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Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov ( born Garik Kimovich Weinstein, 13 April 1963) is a Russian (formerly Soviet) chess Grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, and political activist, considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time.From 1986 until his retirement in 2005, Kasparov was ranked world No. 1 for 225 out of 228 months. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until 2013. Kasparov also holds records for consecutive professional tournament victories (15) and Chess Oscars (11).
Fig : Garry Kasparov with Bisik-Bisik
Kasparov became the youngest ever undisputed World Chess Champion in 1985 at age 22 by defeating then-champion Anatoly Karpov.He held the official FIDE world title until 1993, when a dispute with FIDE led him to set up a rival organization, the Professional Chess Association. In 1997 he became the first world champion to lose a match to a computer under standard time controls, when he lost to the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in a highly publicized match. He continued to hold the "Classical" World Chess Championship until his defeat by Vladimir Kramnik in 2000.
Kasparov announced his retirement from professional chess on 10 March 2005, so that he could devote his time to politics and writing. He formed the United Civil Front movement, and joined as a member of The Other Russia, a coalition opposing the administration and policies of Vladimir Putin. In 2008, he announced an intention to run as a candidate in the 2008 Russian presidential race, but failure to find a sufficiently large rental space to assemble the number of supporters that is legally required to endorse such a candidacy, led him to withdraw. Although he is widely regarded in the West as a symbol of opposition to Putin, support for him as a candidate was low. He is currently on the board of directors for the Human Rights Foundation.
| Garry Kasparov | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Garry Kimovich Kasparov |
| Country | Soviet Union Russia Croatia |
| Born | 13 April 1963 Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, Soviet Union |
| Title | Grandmaster (1980) |
| World Champion | 1985–93 (undisputed) 1993–2000 (classical) |
| FIDE rating | 2812 (June 2014) (inactive) |
| Peak rating | 2851 (July 1999, January 2000) |
| Peak ranking | No. 1 (January 1984) |
Early career
Fig : Kasparov becomes World Junior Champion at Dortmund in 1980
Kasparov was born Garik Kimovich Weinstein in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR (now Azerbaijan), Soviet Union. His father, Kim Moiseyevich Weinstein, was Russian Jewish, and his mother, Klara Shagenovna, was Armenian. Kasparov has described himself as a "self-appointed Christian", although "very indifferent".
Kasparov first began the serious study of chess after he came across a chess problem set up by his parents and proposed a solution. His father died of leukemia when Garry was seven years old. At the age of twelve, Garry adopted his mothers Armenian surname, Gasparyan, modifying it to a more Russified version, Kasparov.
From age 7, Kasparov attended the Young Pioneer Palace in Baku and, at 10 began training at Mikhail Botvinniks chess school under noted coach Vladimir Makogonov. Makogonov helped develop Kasparovs positional skills and taught him to play the Caro-Kann Defence and the Tartakower System of the Queens Gambit Declined.Kasparov won the Soviet Junior Championship in Tbilisi in 1976, scoring 7 points of 9, at age 13. He repeated the feat the following year, winning with a score of 8½ of 9. He was being trained by Alexander Shakarov during this time.
In 1978, Kasparov participated in the Sokolsky Memorial tournament in Minsk. He had been invited as an exception but took first place and became a chess master. Kasparov has repeatedly said that this event was a turning point in his life, and that it convinced him to choose chess as his career. "I will remember the Sokolsky Memorial as long as I live", he wrote. He has also said that after the victory, he thought he had a very good shot at the World Championship.
He first qualified for the Soviet Chess Championship at age 15 in 1978, the youngest ever player at that level. He won the 64-player Swiss system tournament at Daugavpils over tiebreak from Igor V. Ivanov, to capture the sole qualifying place.
Kasparov rose quickly through the World Chess Federation rankings. Starting with an oversight by the Russian Chess Federation, he participated in a grandmaster tournament in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina (then part of Yugoslavia), in 1979 while still unrated (he was a replacement for Viktor Korchnoi who was originally invited but withdrew due to threat of boycott from the Soviet). Kasparov won this high-class tournament, emerging with a provisional rating of 2595, enough to catapult him to the top group of chess players (at the time, number 15 in the world)). The next year, 1980, he won the World Junior Chess Championship in Dortmund, West Germany. Later that year, he made his debut as second reserve for the Soviet Union at the Chess Olympiad at Valletta, Malta, and became a Grandmaster.
