Garry Kasparov retires from professional chess
10.03.2005 The winner of Linares and the world's strongest chess
player, Garry Kasparov, has just announced his retirement from
professional chess. His games in this tournament were the last in a
career that has spanned thirty years, twenty of which were spent on the
top of the world ratings list. Here are details and a video clip.

Kasparov retires from professional chess

At the press conference after the Linares tournament Garry Kasparov,
the world strongest player and leader of the world rankings for twenty
consecutive years, stunned the public and journalists by announcing his
retirement from professional chess. He had revealed this decision to
his closest friends just before the announcement, which was originally
planned for the closing ceremony the next day. But after his loss in
the last game (of his professional career) to Veselin Topalov he
decided to get it out of the way on the same evening.



Garry's mother Klara Shagenovna Kasparova was present at the
conference, with tears in her eyes. "We have been going to tournaments
for thirty years now," she said, "and this is the last time." A number
of colleagues and journalists also had trouble hiding their emotions.

We have taped the entire press conference and will bring it to you as
part of ChessBase Magazine. Below is a small section from the very
beginning, with Kasparov's formal announcement.

In the opening section Garry Kasparov says: "I would like to make a
short statement before the press conference. It could come as a
surprise to many of you. But before this tournament I made a conscious
decision that Linares 2005 will be my last professional tournament, and
today I played my last professional game. I hoped I could do better in
my last game, but unfortunately the last two games were very difficult
for me, to play under such pressure, because I knew it was the end of a
career which I could be proud of. I may play some chess for fun, but it
will no longer be professional competitive chess."

Asked by journalists what had led to the decision Kasparov said: "It is
very difficult to quote one reason. But if I try I could tell you that,
as you know, I am a man of big goals. I have to achieve something, I
have to prove something, I have to be determined. But I no longer see
any real goal in the world of chess. I did not want to leave in bad
shape, as I was six months ago. I wanted to get back to my top rating,
and I wanted to show some decent chess. I wanted to prove to myself
first of all that I play better than others. I did. What happened today
had very little to do with my opponent. I simply collapsed under the
pressure of playing my last game."

But what was it that pushed him over the edge? "The complete mess over
the last two years added bit by bit to my frustration, he replied, and
continued with a twinge of bitterness: "It seemed to me that everyone
was very pleased when I was constantly denied a chance to play for the
highest title. What happened with FIDE in the last year was scandalous.
But I never heard a voice of concern or a voice of support for Garry
Kasparov. I still read about the bad treatment by FIDE of Ponomariov,
but I never heard any serious complaints about the way they treated me.
After the Prague agreement I had regular disappointments with the
entire process. The process was used for advancing the agenda of
others, eventually at my expense."

When pressed Kasparov said that his decision had started to materialize
when his match against Rustam Kasimdzhanov in Dubai was cancelled.
"When that happened I knew I was no longer part of the chess world." He
soon decided that Linares, the place he had been visiting for fifteen
years and had watched grow as a town, would be his final tournament. He
had played in Linares twelve times, with a total of 168 games, of which
he had lost exactly seven. He vividly remembers the time when he and
Vishy Anand both had full heads of jet-black hair.

What are his plans, will he give up the game completely? "I don't want
to pressure anyone, or do anything wrong or pretentious. I just want to
live my own life. I recognise that in the near future there will be no
chance for a unified title, and frankly there is nothing else I can
hope for in the world of chess. It became very difficult for me to keep
finding reasons for determination, during these years. I succeeded
because of my great passion for the game of chess. And I haven't lost
my passion for the game. That is why from time to time I may play for
fun, maybe in some rapid tournaments. But it will be only for fun."

And what will he do with his life in the future? "I want to accomplish
more on the writing side. I want to complete my work My Great
Predecessors. The project is expanding every year, and I want to spend
more time on that. Also, by the end of this year my new book will
appear, in fifteen languages, including Spanish of course, but also in
Chinese and Japanese. The tentative title of the book is How Life
Imitates Chess. It is a very important project because I want to
demonstrate to a mainstream audience how the game of chess can explain
the decision-making process in many walks of life." Was he considering
going into politics? "I devote a certain amount of time to Russian
politics, as every decent person should do, who opposes the dictator
Vladimir Putin," he replied.

Finally, when asked if he could see anyone in the chess world to
replace him he thought for a moment and then mentioned Karjakin and
Carlsen. But time would have to tell whether they could make a big
impression on the chess world as Fischer and he himself had done.

What can we say? Thank you Garry Kasparov for thirty years of great
chess!

What can we say? Thank you Garry Kasparov for thirty years of great
chess!

Speaker as an on and off critic of Garry Kasparov I have this to say:
Thank you Garry for being a great champion.

I have not always agreed with Garry particularly with his decision to
abort the WC cycle and play an independent match with Short. That began
the WC schism which persists to this very day. Nevertheless, he has
laways been straight forward with his reasons and courageous in his
actions.

I will never forget a CNN broadcast I once saw that had a forum of
high level foreign affairs experts assessing what would happen as a
result of Gorbachev being isolated by the return to communism
committee. I think the year was 1991 at which time Garry Kasparov was
28 years-old. Jean Kirkpatrick and other experts of world affairs all
strongly voiced the opinion that for sure there would be a return to
the hard line ways of the past at least for the forseeable future. They
expoused gloom and doom.

They poo-poohed the one person on the panel who felt otherwise - Garry
Kasparov. Garry explained that Russsia would never return to the ways
of the past. He said the rebellion would totally collapse in days not
weeks. The others smiled at what they considered the dreams of a brash
young chess player. On the other hand Garry didn't back down either, he
did not say maybe, he said absolutely. He told them straight out that
they obviously didn't understand what was going on in Russia. There was
no gray area in the diferent viewpoints. And Garry was absolutely 100%
right and the "experts" absolutely 100% wrong!

