Chess master Kasparov to retire - SHOCKING

[mcgillianaire]

Former world champion Gary Kasparov has announced that he is to retire from competitive chess. He made the surprise announcement after winning a prestigious tournament in Spain for the ninth time.

"I will continue to play chess because it is a lot of fun, but no longer on a professional level," he said. The 41-year-old said he had made the decision because of the intense pressure which he had been under over recent years.

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. His group, called Committee 2008: Free Choice, has criticised Mr Putin's control over Russia's parliament and the country's media, and what it calls the "flat-out falsification of the last election's results".

They have vowed to ensure a new president is elected in 2008. -Courtesy the Beeb

How depressing. :( I was actually following the Linares tourney very closely, the first time in a long while for a Chess tournament, but I can't say I expected this. The greatest chess player in modern times. Retiring @ 41!!! Even Korchonoi is still playing...

Comments

[smilingbuddha.livejournal.com]

maybe its a case of leave while on top?

I didn't know you were into chess. I don't quite follow grandmasters, but I play a lot.

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

I don't think so - Kramnik beat him a couple years ago so I would've thought he'd have gone back to the drawing board with the eventual aim of challenging him again and reclaiming what I think is still definitely, rightfully his. In fact, if it wasn't for Karpov's default win in 1975, he'd have been World Champion much earlier...

I'm not as much into Chess anymore as I used to be when I was in Elementary School. It's one hobby I'm always trying to rediscover but every time I make a start it dies a sudden and quick death almost immediately. So like most sports and games, I've just resigned myself to living the game through other people... and in chess that means Grandmasters. :)

[pappubahry.livejournal.com]

A great pity, because he only lost to Kramnik in the last World Championship match because he was outprepared. I guess he doesn't mind so much with another from the Botvinnik school as world champion, but I hope he comes back to reclaim his title.

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

Indeed.... hear, hear. I hope he comes back to dethrone Kramnik.

[swimanubis.livejournal.com]

Its sad. I think that rigged deep blue match a few years back made him want to leave before something like that happens again.

[pappubahry.livejournal.com]

Kasparov lost to Deep Blue because of a silly blunder.

[swimanubis.livejournal.com]

Deep Blue had a history of every recorded game Kasparov has played. Kasparov had no history for DB. DB was reprogrammed between each match. Afterwards DB was immediately dismantled, which made it impossible to analyze to determine the validity of claims Kasparov made that there were people telling the machine what to do and it was not independently making its moves.

[pappubahry.livejournal.com]

Obviously the computer will be given a complete database of his opponent's games, whereas the human can't be given such a thing, unless the computer is continually reprogrammed. Suppose the computer lost a game some time, and the human knew how this game went. If the same opening is played, the human knows exactly how the computer will play, and can continue along the same moves as the previous game that the computer lost.

So if the human has access to the computer, the program has to be changed.

Also, even if the programmers were telling Deep Blue what to do, there is no excusing Kasparov's blunder in the last game. He simply lost it.

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I've never heard/read anything to that effect before. What makes you think it's that?