Catching Up with Kasparov

From Mark Weeks,

No one catches up with Garry Kasparov. In our 2003 tribute, on the occasion of his 40th birthday, we guessed, 'He is certain to play a leading role in the chess world for many years to come.' We were right for the wrong reasons. Five years later, it's time to catch up with the greatest living chess player, who has packed more living into that five year period than most other people pack into a lifetime.

In the year 2003, when we last looked at his chess career, Kasparov was grabbing headlines with two high profile man-machine matches against strong computers: six games against Deep Junior in January and four games against X3D Fritz in November. Both matches were drawn. That same year saw the release of 'Game over: Kasparov and the Machine', a documentary by Vikram Jayanti on the 1997 man-machine match lost by Kasparov against IBM's Deep Blue.

Kasparov was the non-FIDE World Champion at the time of the match and has never accepted that Deep Blue won by any other means than foul play.

June 2003 saw the publication of 'My Great Predecessors Part I', covering the first four World Champions, Steinitz through Alekhine. It was followed the same year by 'Part II', Euwe through Tal. The landmark series, destined to be a classic before it was published, covers the history of each of the first 12 undisputed World Champions through a selection of deeply annotated games and a discussion of important turning points in the players' careers.

Despite his critical and commercial success as an author, all was not rosy in Kasparov's world. After losing his non-FIDE World Champion title to Vladimir Kramnik in 2000, and then finding Kramnik unwilling to arrange a rematch, Kasparov had been pinning his chess future on the outcome of a title reunification plan begun in 2002.

A key component in the reunification process was a match against FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov of the Ukraine. In August 2003, not long after it was reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma would attend the opening ceremony to make the first moves for their compatriots, the match collapsed through no fault of Kasparov's.

FIDE arranged a competition in 2004 with the objective of replacing Ponomariov as FIDE World Champion. This time the title was won by Rustam Kasimdzhanov, a little known player from Uzbekistan. FIDE announced that the Kasparov - Kasimdzhanov would take place at the beginning of 2005, but this collapsed in December 2004.

Kasparov had had enough. In January 2005, he announced his exit from the World Championship cycle.

As for unification, I cannot see an avenue to contribute further. For those who saw me as an obstacle, I will be one no longer. I am not giving up on chess. I will compete as well and as long as I am able to play my brand of chess. I will continue to serve chess and those who love our game. 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.

His vow to 'compete as well and as long as I am able to play my brand of chess' lasted less than two months. In March, after winning the annual Linares super grandmaster tournament, and still ranked world no.1, he announced his retirement from professional chess.

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 may play some chess for fun, but it will no longer be professional competitive chess.

Instead of playing professional chess, he intended to finish the 'My Great Predecessors' series, to work on a new book titled 'How Life Imitates Chess', and to 'devote a certain amount of time to Russian politics, as every decent person should do, who opposes the dictator Vladimir Putin'.

Already back in December 2003, on a trip to Denmark, Kasparov had criticized Putin publicly; 'Russia is rapidly turning into a police state. Every week and every month adds more power into President Putin’s hands. Let’s not forget that he was a KGB officer -- and we say there are no ex-KGB officers. He doesn’t know any better, he believes that the country needs, if not a dictatorship, at least a very strong hand, an iron fist.'

Shortly afterwards, he joined other prominent Russian personalities in announcing the formation of 'Committee 2008: Free Choice'. The objective of the movement was to bypass the 2004 election, which Putin was expected to win easily, and oppose him in the 2008 election. Kasparov, as chairman of Committee 2008, continued to speak out against Putin throughout 2004.

I found this article very interesting on Kasparov. You can read more about him here. http://chess.about.com