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Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian
Kasparov was born Garik Kimovich Weinstein (Russian: Гарик Кимович Вайнштейн, Garik Kimovich Vainshtein) in
on Kasparov.ru site Kasparov has described himself as a "self-appointed Christian", although "very indifferent" and identifying as Russian: " though I'm half-Armenian, half-Jewish, I consider myself Russian because Russian is my native tongue, and I grew up with Russian culture." Kasparov and his family had to flee anti-Armenian pogroms in Baku in January 1990 that were coordinated by local leaders with Soviet acquiescence. According to Kasparov himself, he was named after United States President Harry Truman, "whom my father admired for taking a strong stand against communism. It was a rare name in Russia, until
, by Anne Kressler, From ''Azerbaijan International'' (3.3) Autumn 1995. (Retrieved 31 March 2008) At the age of twelve, Garry, upon request of his mother Klara and with the consent of the family, adopted Klara's surname Kasparov, which was done to avoid possible
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
grandmaster, former World Chess Champion
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who has held the title since 2013.
The first event recognized as a world championship was the 1886 match ...
, writer
A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...
, political activist and commentator. His peak rating
A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of quality, quantity, or some combination of both.
Rating or ratings may also refer to:
Business and economics
* Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness of an individual, c ...
of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by Magnus Carlsen in 2013. From 1984 until his retirement in 2005, Kasparov was ranked world No. 1 for a record 255 months overall for his career, the most in history. Kasparov also holds records for the most consecutive professional tournament victories (15) and Chess Oscar
Chess Oscar was an international award given annually to the best chess player. The winner was selected by votes that were cast by chess journalists from across the world.
The traditional voting procedure was to request hundreds of chess journalis ...
s (11).
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
The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...
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 control
A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. Time controls are typically enforced by means of a game clock, ...
s when he lost to the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue
Deep Blue may refer to:
Film
* ''Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads'', a 1992 documentary film about Mississippi Delta blues music
* Deep Blue (2001 film), ''Deep Blue'' (2001 film), a film by Dwight H. Little
* Deep Blue (2003 ...
in a highly publicized match. He continued to hold the "Classical" World Chess Championship until his defeat by Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (russian: Влади́мир Бори́сович Кра́мник; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Cha ...
in 2000. Despite losing the title, he continued winning tournaments and was the world's highest-rated player when he retired from professional chess in 2005.
Since retiring, he devoted his time to politics and writing. He formed the United Civil Front
United Civil Front (UCF; russian: Объединённый гражданский фронт; ОГФ; ''Obyedinonnyy grazhdanskiy front'', ''OGF'') is a social movement in Russia founded and led by chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. In 2006–200 ...
movement and joined as a member of The Other Russia, a coalition opposing the administration and policies
Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an organ ...
of Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
. In 2008, he announced an intention to run as a candidate in that year's Russian presidential race, but after encountering logistical problems in his campaign, for which he blamed "official obstruction", he withdrew. In the wake of the Russian mass protests that began in 2011, he announced in 2013 that he had left Russia for the immediate future out of fear of persecution. Following his flight from Russia, he had lived in New York City with his family. In 2014, he obtained Croatian citizenship, and has maintained a residence in Podstrana
Podstrana ( it, Postrana) is a municipality and settlement in Croatia in the Split-Dalmatia County. It has a population of 9,129 (2011 census), 97% which are Croats.
In the Second World War, the town suffered 131 casualties.
Podstrana experience ...
near Split.
Kasparov is currently chairman of the Human Rights Foundation and chairs its International Council. In 2017, he founded the Renew Democracy Initiative
The Renew Democracy Initiative (RDI) is an American nonprofit organization promoting and defending liberal democracy and the broader idealistic cause of human rights in the U.S. and abroad. Although based off of a centrist political perspective, ...
(RDI), an American political organization promoting and defending liberal democracy
Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into diff ...
in the U.S. and abroad. He serves as chairman of the group. Kasparov is also a Security Ambassador for the software company Avast
Avast Software s.r.o. is a Czech Multinational corporation, multinational Computer security, cybersecurity software company headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic that Research and development, researches and develops computer security softwa ...
.
Early life and career
Kasparov was born Garik Kimovich Weinstein (Russian: Гарик Кимович Вайнштейн, Garik Kimovich Vainshtein) in Baku
Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...
, Azerbaijan SSR
Azerbaijan ( az, Азәрбајҹан, Azərbaycan, italics=no), officially the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (Azerbaijan SSR; az, Азәрбајҹан Совет Сосиалист Республикасы, Azərbaycan Sovet Sosialist R ...
(now Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
), Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. His father, Kim Moiseyevich Weinstein, was Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
and his mother, Klara Shagenovna Kasparova, was Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
.Biographyon Kasparov.ru site Kasparov has described himself as a "self-appointed Christian", although "very indifferent" and identifying as Russian: " though I'm half-Armenian, half-Jewish, I consider myself Russian because Russian is my native tongue, and I grew up with Russian culture." Kasparov and his family had to flee anti-Armenian pogroms in Baku in January 1990 that were coordinated by local leaders with Soviet acquiescence. According to Kasparov himself, he was named after United States President Harry Truman, "whom my father admired for taking a strong stand against communism. It was a rare name in Russia, until
Harry Potter
''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
came along."
Kasparov began the serious study of chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
after he came across a chess problem set up by his parents and proposed a solution. When Garry was seven years old, his father died of leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...
.Kasparov: The World's Chess Champion, by Anne Kressler, From ''Azerbaijan International'' (3.3) Autumn 1995. (Retrieved 31 March 2008) At the age of twelve, Garry, upon request of his mother Klara and with the consent of the family, adopted Klara's surname Kasparov, which was done to avoid possible
antisemitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
tensions, which were common in the USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
at the time.
