Six long years after his premature retirement from active chess competition, Garry Kasparov is finally returning to the game!

The former world champion, and still the highest rated chess player of all time has struggled to launch a political career in Russia, and now his youngest child (with third wife Dasha, pictured) is nearly four years old he has decided to return to chess.

Kasparov made his announcement on a visit to the Aix-les-Bains tournament where he was promoting the "Chess In Schools" initiative with the president of the European Chess Union, Silvio Danailov.

Explaining his decision, Kasparov said, "When I stopped playing chess I said, “Maybe I will be flying less.” I was dead wrong. I’m flying three times more now. And you know in chess it was, I flew somewhere and I stayed there for two weeks. It was a long tournament. Now it’s boom-boom-boom. In some ways, I wish for the quiet years to return. I have no life. "

Kasparov and Danailov promoting Chess In Schools in Aix-les-Bains...

...where his dramatic announcement was greeted with warm applause!

This is fantastic news for chess, but it raises more questions than answers in the short term. The upcoming candidates matches in Kazan were already somewhat devalued by the absence of Magnus Carlsen, but the absence of a newly-active Garry Kasparov? Surely unthinkable!

As soon as Kasparov reactivates his dormant rating, here's how the revised rating list will look:

UPDATE: HAPPY APRIL FOOLS' DAY EVERYONE!

Kasparov did visit the Aix-les-Bains tournament to promote the "Chess-in-Schools" initiative, and the photos are from the official website for the tournament. Also, the quote used above is real, but it comes from a four-year old interview with Kasparov.

Sadly, the great Garry Kasparov has not announced his return to the game. We can only dream...