Kasparov, retired champ who can’t give up chess
Russian chess champion Garry Kasparov owned the game for 15 years, gaining superstar status among fans before retiring and throwing himself into politicsbut he just can’t seem to stay away from the chessboard.
The 54-year-old former world champion is coming out of retirement yesterday-at least briefly-to play in an official tournament in St. Louis, Missouri against nine top-notch players. Kasparov, known for an aggressive, highenergy attacking style, is widely considered one of the game’s greatest.
And the so-called “Beast of Baku”-nicknamed after the capital of his native Azerbaijan-has nothing left to prove. Still, here he comes, taking on much younger players in a return seen as reflecting a drive to enhance the cult-like status he earned through years of masterful play-and make up for a few setbacks he suffered along the way.
Kasparov was given a wild-card entry in the tournament dubbed Rapid and Blitz, and will be the oldest among the field of 10 players when play starts today. “Ready to see if I remember how to move the pieces! Will I be able to announce my re-retirement afterward if not?!,” Kasparov tweeted mischievously last month when it was announced that he was coming out of retirement.
But in a Facebook post Sunday, he made clear that he does not intend a longer-term return to competition. “This is not an end to my retirement from chess, only a five-day hiatus,” he wrote, adding that “I have no plans to play after this event.”
Kasparov, born Garik Weinstein in Azerbaijan to an Armenian mother and Jewish father, has been described as “a monster with 100 eyes, who sees all.” At age 12, he took on his mother’s surname and launched what became one of the longest and most grueling rivalries in the history of chess, against Soviet grandmaster Anatoli Karpov.
The icy, stone-faced Karpov was a symbol of the once mighty but then crumbling Soviet Union, while Kasparov was just a young pup from little Azerbaijan. In 1985, Kasparov beat Karpov and, at just 22, became the youngest world champion ever, kicking off an era of unprecedented dominance.
MAN VERSUS MACHINE
Kasparov held that crown for 15 years and set about breaking molds in the world of chess. He was a show unto himself-a theatrical bundle of nerves who wanted to win at all costs, shunning draws in games and sometimes even speaking of himself in the third person. Other players feared him. His largerthan-life style earned him critics, too.
Kasparov took the chess world into a new modern era, with endorsement deals, televised games and high technology. He pioneered using computer databases as a tool for practicing-a venture that would come back to sting him.—AFP