From age 7, Kasparov attended the Young Pioneer Palace
Young Pioneer Palaces or Palaces of Young Pioneers and Schoolchildren were youth centers designated for the creative work, sport training and extracurricular activities of Young Pioneers and other schoolchildren. Young Pioneer Palaces originate ...
in Baku
Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...
and, at 10 began training at Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, ( – May 5, 1995) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer scientist and was a pioneer in computer chess.
Botvinnik ...
's chess school under 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. Kasparov won the Soviet Junior Championship in Tbilisi
Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...
in 1976, scoring 7 points of 9, at age 13. He repeated the feat the following year, winning with a score of 8.5 of 9. He was being trained by Alexander Shakarov
Alexander Shakarov (born 8 March 1948 in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, USSR) is a Soviet-Azerbaijani chess player, coach and author of Armenian descent.
He is best known for being Garry Kasparov's coach from 1976 to 2005.Sokolsky Memorial tournament in
Kasparov's first (quarter-final) Candidates match was against Alexander Beliavsky, whom he defeated 6–3 (four wins, one loss). Politics threatened Kasparov's semi-final against
Mark Weeks' Chess Pages 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 (5–0), then fought back with another series of draws until game 32 (5–1), earning 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
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; however, 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
With the World Champion title in hand, Kasparov began opposing FIDE. In November 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. This caused a somewhat uneasy relationship to develop between him and FIDE.
This stand-off lasted until 1993, by which time a new challenger had qualified through the Candidates cycle for Kasparov's next World Championship defence: 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, 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). At this point, a great fracture occurred in the lineage of the FIDE World Championship. 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.
Kasparov and Short were ejected from FIDE and played their well-sponsored match in London in 1993. Kasparov won convincingly by a score of 12½–7½. The match considerably raised the profile of chess in the UK, with an unprecedented level of coverage on 
FIDE removed Kasparov and Short from the FIDE rating lists. Until this happened, there was a parallel rating list presented by PCA which featured all the 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
The Kasparov-Kramnik match took place in London during the latter half of 2000. Kramnik had been a student of Kasparov's at the famous Botvinnik/Kasparov chess school in Russia and had served on Kasparov's team for the 1995 match against Viswanathan Anand.
The better-prepared Kramnik won game 2 against Kasparov's
, ''ChessVibes'', 7 September 2009 in March of that year it was announced that Carlsen had split from Kasparov and would no longer be using him as a trainer. According to an interview with the German magazine ''
In January 2011, Kasparov began training the U.S. grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. The first of several training sessions was held in New York just before Nakamura participated in the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. In December 2011, it was announced that the cooperation had come to an end.
Kasparov played two blitz exhibition matches in the autumn of 2011. The first was in September against French grandmaster
In June 1993, Kasparov was involved with the creation of the "Choice of Russia" bloc of parties and in 1996 took part in the election campaign of
Kasparov helped organize the Saint Petersburg Dissenters' March on 3 March 2007 and Dissenters March, The March of the Dissenters on 24 March 2007, both involving several thousand people rallying against Putin and Saint Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko's policies.
In April 2007, Kasparov led a pro-democracy demonstration in Moscow. Soon after the demonstration's start, however, over 9,000 police descended on the group and seized almost everyone. Kasparov, who was briefly arrested by the Moscow police, was warned by the prosecution office on the eve of the march that anyone participating risked being detained. He was held for some 10 hours and then fined and released. He was later summoned by the FSB (Russia), FSB for violations of Russian anti-extremism laws.
Speaking about Kasparov, former KGB defector Oleg Kalugin in 2007 remarked, "I do not talk in details – people who knew them are all dead now because they were vocal, they were open. I am quiet. There is only one man who is vocal and he may be in trouble: [former] world chess champion [Garry] Kasparov. He has been very outspoken in his attacks on Putin and I believe that he is probably next on the list."
Kasparov gave speeches at think tanks such as the Hoover Institution.
On 30 September 2007, Kasparov entered the 2008 Russian presidential election, Russian presidential race, receiving 379 of 498 votes at a congress held in Moscow by The Other Russia. In October 2007, Kasparov announced his intention of standing for the Russian presidency as the candidate of the "The Other Russia (coalition), Other Russia" coalition and vowed to fight for a "democratic and just Russia". Later that month he traveled to the United States, where he appeared on several popular television programs, which were hosted by Stephen Colbert, Wolf Blitzer, Bill Maher, and Chris Matthews.
In November 2007, Kasparov and other protesters were detained by police at an Other Russia rally in Moscow, which drew 3,000 demonstrators to protest election rigging. Following an attempt by about 100 protesters to march through police lines to the electoral commission, which had barred Other Russia candidates from parliamentary elections, arrests were made. The Russian authorities stated a rally had been approved but not any marches, resulting in several detained demonstrators. He was subsequently charged with resisting arrest and organizing an unauthorized protest and given a jail sentence of five days. Kasparov appealed the charges, citing that he had been following orders given by the police, although it was denied. He was released from jail on 29 November. Putin criticized Kasparov at the rally for his use of English when speaking rather than Russian.
In December 2007, Kasparov announced that he had to withdraw his presidential candidacy due to inability to rent a meeting hall where at least 500 of his supporters could assemble. With the deadline expiring on that date, he explained it was impossible for him to run. Russian election laws required sufficient meeting hall space for assembling supporters. Kasparov's spokeswoman accused the government of using pressure to deter anyone from renting a hall for the gathering and said that the electoral commission had rejected a proposal that would have allowed for smaller gathering sizes rather than one large gathering at a meeting hall.
