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Garry Kasparov, the world's top chess player for two decades and considered by many the greatest player in history, has announced his retirement from professional chess in an ambitious gambit and vowed to devote his energy to battling what he called the "dictatorship" of President Vladimir Putin. Kasparov, 41, a former world champion who has been No. 1 in the rankings since 1984, made his announcement Thursday in Spain after winning the annual Linares chess tournament, one of the game's most prestigious events, on a tiebreak despite losing his final-round game to Bulgarian grandmaster Veselin Topalov. "Before this tournament I...

GARRY Kasparov, the chess world’s youngest-ever champion and undisputed king for the past two decades, made a stunning move shortly after winning a prestigious tournament in Spain: he retired from professional play. Kasparov yesterday said he had achieved all he wanted to in the game and was planning to turn his attention to politics. The announcement by the Russian grandmaster - the world’s No 1 ranked player since 1984 who is considered by some to be the best in the history of the game - came shortly after he won the 14-match Linares tournament in Spain. "Before this tournament...

MADRID (Reuters) - Former world champion Garry Kasparov has announced his retirement from competition chess, according to Spanish media reports. Kasparov, 41, announced his decision after winning a prestigious tournament in the southern Spanish town of Linares for the ninth time on Thursday, state radio said. Kasparov, a leading member of a Russian liberal grouping known as Committee 2008, plans to devote himself to politics and to writing books, the radio said. Tournament organisers could not immediately be reached to confirm the reports. "I will play chess, because I like it a lot, but not professionally. I may play...

Democratic reform in the former Soviet Union has been much in the news lately thanks to the victory of Viktor Yushchenko in Ukraine. Citizens took to the streets in the millions to protest and force a new election when his Kremlin-backed opponent tried to steal it the first time around. President George W. Bush came in dead last in the race to congratulate the new Ukrainian president. He waited for his "good friend" Vladimir Putin's own tardy acknowledgment that he had been unsuccessful in undermining Ukrainian democracy as effectively as he is dismantling Russia's. In Mr. Putin's view, Ukraine provides...

It didn't work with Adolph Hitler and it's not likely to work with Russian President Vladimir Putin either. That's the ominous warning of 1980s world chess champ Garry Kasparov. Writing in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, Kasparov says as long as the West continues to support Putin as he moves towards reestablishing Soviet-era authoritarianism, the Russian leader is going to continue along that course. In 1936, the world thought that allowing Berlin to host the Olympics would placate a power-mad Hitler. As history shows, it didn't. Neville Chamberlain, Britain's prime minister at the time, also tried appeasement with Hitler. Chamberlain's reward...

The European and Russian governments are living in two different worlds "Business is politics in up-to-date Russia. The government controls all aspects of the nation's life and the commercial field is not an exception," the chairman of the committee "2008: Free Choice", Grand Master Garry Kasparov said on September 13th at the Baltic Forum of Development in Hamburg. Below you can find excerpts from the chess player's speech. "We must draw a distinction between the current Russian leadership and the citizens of Russia. The rich culture, creativity, the knowledge and humanity of our nation is still alive and means a...

It is said that to win a battle you must be the one to choose the battleground. Since the Abu Ghraib abuses were revealed, the battleground has been chosen by those who would blur the lines between terrorists and those fighting against them. The Bush administration has contributed to the confusion with its ambiguous "war on terror." You cannot fight a word. You need targets, you need to know what you are fighting for and against. Most importantly you must have beliefs that enable you to distinguish friend from foe. While al Qaeda may not have a headquarters to bomb,...

11.10.2003 On Tuesday Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was elected California's new governor, replacing incumbent Grey Davis. The Austrian-born body builder and Hollywood action star (Terminator, Predator, Total Recall, Running Man, Conan) becomes the head of the world's fifth largest economy. So can you figure out why all of this is of interest on a chess newspage? You will never guess... Regular visitors to our site will know that Arnold Schwarzenegger is interested in chess – a few months ago we had an article on his involvement in the game. But did you know that "Arnie" is a good buddy of Garry...

