Chess Master Kasparov To Retire

fembots writes "Former world champion Gary Kasparov has announced that he is to retire from competitive chess. The chess grandmaster, a leading critic of Mr. Putin, heads a group of top Russian liberals who have joined forces to keep Vladimir Putin from staying in the Kremlin after 2008."

Putie

[DarKry]

With brains like that against them the russian mob doesn't stand a chance

We thought we were getting the mob out of power here in Ukraine recently, turned out we were putting a new one in.

Re:Please Note

[FuturePastNow]

I think the term "liberal" (and conservative) has come to mean whatever the hell people want it to mean. Though in political science we distinguish between capital-L and lower-case liberal.

Goodbye

[arron_nz]

I actually played Kasparov along with about 20 others at the same time as part of a school chess program. Smart man. He beat us all, of course. Best wishes for the future.

Sad News

[techsoldaten]

I have always admired Gary Kasparov and the things he has done for the chess world, I never really enjoyed playing through someone's else games until I saw his.

There was a time I really wanted to be a great chess player. I would go to bed at night and stay up thinking of moves from games I had played earlier in the day. It would frustrate me to see so clearly what I should have done in certain situations, and aggravate me that things became so obvious after the fact. Sometimes I would go to sleep and dream of games that never even happened, and was really having trouble with the role the game was playing in my life.

Found a book of translated interviews with grandmasters at a used bookstore and it straightened me out. Rosendo Balinas was a prude and never struck me as a real human being. Bobby Fisher was just indominatable and I had trouble relating to him. Kasparov, on the other hand, was kind of a playboy. He had real interests outside the game and saw the relation between what he was doing on the table and what political organizations did throughout the world. He talked about the 'chessbrain' syndrome and how he learned to turn it on to new things.

Long story short: I read about Kasparov, studied Kasparov, tried to walk and talk like Kasparov. Doing so helped me become an easier person to be around. Eventually got laid, had a kid, took an interest in things outside chess.

M

I don't buy it...

[Statecraftsman]

This man is the greatest living chess player and he says he is retiring from competitive play? The article says he will continue to play because it is fun but will no longer play on a professional level.

How can he play at any level lower than pro? Won't that be boring when he's still dominates the game? We all like a little rest and relaxation but I only give him 2 years before he's back to pro tournament play.

What's up with these chess masters?

[Anonymous Coward]

First Bobby Fischer gets so pissed off at the US government that he's going to end up either in prison or in exile (he's hoping for the latter). Now Kasparov is taking on his government, and knowing how things work in Putin's Russia (cf, Grozny) Kasparov could well end up in the same situation.

But to be a little more serious, from reading the Committee 2008 [komitet2008.ru] website, it sounds like Kasparov is a very sane guy with noble goals, and a willingness to put his ass on the line to achieve those goals, whereas Fischer is a few pieces short of a chess set and his goals are repugnant.

New champion

[szlevente]

With his retirement, he's delivered the final blow to the unification plan. The only way a new champion would've gotten credibility was by defeating Kasparov. Now that he's out, I'm sure there's going to be another mess around the championship cycle. But it's understandable he got fed up with FIDE, and called it quits.
Anyway, he ended his career with a bang, winning in Linares. Too bad it's over, I'm sure he could've had a much longer career than Korchnoi.
I just wonder, who the candidates for WCH are now...Anand, Kramnik, Leko? Topalov sure want his share now, that he's tied with Kasparov at Linares.

Putin in 2008?

[gmajoe]

The chess grandmaster, a leading critic of Mr Putin, heads a group of top Russian liberals who have joined forces to keep Vladimir Putin from staying in the Kremlin after 2008.

It's important to note that Russia's Constitution [russianembassy.org] places a limit of two consecutive terms on the presidency, which means Putin cannot be re-elected in 2008 unless the Constitution is changed. Of course, in 2003 he was granted authority to amend the Constitution, so he could now write himself into a third consecutive term. Putin has denied [russiajournal.com] any intention to make such changes, but the possibility is still very real.

Re:Please Note

[solistus]

The term Socialism is so abused by the general public and, in particular, the American Right that nobody seems to know what it is anymore. The Soviets practised, in theory, a radical form of Socialism that most Socialists do not approve of. They didn't even live up to those ideals, however, and became good, old-fashioned authoritarians. I think that hey!'s assertion that they were "left wing" is flawed. After the early stages, most people with any real power in the Comintern were very conservative in that they were against change in policies, and right wing in that they wanted a very defined power structure. The leftist philosophy expressed in their propaganda was empty and false. Socialists in the non-Communist sense are usually either Social Democrats or Democratic Socialists. Social Democracy is basically just liberal, left wing politics in the mainstream- the far left of the Democratic Party in the US could be described as such, as can most of the liberal parties in European nations. Blair used to consider himself a Social Democrat, and I believe that Schroeder still does. Social Democrats believe that we need more welfare, less militarism, less corporate control of the state, and other leftist things, but they don't necessarily want any major changes to or replacements for Capitalism. Democratic Socialists are a bit more radical. They want real change- either an abolition of so-called Capitalist institutions like the free market, or major changes to make them more acceptable (high minimum wage and a maximum wage such as that in Japan are a good example of one of these major changes). However, like Social Democrats, Democratic Socialists hate resorting to violence and absolutely oppose revolutions in Western countries. The question of revolution in countries under somewhat more authoritarian nations is a point of contention. Some, like myself, straddle the fence somewhat. I consider myself a Democratic Socialist, but some call me a Social Democrat. I won't get into my beliefs, since I've probably already posted enough that nobody cares to read, anyway.