. [Echo Moskvy], 12 March 2010 Kasparov was named Chairman of the Human Rights Foundation in 2011. On 31 January 2012, Kasparov hosted a meeting of opposition leaders planning a Protests following the 2011 Russian elections#4 February, mass march on 4 February 2012, the third major opposition rally held since the 2011 Russian legislative election, disputed State Duma elections of December 2011. Among other opposition leaders attending were Alexey Navalny and Putin must go#The rally of 12 December, Yevgenia Chirikova. On 17 August 2012, Kasparov was arrested and beaten outside of the Moscow court while attending the sentencing in the case involving the all-female punk band Pussy Riot. On 24 August, he was cleared of charges that he took part in an unauthorized protest against the conviction of three members of Pussy Riot. Judge Yekaterina Veklich said there were "no grounds to believe the testimony of the police". He could still face criminal charges over a police officer's claims that the opposition leader bit his finger while he was being detained. He later thanked all the bloggers and reporters who provided video evidence that contradicted the testimony of the police. Kasparov wrote in February 2013 that "fascism has come to Russia. ...Project Putin, just like the old Project Hitler, is but the fruit of a conspiracy by the ruling elite. Fascist rule was never the result of the free will of the people. It was always the fruit of a conspiracy by the ruling elites!" In April 2013, Kasparov joined in an HRF condemnation of Kanye West for having performed for Nursultan Nazarbayev, the leader of Kazakhstan in exchange for a $3 million paycheck, saying that West "has entertained a brutal killer and his entourage" and that his fee "came from the loot stolen from the Kazakhstan treasury". Kasparov denied rumors in April 2013 that he planned to leave Russia for good. "I found these rumors to be deeply saddening and, moreover, surprising," he wrote. "I was unable to respond immediately because I was in such a state of shock that such an incredibly inaccurate statement, the likes of which is constantly distributed by the Kremlin's propagandists, came this time from Ilya Yashin, a fellow member of the Opposition Coordination Council (KSO) and my former colleague from the Solidarity movement." In an April 2013 op-ed piece, Kasparov accused prominent Russian journalist Vladimir Pozner Jr., Vladimir Posner of failing to stand up to Putin and to earlier Russian and Soviet leaders. Kasparov was presented with the Morris B. Abram Human Rights Award, UN Watch's annual human-rights prize, in 2013. The organization praised him as "not only one of the world's smartest men" but "also among its bravest". At the 2013 Women in the World conference, Kasparov told ''The Daily Beast''s Michael C. Moynihan, Michael Moynihan that democracy no longer existed in what he called Russia's "dictatorship". Kasparov said at a press conference in June 2013 that if he returned to Russia he doubted he would be allowed to leave again, given Putin's ongoing crackdown against dissenters. "So for the time being," he said, "I refrain from returning to Russia." He explained shortly thereafter in an article for ''The Daily Beast'' that this had not been intended as "a declaration of leaving my home country, permanently or otherwise", but merely an expression of "the dark reality of the situation in Russia today, where nearly half the members of the opposition's Coordinating Council are under criminal investigation on concocted charges". He noted that the Moscow prosecutor's office was "opening an investigation that would limit my ability to travel", making it impossible for him to fulfill "professional speaking engagements" and hindering his "work for the nonprofit Kasparov Chess Foundation, which has centers in New York City, Brussels, and Johannesburg to promote chess in education". Kasparov further wrote in his June 2013 ''Daily Beast'' article that the mass protests in Moscow 18 months earlier against fraudulent Russian elections had been "a proud moment for me". He recalled that after joining the opposition movement in March 2005, he had been criticized for seeking to unite "every anti-Putin element in the country to march together regardless of ideology". Therefore, the sight of "hundreds of flags representing every group from liberals to nationalists all marching together for 'Russia Without Putin' was the fulfillment of a dream." Yet most Russians, he lamented, had continued to "slumber" even as Putin had "taken off the flimsy mask of democracy to reveal himself in full as the would-be KGB dictator he has always been". Kasparov responded with several sardonic Twitter postings to a September 2013 ''The New York Times'' op-ed by Putin. "I hope Putin has taken adequate protections," he tweeted. "Now that he is a Russian journalist his life may be in grave danger!" Also: "Now we can expect NY Times op-eds by Robert Mugabe, Mugabe on fair elections, Fidel Castro, Castro on free speech, & Kim Jong-un on prison reform. The Axis of Hypocrisy." In a 12 May 2013 op-ed for ''The Wall Street Journal'', Kasparov questioned reports that the Russian security agency, the Federal Security Service, FSB, had fully cooperated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI in the matter of the Boston Marathon bombing, Boston bombers. He noted that the elder bomber, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, had reportedly met in Russia with two known jihadists who "were killed in Dagestan by the Russian military just days before Tamerlan left Russia for the U.S." Kasparov argued, "If no intelligence was sent from Moscow to Washington" about this meeting, "all this talk of FSB cooperation cannot be taken seriously." He further observed, "This would not be the first time Russian security forces seemed strangely impotent in the face of an impending terror attack," pointing out that in both the Moscow theater hostage crisis, 2002 Moscow theater siege and the Beslan school siege, 2004 Beslan school attack, "there were FSB informants in both terror groups – yet the attacks went ahead unimpeded." Given this history, he wrote, "it is impossible to overlook that the Boston bombing took place just days after the U.S. Magnitsky Act, Magnitsky List was published, creating the first serious external threat to the Putin power structure by penalizing Russian officials complicit in human-rights crimes." In sum, Putin's "dubious record on counterterrorism and its continued support of terror sponsors Iran and Syria mean only one thing: common ground zero". Kasparov wrote in July 2013 about the trial in Kirov, Russia, Kirov of fellow opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who had been convicted "on concocted embezzlement charges", only to see the prosecutor, surprisingly, ask for his release the next day pending appeal. "The judicial process and the democratic process in Russia," wrote Kasparov, "are both elaborate mockeries created to distract the citizenry at home and to help Western leaders avoid confronting the awkward fact that Russia has returned to a police state". Still, Kasparov felt that whatever had caused the Kirov prosecutor's about-face, "my optimism tells me it was a positive sign. After more than 13 years of predictable repression under Putin, anything different is good." Kasparov had maintained a summer home in the Croatian city of Makarska. In February 2014, he applied for Croatian nationality law#Citizenship by naturalisation, citizenship by naturalisation in Croatia, according to media reports, claiming he was finding it increasingly difficult to live in Russia. According to an article in ''The Guardian'', Kasparov was "widely perceived" as having been a vocal supporter of Independence of Croatia, Croatian independence during the early 1990s. Later in February 2014, his application for naturalisation was approved and he had a meeting with Croatian prime minister Zoran Milanović on 27 February. Croatian press cited his "lobbying for Croatia in 1991" as grounds for the expedited naturalisation. In an interview for a Croatian daily published in February 2022, Kasparov said he was "very grateful" to Croatian president Zoran Milanović for the help rendered by him (then as prime minister) in obtaining Croatian citizenship. On 20 May 2022, Kasparov was designated as "foreign agent" by the Ministry of Justice (Russia), Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.
