Gary Kasparov has retired from the chess world, and on reading the news I experience a strange sensation. For starters, it takes me many years back, to days in school where my friends were obsessed with the game of chess and spent every free moment practising some new opening or challenging each other's wits. That time is then closely tied with chess, and of Anand and Kasparov (and Deep Blue!). I was never good at chess, but like most things, I made up for it with a near unmatched enthusiasm (obsession?). What I lacked in talent I masked by memorizing openings, without trying to comprehend the structures lying beneath. By that I mean that I never appreciate the reason behind the moves; I treated them as a set of things you did to get into a good position. Yet I never tried to see why this was the case - perhaps if I did, I wouldn't be tied to a linear set of steps, but rather be able to formulate my own strategies. Alas, those times are now gone, and so I suppose the retirement is in some sense a reminder of how those times have long passed; a "retirement" of that part of my childhood!