Chess Legend Garry Kasparov Is Coming Out Of Retirement To Compete In St. Louis Tournament

(Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for TechCrunch)

Twelve years ago, Grandmaster Garry Kasparov announced that he was retiring from the professional chess scene after winning the 2005 Linares Chess Tournament. Now he's back. The 54-year-old chess legend will be competing at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis in the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz Competition from August 14-19 this year.

Kasparov has been keeping himself busy in the past 12 years, learning about artificial intelligence, getting arrested for protesting against Vladimir Putin, and criticizing the Trump Administration's close ties to the Russian government ("Vladimir Putin is a strong leader in the same way arsenic is a strong drink," he tweeted to then-governor Mike Pence in 2016). But the desire to get back into professional competition never fully left him.

"With a player like Garry, you can tell he has the itch to play," said Tony Rich, Executive Director of the St. Louis Chess Club. "So it really didn’t take a whole lot of convincing."

Read more: How St. Louis Helped Kickstart An American Chess Renaissance

Ten players will compete for a total purse of $150,000 in the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz Competition, part of the international Grand Chess Tour circuit which features some of the best players in the world. It takes place immediately following another Grand Chess Tour event, the annual Sinquefield Cup, a $300,000 event that will also be held in Saint Louis. There will be several players participating in both events.

"Being the newest addition to the Grand Chess Tour, we wanted to take the opportunity of the Rapid and Blitz Competition to highlight the growth of the Tour," Rich told Forbes. "What better way to get that out there than by including the greatest chess player who ever lived?"

"I told him, 'Garry, you understand it’s rated so there’s some pride and ego on the line, right?' He said, 'Absolutely.' He was ready to play," Rich continued.

Grandmaster chess legend Garry Kasparov, left, competes against Grandmaster and 2016 Sinquefield Cup Champion Wesley So, right, during the Sinquefield Cup Chess Tournament's Ultimate Moves exhibition match (Nick Schnelle/AP Images for Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis)

Since his retirement in 2005, Kasparov has kept himself busy. Although he hasn't been playing in professional tournaments, he has played in a number of high-profile exhibition matches. He's also been a tireless advocate for chess, helping to promote the game in a number of ways (including helping the Grand Chess Tour get off the ground.)

Kasparov is famous for his 1997 loss to IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer. As a "type of therapy" over that loss, he just published a book on the subject of artificial intelligence, Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins. It's a book, Kasparov said in a post on Medium, that ultimately made him optimistic about the future.

"I make it clear in Deep Thinking that my loss to Deep Blue was also a victory for humans — its creators and everyone who benefits from our technological leaps. That is, everyone," Kasparov wrote. "This is always the case in the big picture, and why the book rejects the ‘man vs machine’ competition storyline. The machines work for us, after all. The last third of the book is about the bright future of our lives with intelligent machines, if we are ambitious enough to embrace it."

Kasparov has also been deeply involved in politics in his native Russia. He's been arrested and detained several times for his activism against the leadership of Vladimir Putin over the years. He's also written a book about the dangers of Putin's global ambitions. (You can also read an interview he gave Forbes warning about Putin back in 2007.)

Despite this return to a competitive tournament, Kasparov doesn't plan to leave his writing and political activism behind to pursue chess on a full-time basis. "My family, my political activism, speaking and writing, coaching—there is little time for the dedication serious chess requires and deserves," he said in an email.

That said, Kasparov seems excited at the chance to play against the top players in a pro setting - he got the opportunity to play some of the same players in an exhibition tournament last year in St. Louis as well. "I'm delighted to have the chance to return to the chessboard against elite competition in St. Louis. Rapid and blitz against such a strong field will be by far my toughest test since I retired in 2005," he said.

Kasparov further noted that the chess scene in St. Louis is one of the reasons why he decided to return to competition there.

"Playing in St. Louis is special, not least because it is a way to say thanks for what the Sinquefield family has done to promote the game there and worldwide, especially in education," Kasparov said. "Thanks to the Sinquefields, St. Louis has become the global chess capital and the atmosphere there is something approximating the enthusiasm and respect for chess culture back in the Soviet Union—and you can see that the results are excellent as well. I'm very comfortable there, and while I have no plans to play elsewhere I hope to do well enough to honor such a wonderful event with my chess, not just my name."