Garry Kasparov

Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born April 13, 1963) ischess grandmaster andstrongest (highest rated onFIDE January 2004 list at 2831) chess player inworld.

He was born as Garri WeinsteinBaku, but adopted his mother's maternal surnameKasparov when he was 12. His motheran Armenian woman whose surnameKasparian,"Kasparov" isslavicized versionthis name. He first began his serious studychess after he studiedchess problem set up by his parentsproposedsolutionit.

Tablecontents

1 Early career 2 1984 World Championship 3 World Champion 4 Ejection from FIDE 5 Books 6 Chess against computers

Early career

Garry's rise upFIDE ranking order was nothing shortphenomenal. Startingan oversight byRussian chess federation, Garry Kasparov participated inGrandmaster tournamentBanja Luka whilst still an unknown (the federation thoughtwasjunior tournament). He emerged from this top-class encounter withprovisional rating2595, enoughcatapult him intotop groupchess players.

The next year, 1980, he wonWorld Junior Chess ChampionshipDortmund, Germany.

It was clear from early on that Garry hadplaying strengthmatchthen current world champion Anatoly Karpov -firm favourite ofRussian Chess Federation. But first Garry hadpasstest ofCandidates Tournamentqualify.

His first Candidates match was against Alexander Beliavsky, from which Kasparov emerged surprisingly victorious (Beliavsky was an exceptionally tough opponent). Politics threatened Kasparov's next match against Viktor Korchnoi which was scheduledbe playedPasadena, California. Korchnoi defected from Russia inlate 1970s,was at that timestrongest non-Soviet player. Various political manoeuvring prevented Kasparov from playing Korchnoi.

This was resolved by Korchnoi's generous gestureallowingmatchbe replayedLondon. Kasparov won.

Kasparov's Candidates final match was againstresurgent Vassily Smyslov (who won his match against Hubner byspin ofroulette wheel!). Smyslov wasseventh world champion1957, but later years saw his willingnessfightwins greatly diminished. This posed no problems foryoungster from Baku who registeredcomfortable win.

1984 World Championship

The 1984 World Championship match between Anatoly KarpovGarry Kasparov had its fair shareupsdowns, as well asmost controversial finish tocompetitive match ever. Karpov started offvery good form,withindozen games Kasparov found himself 4-0 down in"firstsix wins" match. Fellow players predicted6-0 whitewashKasparov within 18 games.

For Karpov,result so far would go some wayexorcisingghostFischer's Candidates results1970,would cement Karpov astrue World Champion.

Kasparov dug in,inspiration fromRussian poet before each game, battledKarpov into seventeen successive draws, Karpov duly wonnext decisive game before Kasparov fought backanother seriesdraws until game 36, Kasparov's first win againstWorld Champion.

At this point Karpov was closeexhaustion,not looking likeplayer that started this match. A few games later Kasparov won another two gamesbringscores5-3Karpov's favour. Thenmatch was ended without result by Campomanes -headFIDE, andnew match was announcedstartfew months later.

The termination ofmatch wasmattersome controversy. Atpress conference at which he announced his decision, Campomanes citedhealth oftwo players, which had been put under strain bylength ofmatch, yet both KarpovKasparov stated thatwould prefermatchcontinue. Kasparovparticular was resentfulCampomanes' decision, asking him why he was abandoningmatch if both players wantedcontinue. It would appear that Kasparov, who had wonlast two games beforesuspension, feltsame way as some commentators - that he was nowfavouritewinmatch despite his 5-3 deficit. He appearedbe physically stronger than his opponent,inlater games seemedhave been playingbetter chess.

Whateverreasons forabandonment,match becamefirst,so far only, world championship matchbe abandoned without result. Kasparov had madenew enemyCampomanes, andfeud between totwo would eventually come tohead1993Kasparov's complete break-away from FIDE.

World Champion

The second Karpov-Kasparov match1985 was organised asbest24 games, first player12.5 points would claimtitle (inevent of12-12 draw,title would goKarpov asreigning champion). Kasparov showed he had learnt some valuable lessons inprevious match,althoughscore was quite even down tofinal wire,few spectacular games involvingSicilian defence securedWorld ChampionshipKasparov attender age22. This brokeexisting recordyoungest winner heldover twenty years by Mikhail Tal (he was 23 when he beat Botvinnik1960).

Kasparov cemented his authority attop ofrating ladder withseriesfine tournament performances as well as defending his title three times against his arch-opponent Karpov.

WithWorld Champion titlehis grasp, Kasparov switchedbattling against FIDE - as Bobby Fischer had done twenty years earlier, but this time from within FIDE. He created an organisationrepresent chess players,GrandMaster's Association (GMA)give players more ofsayFIDE's activities.

Ejection from FIDE

This stand-off lasted until 1993, by which timenew challenger had qualified throughCandidates cycleKasparov's next World Championship defence. The world championhis challenger (Nigel Short) decidedplay their match outsideFIDE's jurisdiction, under another organisation created by Garry Kasparov calledProfessional Chess Association (PCA). Thiswheregreat fracture onlineageWorld Champions happened.

