Kasparov Retiring at the Top

Garry Kasparov, the world's highest rated chess player since 1984, announced today that he was retiring from high-level professional chess. Kasparov had just tied for first (winning on tiebreaks) at Linares 2005, one of the strongest chess tournaments of the year. His mom was in the audience of his final press conference, which began with this:

"I would like to make a short statement
before the press conference. It could come
as a surprise to many of you. But before this
tournament I made a conscious decision that
Linares 2005 will be my last professional
tournament, and today I played my last
professional game. I hoped I could do better in
my last game, but unfortunately the last
two games were very difficult for me, to play
under such pressure, because I knew it was the
end of a career which I could be proud of. I may
play some chess for fun, but it will no longer be
professional competitive chess."

As someone who at age fourteen used to fill-out travel forms with "Occupation: Professional Chess Player" I can say that I am stunned by this news. There's no doubt in my mind that Garry Kasparov is the greatest chess player of all time, it has been an amazing experience being able to witness his brilliance on the chessboard in real time. Thanks, Garry!