In October 2015, Kasparov published a book titled ''Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped''. In the book, Kasparov likens Putin to Adolf Hitler, and explains the need for the West to oppose Putin sooner, rather than appeasing him and postponing the eventual confrontation. According to his publisher, "Kasparov wants this book out fast, in a way that has potential to influence the discussion during the United States presidential primary, primary season." In 2018, he said that "anything is better than Putin because that eliminates the probability of a Nuclear warfare, nuclear war. Putin is insane."
In the 2016 United States presidential election, Kasparov described Republican Party (United States), Republican Donald Trump as "a celebrity showman with racist leanings and authoritarian tendencies" and criticised Trump for calling for closer ties with Putin. After Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, called Putin a strong leader, Kasparov said that Putin is a strong leader "in the same way arsenic is a strong drink". He also criticised the economic policies of Democratic Party (United States), Democratic primary candidate Bernie Sanders, but showed respect for Sanders as "a charismatic speaker and a passionate believer in his cause". Kasparov opined that Henry Kissinger "was selling the Trump Administration on the idea of a mirror of 1972 [Richard Nixon's visit to China], except, instead of a Sino-U.S. alliance against the U.S.S.R., this would be a Russian-American alliance against China."
In 2017, he condemned the violence unleashed by the Spanish police against the 2017 Catalan independence referendum, independence referendum in Catalonia. He criticized the Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy and accused him of "betraying" the European promise of peace. After the 2017 Catalan regional election, Catalan regional election held later the same year, Kasparov wrote: "Despite unprecedented pressure from Madrid, Catalonian separatists won a majority. Europe must speak and help find a peaceful path toward resolution and avoid more violence". Kasparov recommended that Spain look to how Britain handled the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, adding: "look only at how Turkey and Iraq have treated the Kurdish nationalism, separatist Kurds. That cannot be the road for Spain and Catalonia."
Kasparov supports Armenian genocide recognition.
He welcomed the 2018 Armenian revolution, Velvet Revolution in Armenia in 2018, just a few days after it happened.
Kasparov condemned the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, assassination of Saudi Arabia, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In October 2018, he wrote that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Erdoğan's regime in Turkey "has jailed more journalists than any country in the world and scores of them remain in prison in Turkey. Since 2016, Turkey's intelligence agency has abducted at least 80 people in operations in 18 countries."
In 2021, Kasparov stated that "the only language that Putin understands is power, and his power is his money," arguing that the United States should target the bank accounts of Russian oligarchs to force Russia to rein in its Cybercrime, criminals' cyberattacks against American agencies and companies.
In 2022, Kasparov spoke out against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces on Twitter, stating "The only way this really ends is the fall of Putin's regime by collapse of Russian economy and defeat in Ukraine." He also believed that "pressure must be kept up" in terms of 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine#Sanctions, sanctions and condemnations against Russia's actions and joined with other prominent Russian figures-in-exile to form the Anti-War Committee of Russia. He said that Russia should be "thrown back into the Stone Age to make sure that the oil and gas industry and any other sensitive industries that are vital for survival of the regime cannot function without Western technological support."
Kasparov played in a total of eight Chess Olympiads. He represented the Soviet Union four times and Russia four times, following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. In his 1980 Olympiad debut, he became, at age 17, the youngest player to represent the Soviet Union or Russia at that level, a record which was broken by Vladimir Kramnik in 1992. In 82 games, he has scored (+50−3=29), for 78.7% and won a total of 19 medals, including team gold medals all eight times he competed.
For the 1994 Moscow Olympiad, he had a significant organizational role, in helping to put together the event on short notice, after Thessaloniki canceled its offer to host, a few weeks before the scheduled dates. Kasparov's detailed Olympiad record follows:
* 24th Chess Olympiad, Valletta 1980, USSR 2nd reserve, 9½/12 (+8−1=3), team gold, board bronze;
* 25th Chess Olympiad, Lucerne 1982, USSR 2nd board, 8½/11 (+6−0=5), team gold, board bronze;
* 27th Chess Olympiad, Dubai 1986, USSR 1st board, 8½/11 (+7−1=3), team gold, board gold, performance gold;
* 28th Chess Olympiad, Thessaloniki 1988, USSR 1st board, 8½/10 (+7−0=3), team gold, board gold, performance gold;
* 30th Chess Olympiad, Manila 1992, Russia board 1, 8½/10 (+7−0=3), team gold, board gold, performance silver;
* 31st Chess Olympiad, Moscow 1994, Russia board 1, 6½/10 (+4−1=5), team gold;
* 32nd Chess Olympiad, Yerevan 1996, Russia board 1, 7/9 (+5−0=4), team gold, board silver, performance gold;
* 35th Chess Olympiad, Bled 2002, Russia board 1, 7½/9 (+6−0=3), team gold, performance gold.