KasparovShort were ejected from FIDE,they played their well sponsored matchLondon,Kasparov winning heavily. FIDE set up their "World Championship" withloser ofCandidates final, Jan Timman,previous World Champion Karpov. So Kasparov heldPCA World Chess Championship,Karpov heldFIDE World Chess Championship.

Kasparov defended his title1995 againstIndian superstar Viswanathan Anand, beforePCA collapsed (Intel, one ofmajor backers, pulled out).

Kasparov triedorganise another World Championship match, under yet another organisation,World Chess Association (WCA)Linares organiser Rentero. This climaxed intomatch between Vladimir KramnikAlexei Shirov, which Shirov won against all expectations. The WCA collapsed, however, when Rentero admittedfunds requiredpromised never materialised.

This left Kasparov stranded,yet another organisation stepped- BrainGames.com, headed by Raymond Keene (who was also involvedbringing KasparovLondonhis replayed Candidates match against Korchnoi, half offirst Kasparov-Karpov match, andKasparov-Short PCA match). No match against Shirov was arranged,talksAnand collapsed, somatch was instead arranged against Kramnik.

This match, Kasparov-Kramnik, took placeLondon duringlatter half2000. A well prepared Kramnik surprisedlacklustre Kasparovwoncrucial game 2 against Kasparov's supposedly invincible Grünfeld Defence. So Kasparov was mortal! Kramnik emerged victorious,forfirst timesixteen years Kasparov had no world championship title.

Kasparov proved2001 that he was stillstrongest tournament player inworldhis fine performance inCorus Chess Tournament at Wijk aan Zee.

As part ofso-called "Prague Agreement", masterminded by Yasser Seirawanintendedreunitetwo World Championships, Kasparov wasplaymatch againstFIDE World Champion Ruslan PonomariovSeptember 2003. However, this match was called off after Ponomariov refusedsign his contractit without reservation. AsNovember 2003, thereplansKasparovplaymatch againstnext FIDE champion (to be determined at some unspecified date), although whether these plans will comefruition remainsbe seen. Inmeantime, Kasparov continuesplaytournaments,very good results onwhole.

The game Kasparov-Topalov, played atCorus tournamentWijk aan Zee1999, features one ofdeepest combinations ever performed inchess game: 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Be3 Bg7 5.Qd2 c6 6.f3 b5 7.Nge2 Nbd7 8.Bh6 Bxh6 9.Qxh6 Bb7 10.a3 e5 11.0-0-0 Qe7 12.Kb1 a6 13.Nc1 0-0-0 14.Nb3 exd4 15.Rxd4 c5 16.Rd1 Nb6 17.g3 Kb8 18.Na5 Ba8 19.Bh3 d5 20.Qf4+ Ka7 21.Rhe1 d4 22.Nd5 Nbxd5 23.exd5 Qd6 (Diagram) 24.Rxd4! cxd4 25.Re7+ Kb6 26.Qxd4+ Kxa5 27.b4+ Ka4 28.Qc3 Qxd5 29.Ra7 Bb7 30.Rxb7 Qc4 31.Qxf6 Kxa3 32.Qxa6+ Kxb4 33.c3+! Kxc3 34.Qa1+ Kd2 35.Qb2+ Kd1 36.Bf1! Rd2 37.Rd7! Rxd7 38.Bxc4 bxc4 39.Qxh8 Rd3 40.Qa8 c3 41.Qa4+ Ke1 42.f4 f5 43.Kc1 Rd2 44.Qa7 1-0

InJanuary 2004 FIDE rating list, Kasparov had an Elo rating2831, making him number one inworld aheadKramnikAnand.

Books

Kasparov has writtennumberbooks on chess. In 2003first volumehis projected five volume work Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors was published. This volume, which deals withworld chess champions Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker, Jose Raul CapablancaAlexander Alekhine,sometheir strong contemporaries, has received lavish praise from some reviewers (including Nigel Short), while attracting criticism from othershistorical inaccuraciesanalysisgames directly copied from unattributed sources. Despite this,first volume wonBritish Chess Federation's Book ofYear award2003. Volume two, covering Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vassily SmyslovMikhail Tal appeared later2003.

Chess against computers

In February 1996, IBM's computer chess program "Deep Blue" defeated Kasparovone game using normal time controls,Deep Blue - Kasparov, 1996, Game 1.

However, Kasparov retorted3 wins2 draws, soundly winningmatch. In May 1997, IBM's updated "Deep Blue" defeated Kasparov. This wasfirst timecomputer had ever defeatedworld champion. IBM keepsweb site ofevent at http://www.chess.ibm.com/

In November 2003, he engaged infour game match against chess playing computer program X3D Fritz (which was saidhave an estimated rating2807), usingvirtual board, 3D glasses andspeech recognition system. The first wasdraw, X3D wonsecond after Kasparov blundered when shorttime, Kasparov wonthird, andlast game wasdraw. The X3D Man-Machine World Chess Championship match endeddraw. Kasparov receives $175,000 forresulttakes homegolden trophy. (Although sincedrewmatch X3D Fritz saidwas goingstorevirtual reality copy oftrophyitself.). Kasparov continuedcriticizeblunder insecond game that cost himcrucial point. He felt that he had outplayedmachine overallplayed well. "I only made one mistake but unfortunately that one mistake lostgame."