Kasparov at 50

Ten years ago I wrote Garry Kasparov at 40, while I was with About.com (now linked in Archive.org), and five years ago I wrote Catching Up with Kasparov, on the occasion of his 45th birthday. How could I resist continuing the trend with a post for his 50th birthday?

The background for the 'Catching Up' post was a list of Chessbase.com posts on Kasparov -- working file through April 2008. To get started on this current post I created a similar file of Chessbase articles, Working file for Kasparov's 50th, through April 2013. It's noteworthy what Kasparov has accomplished in the last five years. Here's a partial list.

• Matches: Valencia match vs. Karpov (Sep 2009); Clichy (France) match vs. Vachier-Lagrave (Sep 2011); Leuven (Belgium) match vs. Short (Oct 2011); 'Game' vs. Alan Turing (Jun 2012)
  
  
• Simuls: Clock simul Corsica (Nov 2008); Antwerp simul (Nov 2009); Naples simul (Apr 2011)
  
  
• Training: Carlsen (Sep 2009 to Feb 2010; NB: Carlsen said, 'Working with Garry Kasparov over the last twelve months has been a unique experience'); Nakamura (Nov 2011 to Dec 2011)
  
  
• Chess in School: Launched Kasparov Chess Foundation Europe (Jun 2011); European Parliament (Feb 2012)
  
  
• Politics: Backed Karpov's failed bid to become FIDE President (May 2010 to Sep 2010); plus his well publicized run-ins with Russian authorities

Kasparov is one of those people who, rather than resting on his laurels, constantly asks, 'What can I do next?' The next five years promise to be full of surprises.