Kasparov made his international teams debut for the USSR at age 16 in the 1980 European Team Championship and played for Russia in the 1992 edition of that championship. He won a total of five medals. His detailed Euroteams record follows:
* Skara 1980, USSR 2nd reserve, 5½/6 (+5−0=1), team gold, board gold;
* Debrecen 1992, Russia board 1, 6/8 (+4−0=4), team gold, board gold, performance silver.
Kasparov also represented the USSR once in Youth Olympiad competition, sharing the title against Lev Psakhis who would become a Grand Master the following year, it remains one of Psakhis' most memorable games.
In January 2003, he engaged in a six-game classical time control match with a $1 million prize fund which was billed as the FIDE "Man vs. Machine" World Championship, against Deep Junior. The engine evaluated three million positions per second. After one win each and three draws, it was all up to the final game. After reaching a decent position, Kasparov offered a draw, which was soon accepted by the Deep Junior team. Asked why he offered the draw, Kasparov said he feared making a blunder.
Deep Junior was the first machine to beat Kasparov with black and at a standard time control.
In June 2003, Mindscape (company), Mindscape released the computer game ''Kasparov Chessmate'', with Kasparov himself listed as a co-designer.
In November 2003, he engaged in a four-game match against the computer program X3D Fritz, using a virtual board, 3D glasses and a speech recognition system. After two draws and one win apiece, the X3D Man–Machine match ended in a draw. Kasparov received $175,000 for the result and took home the golden trophy. Kasparov continued to criticize the blunder in the second game that cost him a crucial point. He felt that he had outplayed the machine overall and played well. "I only made one mistake but unfortunately that one mistake lost the game."
In 2021, Kasparov promoted a series of 32 Non-fungible token, NFTs that detailed important moments in his career; the top four NFTs sold for $14,342, $14,342, $11,439 and $11,439.
"Man of the Year?"
''OpinionJournal.com, OpinionJournal'', 23 December 2007 * Edward Winter (chess historian), Edward Winter
List of Books About Fischer and Kasparov
*
Kasparov's "Deep Thinking" talk at Google
Garry Kasparov's best games analyzed in video
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kasparov, Garry Garry Kasparov, 1963 births Living people 2011–2013 Russian protests 20th-century male writers 21st-century Russian politicians Azerbaijan University of Languages alumni Chess coaches Chess grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors Chess historians Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Croatian activists Croatian chess writers Croatian people of Armenian descent Croatian people of Russian-Jewish descent Naturalized citizens of Croatia Chess players from Baku Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Russian anti-communists Russian chess players Russian chess writers Russian dissidents Russian liberals Russian people of Armenian descent Russian people of Jewish descent Russian political activists Russian sportsperson-politicians Solidarnost politicians Soviet chess players Soviet chess writers Soviet male writers The Other Russia (coalition) World chess champions World Junior Chess Champions Russian activists against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine People listed in Russia as foreign agents
Minsk
Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...
. He had been invited as an exception but took first place and became a chess master
A chess title is a title regulated by a chess governing body and bestowed upon players based on their performance and rank. Such titles are usually granted for life. The international chess governing body FIDE grants several titles, the most pres ...
. 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
Daugavpils (; russian: Двинск; ltg, Daugpiļs ; german: Dünaburg, ; pl, Dyneburg; see other names) is a state city in south-eastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city gets its name. The parts of the c ...
on tiebreak over Igor V. Ivanov
Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov (January 8, 1947 – November 17, 2005) was a Russian-born Canadian grandmaster of chess and a concert pianist.
Early life
He was born in 1947 in Leningrad, USSR, and learned chess at age five. He studied music intensi ...
to capture the sole qualifying place.
Kasparov rose quickly through the FIDE world rankings. Starting with oversight by the Russian Chess Federation
The Chess Federation of Russia (), known until 2018 as the Russian Chess Federation, () is the governing body for chess in Russia, and the officially recognized arm of the FIDE in Russia. It was founded on 15 February 1992, following the dissolut ...
, he participated in a grandmaster tournament in Banja Luka
Banja Luka ( sr-Cyrl, Бања Лука, ) or Banjaluka ( sr-Cyrl, Бањалука, ) is the second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the largest city of Republika Srpska. Banja Luka is also the ''de facto'' capital of this entity. I ...
, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina (part of Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
at the time), in 1979 while still unrated (he was a replacement for the Soviet defector Viktor Korchnoi
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi ( rus, Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й, p=vʲiktər lʲvovʲɪtɕ kɐrtɕˈnoj; 23 March 1931 – 6 June 2016) was a Soviet (before 1976) and Swiss (after 1980) chess grandmaster (GM) and chess writer. He ...
, who was originally invited but withdrew due to the threat of a 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). The next year, 1980, he won the World Junior Chess Championship in Dortmund
Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...
, West Germany. Later that year, he made his debut as the second reserve for the Soviet Union at the Chess Olympiad at Valletta
Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an Local councils of Malta, administrative unit and capital city, capital of Malta. Located on the Malta (island), main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, i ...
, Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
, and became a Grandmaster.
