Samuel yesterday met Garry Kasparov, who kindly signed his five volumes of "My great predecessors". Afterwards, Kasparov gave a talk. He was on good form even though he had just flown in from New York with only three hours sleep. One member of the audience asked how much sleep he needed. "Look, I always say you should always eat and sleep as much as you can, because you never know when you will be able to do it next."

As the talk went on, it became apparent that he was not going to touch the big hanging chess board, but rather answer questions about a wide range of subjects, not least his move into politics, referring to Putin as a "corrupt dictator". Asked if he was worried about his safety he cited the credo of dissidents in the former Soviet Union, "Do what you must do and so be it", noting jokingly at the same time that he has no business interests in Russia, so cannot be thrown into jail for tax evasion.

Apart from all of this, he shared with us his plans for future books, declaring that he has run out of great predecessors. The next group of books is to be a "modern chess series" with an emphasis on what he calls the "revolution of the 1970s".

Volume 1. Understanding the nature of openings to show how modern chess has evolved. It includes 30 or so testimonies from people who had a big role to see why certain ideas succeeded and others were dropped. It should be with the publisher next month and published at the end of the year.

Volumes 2-3. All of his matches with Karpov, the first volume covering the years to 1985 (planned for publication in summer 2007). He plans to use a new format, with less text up front, detailed lines being in the back of the book so that it is easier to read.

Volumes 4-5. His own best games, "if I can squeeze them into two volumes".

Volume 6. Man versus machine – an account of the Deep Blue match.

People continued to ask questions eagerly, with Kasparov relaxed despite the heavy heat of the afternoon in the stuffy book shop.

Who will win between Topolov and Kramnik? Topolov must be the slight favourite, but my only real prediction is that the rating differential will narrow. I think it wrong to have matches like this rated.

Was the match against IBM fixed? It was in the pre-Enron era. I never got access to the print outs.

Someone who claimed to have worked for IBM all his life got up to say that IBM would never do such a thing and that it was in the interest of science. Kasparov, politely referred to the debate as an "I say, you say" situation.

Will chess become as popular as snooker? (He did not know that snooker was popular, but answered when informed it is in the UK). The barrier to chess is that it needs an understanding, so to broaden the appeal, more education is needed.

Mike Basman asked what he thinks of the current situation in Israel, to which he replied you need to look at the broader picture in the world, referring to Korean missiles and how a higher oil price helps Putin.

Samuel and I came away feeling inspired. I had introduced Samuel as the World Schools U12 chess champion. Kasparov asked how good Samuel was, Malcolm Pein kindly mentioned he estimated his rating at around 2300. Kasparov gave me a friendly greeting, telling me he recognized me. I certainly stood out being the only person in the hot room in a suit and tie.