Pestaño: Kasparov retires from chess

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

GARRY Kasparov, arguably the greatest chess player in the history of the game, has announced his retirement from professional play. His career has spanned three decades – two of it at the top of the world.

Over the past several months he has been at odds with Fide over his reunification match with Fide champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov, which he has cancelled.

“When that happened I knew I was no longer a part of the chess world. I am a man of big goals. I have to achieve something. I no longer see any real goal in the world of chess,” Kasparov said.

Kasparov says he will devote more time to Russian politics. He is an outspoken critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin and an advocate of democracy, free press and human rights.

“As a chess player, I did everything I could, even more. Now I want to use my intellect and strategic thinking in politics. I will do everything in my power to resist Putin’s dictatorship. My opinion now is that the country (Russia) is headed down the wrong path now,” Kasparov said.

Garry Kimovich Kasparov was born Gary Weinstein in Baku, Azerbaijan USSR in 1963. He learned chess from his father who died in a road accident when Garry was seven. He changed his name to Kasparov, a Russian version of his mother’s maiden name, Kasparyan.

CHILD PRODIGY. He was a child chess prodigy, winning the USSR Junior Championship when he was 12 and the World Junior Championship at 16.

In 1984, he challenged Anatoly Karpov for the World Championship that was controversial. The match was a hard-fought battle that lasted four long months. Finally Fide president Florencio Campomanes cancelled the match citing health reasons as Karpov reportedly lost 22 pounds.

Kasparov was critical of the cancellation although he was behind in the match, 3-5. This started his feud with Campomanes that would eventually come to a head in 1993 with Kasparov‘s complete breakaway from Fide.

In the rematch in Moscow, Kasparov became the youngest world champion at the age of 22. He defended his crown several times, thrice against Karpov in London/Leningrad 1986, Seville 1987, which was tied and New York/Lyon 1990. He also won over Nigel Short in 1993 and Anand in 1995 under the aegis of the Professionals Chess Association but lost to Kramnik in 2000.

Kasparov is also famous for his matches against chess computers. He defeated Deep Blue in 1996, 4-2, but lost a year later to a newer, stronger version Deeper Blue, 2.5-3.5. That was highly publicized as Man versus Machine. Much later, he drew his games against Deep Junior and X3D Fritz.

He has written several books notably “His great predecessors series” about the life and games of the great players of the past: Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian Spassky, Reshevsky, Najdorf, Larsen and most importantly his views about Bobby Fischer.

Beyond his interest in chess, Kasparov is an accomplished mathematician and computer expert who speaks 15 languages. When asked who his successors would be, Kasparov ruled out the current generation of players naming instead and without conviction two teenagers, Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine and Magnus Carlsen of Norway.

MARCELO RUELAN MEMORIAL. Tomorrow is the start of the Marcelo “Loloy” Ruelan Memorial Chess tournament. Format is seven rounds Swiss with a time control of 20 minutes for each player and 10 seconds increment. Venue is at the Family Youth Chess Center along Jakosalem St. It will start at 1 p.m.

The final four rounds will be played the following day.

Loloy is a Hall of Famer whose devotion to chess was legendary and so was his sense of humor.

CEPCA MARCH TOURNAMENT. Our monthly tournament will be on March 26 as this is the only suitable date. The next day is Easter Sunday and this weekend is the Ruelan Memorial. Time and venue will be relayed to you personally by our president Jun Olis.

PUZZLE. The puzzle “The chess tournament” was really difficult. Although I received several answers, only two were able to get it correctly. I already mentioned the first one, Dr. Arthur Padilla of Iowa, USA. The second is Imelda Padilla Roberson and she is the elder sister of Arthur. She is a mother of two girls and works as a financial controller in Anniston, Alabama. She graduated from the University of San Carlos with a degree in accounting, summa cum laude. No wonder, intelligence runs in the family

I’ll have another puzzle in the first or second week of April.