Career
Towards the top
As a teenager, Kasparov tied for first place in theUSSR Chess Championship
The USSR Chess Championship was played from 1921 to 1991. Organized by the USSR Chess Federation, it was the strongest national chess championship ever held, with eight world chess champions and four world championship finalists among its winners. ...
in 1981–82. His first win in a superclass-level international tournament was scored at Bugojno
Bugojno ( sr-cyrl, Бугојно) is a town and municipality located in Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated on river Vrbas, to the northwest from Sarajevo. Acco ...
, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
in 1982. He earned a place in the 1982 Moscow Interzonal tournament, which he won, to qualify for the Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The wi ...
. At age 19, he was the youngest Candidate since Bobby Fischer
Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 11� ...
, 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 6–3 (four wins, one loss). Politics threatened Kasparov's semi-final against Viktor Korchnoi
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi ( rus, Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й, p=vʲiktər lʲvovʲɪtɕ kɐrtɕˈnoj; 23 March 1931 – 6 June 2016) was a Soviet (before 1976) and Swiss (after 1980) chess grandmaster (GM) and chess writer. He ...
, which was scheduled to be played in Pasadena, California
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district.
I ...
. Korchnoi had defected from the Soviet Union in 1976 and was at that time the strongest active non-Soviet player. Various political manoeuvres 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 Zoltán Ribli. The Kasparov-Korchnoi match was put together on short notice by Raymond Keene
Raymond Dennis Keene (born 29 January 1948) is an English chess grandmaster, a FIDE International Arbiter, a chess organiser, and a journalist and author. He won the British Chess Championship in 1971, and was the first player from England t ...
. Kasparov lost the first game but won the match 7–4 (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
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (russian: Влади́мир Бори́сович Кра́мник; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Cha ...
in January 1996; the record is currently held by Magnus Carlsen.
Later in 1984, he won the Candidates' final 8½–4½ (four wins, no losses) against the resurgent former world champion Vasily Smyslov, at Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
, thus qualifying to play Anatoly Karpov for the World Championship. That year he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
"Hymn of the Bolshevik Party"
, headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow
, general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last)
, founded =
, banned =
, founder = Vladimir Lenin
, newspaper ...
(CPSU), as a member of which he was elected to the Central Committee of Komsomol
The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (russian: link=no, Всесоюзный ленинский коммунистический союз молодёжи (ВЛКСМ), ), usually known as Komsomol (; russian: Комсомол, links=n ...
in 1987.
1984 World Championship
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 4–0 in a "first to six wins" match. Fellow players predicted he would be whitewashed 6–0 within 18 games.1984 Karpov – Kasparov Title Match HighlightsMark Weeks' Chess Pages 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 (5–0), then fought back with another series of draws until game 32 (5–1), earning 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
José Raúl Capablanca
José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he is widely renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play.
Capablanc ...
vs. Alexander Alekhine in 1927.
Kasparov won games 47 and 48 to bring the scores to 5–3 in Karpov's favour. Then the match was ended without result by Florencio Campomanes
Florencio Campomanes (22 February 1927 – 3 May 2010) was a Filipino political scientist, chess player, and chess organizer.
Education
Campomanes was born in Manila and earned his B.A. in political science from the University of the Philippin ...
, the President of the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (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.
World Champion
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; however, 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 defence
The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the following moves:
:1. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. e4, e4 b:Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...c5, c5
The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4. Ope ...
. 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. Kasparov's win as Black in the 16th game has been recognized as one of the all-time masterpieces in chess history, including being voted the best game played during the first 64 issues of the magazine '' Chess Informant.''
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
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, 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
Yevgeniy Vladimirov (russian: Евгений Владимиров; born 20 January 1957) is a chess player and trainer from Kazakhstan. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1989.
Career
In 2004, during the 14th Abu Dhabi Chess Fe ...
, accusing him of selling his opening
Opening may refer to:
* Al-Fatiha, "The Opening", the first chapter of the Qur'an
* The Opening (album), live album by Mal Waldron
* Backgammon opening
* Chess opening
* A title sequence or opening credits
* , a term from contract bridge
* , ...
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 12½–11½.
A fourth match for the world title took place in 1987 in Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
, 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
A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. Time controls are typically enforced by means of a game clock, ...
, and Kasparov eventually won a long ending. Kasparov retained his title as the match was drawn by a score of 12–12.
The fifth match between Kasparov and Karpov was held in New York and Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
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.
Break with and ejection from FIDE
With the World Champion title in hand, Kasparov began opposing FIDE. In November 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. This caused a somewhat uneasy relationship to develop between him and FIDE.
This stand-off lasted until 1993, by which time a new challenger had qualified through the Candidates cycle for Kasparov's next World Championship defence: 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, 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). At this point, a great fracture occurred in the lineage of the FIDE World Championship. 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.
Kasparov and Short were ejected from FIDE and played their well-sponsored match in London in 1993. Kasparov won convincingly by a score of 12½–7½. The match considerably raised the profile of chess in the UK, with an unprecedented level of coverage on Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
. Meanwhile, FIDE organized a World Championship match between Jan Timman (the defeated Candidates finalist) and former World Champion Karpov (a defeated Candidates semi-finalist), which Karpov won.
FIDE removed Kasparov and Short from the FIDE rating lists. Until this happened, there was a parallel rating list presented by PCA which featured all the 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
Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating of ...
at the World Trade Center
World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association.
World Trade Center may refer to:
Buildings
* List of World Trade Centers
* World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
in New York City. Kasparov won the match by four wins to one, with thirteen draws.
Kasparov tried to organize another World Championship match under another organization, the World Chess Association (WCA) with Linares organizer Luis Rentero
The Linares International Chess Tournament (Spanish: ''Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez Ciudad de Linares'') was an annual chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, which takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén pr ...
. Alexei Shirov and Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (russian: Влади́мир Бори́сович Кра́мник; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Cha ...
played a candidates match to decide the challenger, which Shirov won in an 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 in: BrainGames.com, headed by Raymond Keene
Raymond Dennis Keene (born 29 January 1948) is an English chess grandmaster, a FIDE International Arbiter, a chess organiser, and a journalist and author. He won the British Chess Championship in 1971, and was the first player from England t ...
. 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
(Like runners, they pass on the torch of life)
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding
, religion = Church of England
, president ...
in the United Kingdom, at the time the only school in the country with a full-time chess coach, and developed an interest in the use of chess in education. In 1997, Kasparov supported a scholarship programme at the school. Kasparov also won the Marca Leyenda
''Marca'' Leyenda (''Marca'' legend) is an award given by the Spanish sports newspaper '' Marca'' to the best sport professionals in history. Since its inception in 1997 over 80 people have received this award.
List of winners
References
{{Refl ...
trophy that year.
In 1999, he played a well-known game against Topalov wherein he won after a rook sacrifice and king hunt.
Losing the title and aftermath
The Kasparov-Kramnik match took place in London during the latter half of 2000. Kramnik had been a student of Kasparov's at the famous Botvinnik/Kasparov chess school in Russia and had served on Kasparov's team for the 1995 match against Viswanathan Anand.
The better-prepared Kramnik won game 2 against Kasparov's Grünfeld Defence
The Grünfeld Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
:1. d4 Nf6
:2. c4 g6
:3. Nc3 d5
Black offers White the possibility of 4.cxd5, which may be followed by 4...Nxd5 and 5.e4, giving White an imposing central pawn duo. If Whi ...
and achieved winning positions in Games 4 and 6, although Kasparov held the draw in both games. Kasparov made a critical error in Game 10 with the Nimzo-Indian Defence, which Kramnik exploited to win in 25 moves. As White, Kasparov could not crack the passive but solid Berlin Defence in the Ruy Lopez, and Kramnik successfully drew all his games as Black. Kramnik won the match 8½–6½.
After losing the title, Kasparov won a series of major tournaments, and remained the top-rated player in the world, ahead of both Kramnik and the FIDE World Champions. In 2001 he refused an invitation to the 2002 Dortmund Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The wi ...
for the Classical title, claiming his results had earned him a rematch with Kramnik.
Kasparov and Karpov played a four-game match with rapid time controls over two days in December 2002 in New York City. Karpov surprised the experts and emerged victorious, winning two games and drawing one.
Because of Kasparov's continuing strong results and status as world No. 1 in much of the public eye, he was included in the so-called "Prague Agreement", masterminded by Yasser Seirawan and intended to reunite the two World Championships. Kasparov was to play a match against the FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov in September 2003. But this match was called off after Ponomariov refused to sign his contract for it without reservation. In its place, there were plans for a match against Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Rustam Kasimdzhanov; russian: Рустам Касымджанов (born 5 December 1979) is an Uzbek chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Champion (2004-05). He was Asian champion in 1998.
In addition to his tournament play, Kasimdzhan ...
, winner of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004
The FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 was held at the Almahary Hotel in Tripoli, Libya, from June 18 to July 13, 2004.
It was won by Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who beat Michael Adams in the final by a score of 4½–3½. He won about US$100,000 and ...
, to be held in January 2005 in the United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
. These also fell through owing to a lack of funding. Plans to hold the match in Turkey instead came too late. Kasparov announced in January 2005 that he was tired of waiting for FIDE to organize a match and so had decided to stop all efforts to regain the World Championship title.
Retirement from chess
After winning the prestigious Linares tournament for the ninth time, Kasparov announced on 10 March 2005 that he would retire from serious competitive chess. He cited as the reason a lack of personal goals in the chess world (he commented when winning the Russian championship in 2004 that it had been the last major title he had never won outright) and expressed frustration at the failure to reunify the world championship. Kasparov said he might play in some rapid chess events for fun, but he intended to spend more time on his books, including the ''My Great Predecessors'' series, and work on the links between decision-making in chess and other areas of life. He also stated that he would continue to involve himself inRussian politics
The politics of Russia take place in the framework of the federation, federal semi-presidential system, semi-presidential republic of Russia. According to the Constitution of Russia, the President of Russia is head of state, and of a multi-par ...
, which he viewed as "headed down the wrong path."
Post-retirement chess
On 22 August 2006, in his first public chess games since his retirement, Kasparov played in the Lichthof Chess Champions Tournament, a blitz event played at the time control of 5 minutes per side and 3-second increments per move. Kasparov tied for first with Anatoly Karpov, scoring 4½/6. Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov played a 12-game match from 21 to 24 September 2009, inValencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...
, Spain. It consisted of four rapid (or semi rapid) games, in which Kasparov won 3–1, and eight blitz games, in which Kasparov won 6–2, winning the match with a total result of 9–3. The event took place exactly 25 years after the two players' legendary encounter at World Chess Championship 1984.
Kasparov actively coached Magnus Carlsen for approximately one year, beginning in February 2009. The collaboration remained secret until September 2009. Under Kasparov's tutelage, Carlsen in October 2009 became the youngest ever to achieve a FIDE rating higher than 2800, and he rose from world number four to world number one. While the pair initially planned to work together throughout 2010,Magnus Carlsen: "My job is to improve my chess", ''ChessVibes'', 7 September 2009 in March of that year it was announced that Carlsen had split from Kasparov and would no longer be using him as a trainer. According to an interview with the German magazine ''
Der Spiegel
''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'', Carlsen indicated that he would remain in contact and that he would continue to attend training sessions with Kasparov; however, in fact, no further training sessions were held, and the cooperation gradually fizzled out over the course of the spring.
