GARRY Kasparov will return to grandmaster chess for the first time since his retirement a year and a half ago, when he plays in a speed tournament in Zurich next month.
Kasparov, 43, will take on his old nemesis Anatoly Karpov as well as Viktor Korchnoi and Judit Polgar in the one-day event sponsored by Credit Suisse.
Kasparov announced he was leaving “professional chess” in March 2005 for what has so far been a dubious career in Russian politics.
But remains a presence in the game through the column he write for New in Chess magazine and other connections, including occasional simultaneous exhibitions and a chess forum on his Web site, kasparov.ru.
Earlier this month, he was removed from the international rating list due to inactivity. His last rating was surpassed by Veselin Topalov, the Bulgarian grandmaster who won the world chess federation championship last year.
Kasparov has big plus scores against the three rivals he’ll meet in Zurich. But Polgar beat him the last time they met, at the 2002 World-vs.-Russia match, and Karpov defeated him in a four-game match in New York in 2002.
Kasparov last played and beat Korchnoi at a tournament celebrated the latter’s 70th birthday in 2001. “Now I’m a retiree and Korchnoi is still out there playing teenagers!” Kasparov said.