Garry Kimovich Kasparov (Russian: , Russian pronunciation: [ar

kimvt ksparf]; born Garik Kimovich Weinstein,[2] 13 April 1963) is a Russian, and
formerly Soviet, chess grandmaster, former world chess champion, writer, and political activist,
whom many consider to be the greatest chess player of all time.[3] From 1986 until his retirement
in 2005, Kasparov was ranked world No. 1 for 225 out of 228 months. His peak rating of 2851,[4]
achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by Magnus Carlsen in 2013.
Kasparov also holds records for consecutive professional tournament victories (15) and Chess
Oscars (11).

Kasparov became the youngest ever undisputed World Chess Champion in 1985 at age 22 by
defeating then-champion Anatoly Karpov.[5] 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.[6] 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. In spite of losing the title, he continued winning tournaments and
was the world's highest-rated player when he retired from professional chess in 2005.

After Kasparov retired, he devoted 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 that year's 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. Kasparov blamed "official obstruction" for the lack of available space.[7]
Although he is widely regarded in the West as a symbol of opposition to Putin,[8] he was barred
from the presidential ballot,[7] as the political climate in Russia makes it difficult for opposition
candidates to organize.[9][10]

He is currently chairman for the Human Rights Foundation and chairs its International Council.
Kasparov is a frequent critic of American professor emeritus of Russian studies Stephen F.
Cohen, whom he describes as a Soviet and Russian apologist. Kasparov and Cohen participated
in a Munk Debate in 2015 over the issue of reengaging or isolating Russia, with 58% of the
audience siding with Kasparov's argument of isolating Russia, compared to 48% before the
debate.[11][12] In 2014, he obtained Croatian citizenship.[1] He lives in New York City and travels
often.

Kasparov was born Garik Kimovich Weinstein (Russian: ) in Baku,

Kasparov first began the serious study of chess after he came across a chess problem set up by
his parents and proposed a solution.[19] His father died of leukemia when Garry was seven years
old.[20] At the age of twelve, Garry adopted his mother's Armenian surname, Gasparian, russified
as Kasparov.[21]
From age 7, Kasparov attended the Young Pioneer Palace in Baku and, at 10 began training at
Mikhail Botvinnik's chess school under noted coach Vladimir Makogonov. Makogonov helped
develop Kasparov's positional skills and taught him to play the Caro-Kann Defence and the
Tartakower System of the Queen's Gambit Declined.[22] 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 8 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.[23]

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 on tiebreak over 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 Soviets). 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)[24]). 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.

As a teenager, Kasparov tied for first place in the USSR Chess Championship in 198182. His
first win in a superclass-level international tournament was scored at Bugojno, Bosnia and
Herzegovina in 1982. He earned a place in the 1982 Moscow Interzonal tournament, which he
won, to qualify for the Candidates Tournament.[25] At age 19, he was the youngest Candidate
since Bobby Fischer, who was 15 when he qualified in 1958. At this stage, he was already the
No. 2-rated player in the world, trailing only World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov on the
January 1983 list.

Kasparov's first (quarter-final) Candidates match was against Alexander Beliavsky, whom he
defeated 63 (four wins, one loss).[26] Politics threatened Kasparov's semi-final against Viktor
Korchnoi, which was scheduled to be played in Pasadena, California. Korchnoi had defected
from the Soviet Union in 1976, and was at that time the strongest active non-Soviet player.
Various political maneuvers prevented Kasparov from playing Korchnoi, and Kasparov forfeited
the match. This was resolved by Korchnoi allowing the match to be replayed in London, along
with the previously scheduled match between Vasily Smyslov and Zoltn Ribli. The Kasparov-
Korchnoi match was put together on short notice by Raymond Keene. Kasparov lost the first
game but won the match 74 (four wins, one loss).
In January 1984, Kasparov became the No. 1 ranked player in the world, with a FIDE rating of
2710. He became the youngest ever world No. 1, a record that lasted 12 years until being broken
by Vladimir Kramnik in January 1996; the record is currently held by Magnus Carlsen.

Later in 1984, he won the Candidates' final 84 (four wins, no losses) against the resurgent
former world champion Vasily Smyslov, at Vilnius, thus qualifying to play Anatoly Karpov for
the World Championship. That year he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),
as a member of which he was elected to the Central Committee of Komsomol in 1987.

Main article: World Chess Championship 1984

The World Chess Championship 1984 match between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov had
many ups and downs, and a very controversial finish. Karpov started in very good form, and
after nine games Kasparov was down 40 in a "first to six wins" match. Fellow players predicted
he would be whitewashed 60 within 18 games.[27]

In an unexpected turn of events, there followed a series of 17 successive draws, some relatively
short, and others drawn in unsettled positions. Kasparov lost game 27, then fought back with
another series of draws until game 32, his first-ever win against the World Champion. Another
14 successive draws followed, through game 46; the previous record length for a world title
match had been 34 games, the match of Jos Ral Capablanca vs. Alexander Alekhine in 1927.

