efim Geller, Leonid Stein, David Bronstein, Mark Taimanov and several other elite Soviet chessplayers were Jews. Their passports said "Soviet", and IDK what their KGB files said about them.
I had the luck to attend several master classes by Efim Geller some 35 years ago, and the man described himself as a Soviet citizen. And he was neither a diehard communist, nor a reactionary. He did not make his political beliefs public, what was more than obvious was that he was a rather heavy drinker, and a chain smoker. Oh, and probably the most knowledgabe chessplayer I have ever met in my life.
He had an easy life in Soviet Union because of his extreme chess skills, and he was rather grateful about that.
Why did Garry Weinstein change his name?
I wish I will live in the World, where people won't divide themselves into races and nations.
Sep 2, 2021
0
#16
Colin20G wrote:
Why did Garry Weinstein change his name?
Because not having a Jewish name makes your life easier, unfortunately. At least in the Soviet Union it did.
Right,sorry, Forgot. No profound anti Semitism in Russia. My bad.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russian-federation/1963-01-01/status-jews-soviet-union
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/science/articles/coffin-problems-soviet-anti-semitism-scientists
I didn’t save the chess life articles from when I was active in the 90s about top talent suppressed Jewish chess players Turning up in older age.
PS “It does not include those of Jewish origin who report another ethnicity in the census. Russian passports dropped the ethnicity field in 1994.”
https://www.jta.org/2010/02/24/lifestyle/fishing-for-jews-in-russias-muddy-waters
Here is GM Kasparov's answer himself: "We could never have imagined how international my life would become. A Jewish-Armenian boy from Baku could not have such dreams! " "I was always politically active, and, in the Soviet Union, chess was always political because everything was political. They wanted to use chess as a way of demonstrating the superiority of the Communist system over the decadent West. When I was on the rise in the early eighties, it was a serious issue that I might soon challenge Anatoly Karpov for the title." "
But finally, partly thanks to the slow opening of the Soviet system under Gorbachev, I reached my goal of becoming world champion in 1985, at the age of 22.
So chess was political, whether you liked it or not. Just like, throughout history, being Jewish is political, whether we like it or not."
And here's the Chess Life article from the 1990s.I misremembered: the story of the suppressed player was in the 70s, not the 90s--JacobYuchtman. "Soviet School of Chess: The Dark Side". GM Leonid Shamkovich. Chess LIfe June 1995, page 48 (pg 80 in the PDF numbering): http://uscf1-nyc1.aodhosting.com/CL-AND-CR-ALL/CL-ALL/1995/1995_06.pdf Or here: http://uscf1-nyc1.aodhosting.com/CL-AND-CR-ALL/CL-ALL/1995/
Nov 11, 2021
0
#20
paroian007 wrote:
So then what exactly does that make him? Azerbaijani Armenian Russian Jew ?
I'm Jewish, and religious. I must make one thing clear:
According to Judaism - there's no 'half Jews'.
Jewish womb - Jewish baby. that's it basically, except for some very rare cases.
Kasparov isn't Jewish at all. - fathers don't count.
and, people who are the opposite - like Matt Stone - his mother is Jewish, his father is not - they are Fully Jewish.
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But, since most of you don't believe in Judaism, it doesn't matter much to the world.
Good day.
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P.S. here's your ticket to heaven:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Laws_of_Noah
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https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1188354/jewish/Melachim-uMilchamot-Chapter-9.htm
Maimonides is your guide, not anyone else.
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plz don't message me on that - I won't answer. and I'm no Rabbi.
Has Gary Kasparov ever said that he is Armenian ?