World Champion
Fig : Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand-INDIA in a publicity photo on top of the World Trade Center in New York
The second Karpov-Kasparov match in 1985 was organized in Moscow as the best of 24 games where the first player to win 12½ points would claim the World Champion title. The scores from the terminated match would not carry over. But in the event of a 12–12 draw, the title would remain with Karpov. On 9 November 1985, Kasparov secured the title by a score of 13–11, winning the 24th game with Black, using a Sicilian defense. He was 22 years old at the time, making him the youngest ever World Champion, and breaking the record held by Mikhail Tal for over 20 years. Kasparovs win as Black in the 16th game has been recognized as one of the all-time masterpieces in chess history.
Fig : Kasparov after winning the FIDE World Championship title in 1985
As part of the arrangements following the aborted 1984 match, Karpov had been granted (in the event of his defeat) a right to rematch. Another match took place in 1986, hosted jointly in London and Leningrad, with each city hosting 12 games. At one point in the match, Kasparov opened a three-point lead and looked well on his way to a decisive match victory. But Karpov fought back by winning three consecutive games to level the score late in the match. At this point, Kasparov dismissed one of his seconds, grandmaster Evgeny Vladimirov, accusing him of selling his opening preparation to the Karpov team (as described in Kasparovs autobiography Unlimited Challenge, chapter Stab in the Back). Kasparov scored one more win and kept his title by a final score of 12½–11½.
A fourth match for the world title took place in 1987 in Seville, as Karpov had qualified through the Candidates Matches to again become the official challenger. This match was very close, with neither player holding more than a one-point lead at any time during the contest. Kasparov was down one full point at the time of the final game, and needed a win to draw the match and retain his title. A long tense game ensued in which Karpov blundered away a pawn just before the first time control, and Kasparov eventually won a long ending. Kasparov retained his title as the match was drawn by a score of 12–12. (All this meant that Kasparov had played Karpov four times in the period 1984–87, a statistic unprecedented in chess. Matches organized by FIDE had taken place every three years since 1948, and only Botvinnik had a right to a rematch before Karpov.)
A fifth match between Kasparov and Karpov was held in New York and Lyon in 1990, with each city hosting 12 games. Again, the result was a close one with Kasparov winning by a margin of 12½–11½. In their five world championship matches, Kasparov had 21 wins, 19 losses, and 104 draws in 144 games.
Fig : Kasparov playing against Vladimir Kramnik in the Botvinnik Memorial match in Moscow, 2001
Head-to-head record versus selected grandmasters
• Michael Adams +10-0=8
• Viswanathan Anand+15?3=31
• Boris Gelfand +13?0=8
• Boris Gulko +1?3=3
• Vassily Ivanchuk +11?4=22
• Anatoly Karpov +28-21=129
• Victor Korchnoi +16?1=23
• Vladimir Kramnik +4?5=40
• Alexander Morozevich +3?0=4
• Alexei Shirov +15?0=14
• Nigel Short +28?2=26
• Peter Svidler +6?2=4
• Veselin Topalov +10?3=14
Fig : Kasparov at Valletta in 1980
Other records
Kasparov holds the record for most consecutive professionaltournament victories, placing first or equal first in 15 individual tournamentsfrom 1981 to 1990. The streak was broken by Vasily Ivanchuk atLinares 1991, where Kasparov placed 2nd, half a point behind him. The detailsof this record winning streak follow
Frunze 1981, USSR Championship, 12½/17, tie for 1st;
Bugojno 1982, 9½/13, 1st;
Moscow 1982, Interzonal, 10/13, 1st;
Nikši? 1983, 11/14, 1st;
Brussels OHRA 1986, 7½/10, 1st;
Dubai 27th Olympiad
Brussels 1987, 8½/11, tie for 1st;
Amsterdam Optiebeurs 1988, 9/12, 1st;
Belfort (World Cup) 1988, 11½/15, 1st;
Moscow 1988, USSR Championship, 11½/17, tie for 1st;
Reykjavík (World Cup) 1988, 11/17, 1st;
Barcelona (World Cup) 1989, 11/16, tie for 1st;
Skellefteå (World Cup) 1989, 9½/15, tie for 1st;
Tilburg 1989, 12/14, 1st;
Belgrade (Investbank) 1989, 9½/11, 1st;
Linares 1990, 8/11, 1st.
Kasparovwon the Chess Oscar a record eleven times.