Kasparov won games 47 and 48 to bring the scores to 53 in Karpov's favour. Then the match
was ended without result by Florencio Campomanes, the President of Fdration Internationale
des checs (FIDE), and a new match was announced to start a few months later. The termination
was controversial, as both players stated that they preferred the match to continue. Announcing
his decision at a press conference, Campomanes cited the health of the players, which had been
strained by the length of the match.

The match became the first, and so far only, world championship match to be abandoned without
result. Kasparov's relations with Campomanes and FIDE were greatly strained, and the feud
between them finally came to a head in 1993 with Kasparov's complete break-away from FIDE.
The second Karpov-Kasparov match in 1985 was organized in Moscow as the best of 24 games
where the first player to win 12 points would claim the World Champion title. The scores from
the terminated match would not carry over; however, in the event of a 1212 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,[28] and breaking the record held by Mikhail Tal
for over 20 years.[29] Kasparov's win as Black in the 16th game has been recognized as one of the
all-time masterpieces in chess history.

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 Kasparov's autobiography
Unlimited Challenge, chapter Stab in the Back). Kasparov scored one more win and kept his title
by a final score of 1211.

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 1212. (All this meant that Kasparov had played Karpov four
times in the period 198487, 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
1211. In their five world championship matches, Kasparov had 21 wins, 19 losses, and 104
draws in 144 games.
With the World Champion title in hand, Kasparov began opposing FIDE. Beginning in 1986, he
created the Grandmasters Association (GMA), an organization to represent professional chess
players and give them more say in FIDE's activities. Kasparov assumed a leadership role. GMA's
major achievement was in organizing a series of six World Cup tournaments for the world's top
players. A somewhat uneasy relationship developed with FIDE, and a sort of truce was brokered
by Bessel Kok, a Dutch businessman.

This stand-off lasted until 1993, by which time a new challenger had qualified through the
Candidates cycle for Kasparov's next World Championship defense: Nigel Short, a British
grandmaster who had defeated Anatoly Karpov in a qualifying match, and then Jan Timman in
the finals held in early 1993. After a confusing and compressed bidding process produced lower
financial estimates than expected,[30] the world champion and his challenger decided to play
outside FIDE's jurisdiction, under another organization created by Kasparov called the
Professional Chess Association (PCA). This is where a great fracture occurred in the lineage of
the FIDE version of the World Champions tradition. In an interview in 2007, Kasparov called the
break with FIDE the worst mistake of his career, as it hurt the game in the long run.[31]

Kasparov and Short were ejected from FIDE, and played their well-sponsored match in London.
Kasparov won convincingly by a score of 127. The match considerably raised the profile of
chess in the UK, with an unprecedented level of coverage on Channel 4. Meanwhile, FIDE
organized a World Championship match between Jan Timman (the defeated Candidates finalist)
and former World Champion Karpov (a defeated Candidates semifinalist), which Karpov won.

Kasparov and Sting in 2000

FIDE removed Kasparov and Short from the FIDE rating lists. Thus, till this was in effect, there
was a parallel rating list presented by PCA which featured all world top players, regardless of
their relation to FIDE. There were now two World Champions: PCA champion Kasparov, and
FIDE champion Karpov. The title remained split for 13 years.

Kasparov defended his title in a 1995 match against Viswanathan Anand at the World Trade
Center in New York City. Kasparov won the match by four wins to one, with thirteen draws. It
was the last World Championship to be held under the auspices of the PCA, which collapsed
when Intel, one of its major backers, withdrew its sponsorship.

Kasparov tried to organize another World Championship match, under another organization, the
World Chess Association (WCA) with Linares organizer Luis Rentero. Alexei Shirov and
Vladimir Kramnik played a candidates match to decide the challenger, which Shirov won in a
surprising upset. But when Rentero admitted that the funds required and promised had never
materialized, the WCA collapsed. This left Kasparov stranded, and yet another organization
stepped inBrainGames.com, headed by Raymond Keene. No match against Shirov was
arranged, and talks with Anand collapsed, so a match was instead arranged against Kramnik.

During this period, Kasparov was approached by Oakham School in the United Kingdom, at the
time the only school in the country with a full-time chess coach,[32] and developed an interest in
the use of chess in education. In 1997, Kasparov supported a scholarship programme at the
school.[33] Kasparov also won the Marca Leyenda trophy that year.