Transitions — Gary Kasparov

[jseal]

Former world champion Garry Kasparov has announced that he is to retire from competitive chess.

He made the announcement after winning the Ciudad de Linares, a double round robin tournament in Spain for the ninth time (Veselin Topalov won his last game against Kasparov, but Kasparov won on a tiebreak).

His retirement at 41 ends 20 years of chess domination started when he beat Anatoly Karpov, who took the world title from Bobby Fischer.

Helluva chess player!

[dicksbro]

I just heard that, too. He was a remarkable chess player. You're right!

[Aqua]

I read that he is only retiring from professional tournaments and that he is getting into politics.


From the Associated Press:
He said Friday he wanted to concentrate more on politics in Russia. He has emerged as an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin and is playing a leading role in the Committee 2008: Free Choice, a group formed by prominent liberal opposition leaders.

"As a chess player, I did everything I could, even more. Now I want to use my intellect and strategic thinking in Russian politics," Kasparov said Friday in a statement cited by the Interfax news agency.

"I will do everything in my power to resist Putin's dictatorship. It is very difficult to play for a country whose authorities are antidemocratic," he said.

"I will continue to serve chess and those who love our game," Kasparov wrote in January. "I have now held the No. 1 ranking for 20 years and I will defend my position against any opponent. My only retreat is from the battlefield of chess championship politics."

Shay Bushinsky, one of two Israeli programmers behind Deep Junior, a computer which could process 3 million chess moves per second, said Kasparov's resignation had been "on the cards."

Bushinsky, who met with Kasparov last month, said the chess champion told him he had been frustrated for a number of years because he did not have a real framework to compete in a world championship.

Bushinsky told The Associated Press that as a chess player, Kasparov was "the closest thing to a computer that I know as a man. Sometimes I think he has silicon running in his veins."

"Kasparov has the most incredible look-ahead and memory capabilities I have ever seen," he said.