Garry Kasparov is not the first former chess champion to be placed under arrest. Bobby Fischer was nabbed in the early ’80s by police in Pasadena, California, where his behavior provoked them to suspect that he was mad, a view not entirely dispelled by Fischer’s subsequent written account, “I Was Tortured in the Pasadena Jailhouse!” Kasparov, more prosaically, was briefly taken into custody in Moscow this spring when he was en route to a pro-democracy rally.

While Fischer’s bizarre and tragic behavior over the years fits the stereotype of the mad chess genius, Kasparov is something else altogether: a chess legend who seems as sane away from the board as he is over it. Kasparov’s interests go far beyond chess, making him a rarity in the game’s venerable history. He retired in 2005, at age 41—although he still topped the world rankings—to pursue a second career in politics. Now a prominent organizer devoted to countering Russian president Vladimir Putin’s ­authoritarianism, Kasparov is, thanks to his celebrity, an effective ambassador for the cause. He also writes frequent op-eds for the Wall Street Journal and is a shrewd promoter of chess books and software. With How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves—From the Board to the Boardroom, he makes his debut as a management guru.

If retired jocks can write inspirational books, I see no reason to ­exclude ­retired chess luminaries from the field of management advice, and perhaps  ­executives will find Kasparov’s prescriptions useful. He has plenty of combat experience to draw on, such as his single most humbling moment at the chessboard, when he lost his title to Vladimir Kramnik. Kasparov blames the loss on his overconfidence; he warns executives against believing they can do no wrong and, especially, against surrounding themselves with lackeys to validate their opinions.

I will remember this if I ever become a C.E.O., but I wouldn’t read How Life Imitates Chess for its insights into ­managerial technique any more than I would consult, say, the memoirs of Michael Jordan (to cite a figure whom Kasparov admires). The most riveting parts of the book, such as Kasparov’s taut accounts of his repeated psychological battles with Anatoly Karpov, the champion he unseated, deal strictly with chess. We are eager to learn how the author became the youngest champion ever and then dominated the game for 20 years, but we hardly entertain the thought of emulating him. The man is a genius, for Pete’s sake.