Elon Musk, Garry Kasparov Spar Over Putin's Ukraine War: Chess Grandmaster Asks If There Will Be Russian Money In Twitter Deal

Elon Musk’s peace plan for ending the Russia-Ukraine war received a lot of flak from different quarters. On Monday, former chess champion Garry Kasparov, who holds a pro-Ukraine stance, came down hard on the Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO.

What Happened: Kasparov and Musk exchanged words on Twitter after the former lashed out at the Tesla CEO in a CNBC interview, saying “Why are people sitting in the comfort of their Silicon Valley mansions telling Ukraine how to run their own business?”

Musk hit back and even went on to call Kasparov "an idiot.”

While it’s true that Kasparov is almost as good at playing chess as my iPhone, he is otherwise an idiot

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 24, 2022

See Also: Elon Musk Says Nuclear War Probability Is Rising Rapidly; 'Have Been Up All Night To Think Of Any Possible Way To Deescalate This War'

Musk said that he didn’t own a house, let alone a mansion.

In the same thread, Musk disparaged the game of chess, saying he found it "too simple to be useful in real life." 

I did as a child, but found it to be too simple to be useful in real life: a mere 8 by 8 grid, no fog of war, no technology tree, no random map or spawn position, only 2 players, both sides exact same pieces, etc.

Polytopia addresses these limitations.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 24, 2022

Responding to the statement, Kasparov suggested Musk doesn’t quite understand chess.

“In his replies, it appears that in discussing chess, Musk has found something he understands even less than geopolitics,” Kasparov tweeted.

Musk is proposing the same failed strategy of former U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump and even what President Joe Biden pursued early on — wanting to engage with Vladimir Putin and make concessions to the Russian president and his "terror state," Kasparov said.

It would be ironic if it weren't so dangerous that Musk is proposing the same failed strategy of Obama, Trump, and even early Biden in wanting to engage and make concessions to Putin and his terror state. This slaughter in Ukraine is the result.

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) October 24, 2022

Kasparov also raised a few questions:

• Whether Musk talked to Putin? 
• If yes, Kasparov wanted to know when and about what.
• If Musk hasn’t spoken to Putin, why is he confident the Russian president is interested in his peace plan?
• Has SpaceX received compensation beyond the huge PR value of its use in Ukraine?
• Will financing for Musk’s Twitter Inc. TWTR deal come from Saudi and Qatari sources, which share many interests with Putin? Is Russia is financing the deal?

In a subsequent tweet, Kasparov wrote, "Putin will continue to use blackmail—nuclear, energy, food, financial, compromat—and every other kind, as long as he is in power. Rewarding it will lead to more of it, which takes only the observation of his track record to understand, not genius."

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Photo: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons