http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-03-11T150527Z_01_DEN154290_RTRUKOC_0_CHESS-KASPAROV.xml
"Former world champion Garry Kasparov says he has retired from competition chess to devote himself to Russian politics and oppose President Vladimir Putin."
""I believe that at the moment the country is moving in the wrong direction, therefore it is necessary to help Russia, to help Russian citizens to make the country comfortable, just and free," he said in the statement.
"I will do everything possible to oppose Putin's dictatorship," he said."
"Putin rejects the criticism and says he needs to reign in Russia's unruly regions"
how fitting that Steinitz is one of his idols.
"giving reasons for his retirement, Kasparov spoke of 'growing exasperation with the professional chess world, which made it impossible for me to win a real world championship title' and 'having no more goals left to strive for in the world of chess'"
However, his creativity when it comes to finding labels for Poutine is admirable:
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/02/04/caligula.shtml
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/01/12/kasparovvsputin.shtml
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/09/14/kasparov.shtml
>how fitting that Steinitz is one of his idols.
Eh? What do you mean?
>>3
Kasparov is a great chess player, but sometimes I'm left dumbfounded by his healthy measure of self-confidence. Interestingly, in an interview he mentioned William Steinitz as one of his influences, who not only rose to fame as the first World Champion Of Chess ever, but also because he later in his life claimed "to have played chess with god over an invisible telephone line" and beaten him, stating that he could "set god check-mate within 10 moves, even with a one-pawn handicap".
>>2: Bwah ha ha!
Really, though, no matter what words he uses to do it, bringing attention to Putin's undemocratic "quirks" is definitely a good thing. It's worrisome what that old fart is doing over there.
Former world chess champion and American fugitive Bobby Fischer has been granted citizenship by Iceland.
Currently in detention in Japan fighting a US deportation order, the citizenship enables the 62-year-old chess master to settle in the tiny North Atlantic republic where he won the world title in 1972.
Iceland's single-chamber assembly approved citizenship for Fischer by 40 votes in favour and none against, said parliamentarian Bjarni Benediktsson. He said the decision would enter into force within the next few days.
Fischer is wanted in the United States for violating sanctions against former Yugoslavia by playing a chess match there in 1992. He was arrested in Japan last July for traveling on an invalid US passport.
Chess fans in Iceland, where Fischer won the world title in 1972 in a classic Cold War encounter with Soviet champion Boris Spassky, offered him a home late last year and lobbied officials to issue him a special passport to travel there.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6ECF072A-A83E-46D9-80C9-7850504ED8D8.htm