"Kremlin Terrorists" by J. R. Nyquist It comes again. Another Russia-U.S. summit, another swindle by way of Kremlin “democracy”; led by KGB-democrat Vladimir Putin; financed by a capitalism based on KGB ownership of the means of production; celebrating freedom after the last independent television station has been shut down; demilitarized with its armored hordes momentarily parked behind the Urals, with hundreds of strategic missiles held past the agreed timetable of decommission; and there is more. Russia will be keeping us warm this winter, selling us the natural gas we need to keep our furnaces, water heaters and stoves lit. It...

<p>When Russia's President Vladimir Putin arrives at Camp David for next week's summit, President Bush will be welcoming the leader of a democratizing nation, a staunch ally in the U.S.-led war to defend the free world.</p> <p>Right?</p> <p>Wrong.</p> <p>The world view that designates Mr. Putin as America's democratic ally is part of the same fragmented U.S. foreign policy in which the Pentagon has emerged as the most efficient branch of government. That's not to fault the Pentagon, which in its ability to cover any significant task in remote quarters has proved ready and efficient. But where the State Department and National Security Council should be providing diplomatic coverage and a plausible strategic rationale -- which certainly does exist -- for the global "War on Terror," there has been failure. Instead of offering us a new vision of global development, on the scale of Winston Churchill's historic 1946 "Iron Curtain" speech, the current administration has reduced its foreign policy to a vehicle of crisis micro-management.</p>

LINARES, Spain -- On one side, the kid, dressed in black but baby-faced and fidgety. On the other, his opponent: the icy, scowling chess eminence Garry Kasparov. Against all odds, Teimour Radjabov, 15, beat Kasparov, the world's top-ranked player, although the teen did benefit from a Kasparov blunder as the champ looked poised to win. That duel of David and Goliath -- culminating in Kasparov's failure to shake Radjabov's hand afterward -- was a highlight of the Linares Chess Tournament, sometimes called the Wimbledon of chess.

The final game of the epic Man vs Machine match between Garry Kasparov and Deep Junior ended today in a 3-3 tie. With millions of TV viewers watching Kasparov came out fighting, but with the black pieces he was unable to gain enough to secure a clear win. A full report and pictures will follow. Here's the game. Game 6(Link not available yet.)

THE idea that chess-playing skill is a proxy for machine intelligence is not new. It goes back as far as 1770, when Wolfgang von Kempelen, a Hungarian inventor, unveiled a wooden, clockwork-powered mannekin at the court of Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria-Hungary. This machine, known as the Turk because of its exotic costume, could play chess, moving the pieces with a mechanical arm and defeating even the best human players. It was, of course, a trick—a hidden human operator controlled the automaton's movements—but some observers equated its chess prowess with intelligence. This notion was revived in the 1950s, when the...

A blunder cost chess legend Garry Kasparov the third game in a series of Man Vs. Machine champiosnhip games with the supercomputer 'Deep Junior.' 'I had a complete blackout,' Kasparov said after the contest. 'Despite Deep Junior having a great team and grandmaster trainers, I had great positions.' [to try and win the game]After sacrificing a pawn, Kasparov was left nearly crippled as Deep Junior capitalized on the mistake and prevented any possibility of being checkmated.Seeing few options to win, Kasparov resigned the game.The six game series is tied at 1 and one half games each. Kasparov won the first...

NEW YORK, Jan. 26 — World chess champion Garry Kasparov defeated computerized challenger Deep Junior on Sunday in the first of six games pitting human wit against computer logic.KASPAROV FORCED the Israeli-programmed Deep Junior into a position from which it could not win, compelling the human moving its pieces to resign four hours into the game. Both players’ queens, the most powerful pieces on the board, were captured by the end of the game, leaving them to use less powerful knights, bishops and rooks. That gave the advantage to Kasparov, who used white pieces and moved first. “Once he was...