I hope Garry goes political and wish him the very best. Some day I want
to say to be able to say to my grandchildren that I knew President
Kasparov of Russia!

Don Schultz

It does not surprise me that GK knew more than the expert panel.

From at least the mid-80s (and probably earlier) our cold war hawks had
outlived their usefulness to the cause of freedom. They were still living,
by and large, in the late 1940s.

Jeanne Kirkpatric was too much of an ideologue to have any clear
understanding of Russia/USSR. Her ideology also clouded her view of history,
to absurd proportions. Kirkpatrick was the one who coined the trite, totally
inaccurate aphorism (since repeated by windbags like Rush Limbaugh) that the
"only difference between Gorbachev and former Soviet dictators was that
Gorbachev was alive."

In making that statement Kirkpatrick ignored the fact that Gorbachev was the
only "Soviet dictator" who did not use force, either against Russians or the
satellites, to keep the empire together. I'm sure the victims of Soviet
opporession had a good chuckle over her idiotic comment: Czechs who lived
through 1968, Hungarians who lived through 1956, not to mention Berliners
who saw the Soviets build their wall.

Gorby, for all his faults, presided over the mostly peaceful demise of
communism and of the Soviet Union itself. I don't know of many U.S.
Presidents who would have done as well had Mississippi, New Mexico,
Washington State, and Ohio decided to leave the Union in 1990.

If, instead of bashing Gorbachev and predicting doom and gloom, our leaders
had meaningfully engaged the communist regime during its last years, we
might not be faced with the horrible possibility of a Russian general, plied
with vodka, selling a tactical nuke to a terrorist for 40 Rubles. And if
Reagan's people had grasped the reality of radical Islam they would have not
backed the savages who eventually became the Taliban and nurtured what we
now know as al Qaeda..



wrote in message
ups.com...

What can we say? Thank you Garry Kasparov for thirty years of great
chess!

Speaker as an on and off critic of Garry Kasparov I have this to say:
Thank you Garry for being a great champion.

I have not always agreed with Garry particularly with his decision to
abort the WC cycle and play an independent match with Short. That began
the WC schism which persists to this very day. Nevertheless, he has
laways been straight forward with his reasons and courageous in his
actions.

I will never forget a CNN broadcast I once saw that had a forum of
high level foreign affairs experts assessing what would happen as a
result of Gorbachev being isolated by the return to communism
committee. I think the year was 1991 at which time Garry Kasparov was
28 years-old. Jean Kirkpatrick and other experts of world affairs all
strongly voiced the opinion that for sure there would be a return to
the hard line ways of the past at least for the forseeable future. They
expoused gloom and doom.

They poo-poohed the one person on the panel who felt otherwise - Garry
Kasparov. Garry explained that Russsia would never return to the ways
of the past. He said the rebellion would totally collapse in days not
weeks. The others smiled at what they considered the dreams of a brash
young chess player. On the other hand Garry didn't back down either, he
did not say maybe, he said absolutely. He told them straight out that
they obviously didn't understand what was going on in Russia. There was
no gray area in the diferent viewpoints. And Garry was absolutely 100%
right and the "experts" absolutely 100% wrong!

I hope Garry goes political and wish him the very best. Some day I want
to say to be able to say to my grandchildren that I knew President
Kasparov of Russia!

Don Schultz

Angelo De Pa1ma wrote:

In making that statement Kirkpatrick ignored the fact that Gorbachev was the
only "Soviet dictator" who did not use force, either against Russians or the
satellites, to keep the empire together. I'm sure the victims of Soviet
opporession had a good chuckle over her idiotic comment: Czechs who lived
through 1968, Hungarians who lived through 1956, not to mention Berliners
who saw the Soviets build their wall.

This is incorrect. He used to use armed forces against the civilians in Riga.

Vlad

Does Garry stand a chance of defeating Putin?

"Don Schultz" wrote in message
ups.com...


I will never forget a CNN broadcast I once saw that had a forum of
high level foreign affairs experts assessing what would happen as a
result of Gorbachev being isolated by the return to communism
committee. I think the year was 1991 at which time Garry Kasparov was
28 years-old. Jean Kirkpatrick and other experts of world affairs all
strongly voiced the opinion that for sure there would be a return to
the hard line ways of the past at least for the forseeable future. They
expoused gloom and doom.

They poo-poohed the one person on the panel who felt otherwise - Garry
Kasparov. Garry explained that Russsia would never return to the ways
of the past. He said the rebellion would totally collapse in days not
weeks. The others smiled at what they considered the dreams of a brash
young chess player. On the other hand Garry didn't back down either, he
did not say maybe, he said absolutely. He told them straight out that
they obviously didn't understand what was going on in Russia. There was
no gray area in the diferent viewpoints. And Garry was absolutely 100%
right and the "experts" absolutely 100% wrong!

Well, there was no turning back then but today we can see
one-man-political-system again and it has happened so many times in Russian
history.
Is Mr.Putin aware of dangers of such an one-man system ? Is he aware that it
stops necessary reforms e.g. in Russian economy ?

I hope Garry goes political and wish him the very best. Some day I want
to say to be able to say to my grandchildren that I knew President
Kasparov of Russia!

Even if he won`t become the President I wish him good luck in introducing
real democracy in Russia.

Jerzy

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Is this joke?

NatWest wrote:

Does Garry stand a chance of defeating Putin?

"Vladyslav Kosulin" wrote in message
news:ctM_d.9288$Ue6.2727@trndny04...

NatWest wrote:

Does Garry stand a chance of defeating Putin?

Is this joke?

It must be. Putin rarely plays chess let alone is any good at it.