In May 2010, he played 30 games simultaneously, winning each one, against players at Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...
in Israel. In the same month, it was revealed that Kasparov had aided Viswanathan Anand in preparation for the World Chess Championship 2010
The World Chess Championship 2010 match pitted the defending world champion, Viswanathan Anand, against challenger Veselin Topalov, for the title of World Chess Champion. The match took place in Sofia, Bulgaria from 24 April to 13 May 2010, with ...
against challenger Veselin Topalov. Anand won the match 6½–5½ to retain the title.
In January 2011, Kasparov began training the U.S. grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. The first of several training sessions was held in New York just before Nakamura participated in the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. In December 2011, it was announced that the cooperation had come to an end.
Kasparov played two blitz exhibition matches in the autumn of 2011. The first was in September against French grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (; born 21 October 1990), often referred to by his initials, MVL, is a French chess grandmaster who is the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. With a peak rating of 2819, Vachier-Lagrave is the seventh-highest r ...
, in Clichy Clichy may refer to:
In Paris Region, France
* Canton of Clichy, an administrative division of the Hauts-de-Seine department, in northern France
* Clichy-sous-Bois, commune in the Seine-Saint-Denis ''département''
* Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, comm ...
(France), which Kasparov won 1½–½. The second was a longer match consisting of eight blitz games played on 9 October, against English grandmaster Nigel Short. Kasparov won again by a score of 4½–3½.
A little after that, in October 2011, Kasparov played and defeated fourteen opponents in a simultaneous exhibition that took place in Bratislava
Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...
.
On 25 and 26 April 2015, Kasparov played a mini-match against Nigel Short. The match consisted of two rapid games and eight blitz games and was contested over the course of two days. Both commentators GM Maurice Ashley
Maurice Ashley (born March 6, 1966) is a Jamaican-American chess player, author, and commentator. In 1999, he earned the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM), making him the first black person to do so.
Ashley is well known as a commentator for hig ...
and Alejandro Ramírez remarked how Kasparov was an 'initiative hog' throughout the match, consistently not allowing Short to gain any foothold in the games, and won the match decisively with a score of 8½–1½. Kasparov also managed to win all five games on the second day, with his victories characterised by aggressive pawn moves breaking up Short's position, thereby allowing Kasparov's pieces to achieve positional superiority.
On Wednesday 19 August 2015, he played and won all 19 games of a simultaneous exhibition in Pula
Pula (; also known as Pola, it, Pola , hu, Pòla, Venetian language, Venetian; ''Pola''; Istriot language, Istriot: ''Puola'', Slovene language, Slovene: ''Pulj'') is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, and the List of cities and town ...
, Croatia.
On Thursday 28 April and Friday 29 April 2016 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, Kasparov played a 6-round exhibition blitz round-robin tournament with Fabiano Caruana
Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992) is an American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, Caruana became a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, and 20 days—the youngest grandmaster in the history of both Italy and the United Sta ...
, Wesley So, and Hikaru Nakamura in an event called the Ultimate Blitz Challenge. He finished the tournament third with 9.5/18, behind Hikaru Nakamura (11/18) and Wesley So (10/18). At the post-tournament interview, Kasparov announced that he would donate his winnings from playing the next top-level blitz exhibition match to assist funding of the American Olympic Team.
On 2 June 2016, Kasparov played against fifteen chess players in a simultaneous exhibition in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Halle of Mönchengladbach
Mönchengladbach (, li, Jlabbach ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Dutch border.
Geography Municipal subdivisions
Since 2009, the territory of Mönchengladbac ...
. He won all games.
Candidate for FIDE presidency
On 7 October 2013, Kasparov announced his candidacy for World Chess Federation president during a reception inTallinn
Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...
, Estonia, where the 84th FIDE Congress took place. Kasparov's candidacy was supported by his former student, reigning World Chess Champion
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who has held the title since 2013.
The first event recognized as a world championship was the 1886 match ...
and FIDE#1 ranked player Magnus Carlsen. At the FIDE General Assembly in August 2014, Kasparov lost the presidential election to incumbent FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, with a vote of 110–61.
A few days before the election took place, the ''New York Times Magazine'' had published a lengthy report on the viciously fought campaign. Included was information about a leaked contract between Kasparov and former FIDE Secretary General Ignatius Leong from Singapore, in which the Kasparov campaign reportedly "offered to pay Leong US$500,000 and to pay $250,000 a year for four years to the ASEAN Chess Academy, an organization Leong helped create to teach the game, specifying that Leong would be responsible for delivering 11 votes from his region ... In September 2015, the FIDE Ethics Commission found Kasparov and Leong guilty of violating its Code of Ethics and later suspended them for two years from all FIDE functions and meetings.
Return from retirement
In 2017, Kasparov came out of retirement to participate in the inaugural St. Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament from 14 to 19 August, scoring 3.5/9 in the rapid and 9/18 in the blitz, finishing eighth out of ten participants, which included Nakamura, Caruana, former world champion Anand, and the eventual winner, Aronian. Any tournament money that he earned would go towards charities to promote chess in Africa. In 2020, he participated in 9LX, which is a Chess 960 tournament. He finished eighth in a field of 10 players. Notably, he drew a game against Magnus Carlsen, who tied for first place. In 2021, he launched Kasparovchess, a subscription-based online chess community featuring documentaries, lessons, puzzles, podcasts, articles, interviews, and playing zones. In 2021, Kasparov played in the blitz section of theGrand Chess Tour
The Grand Chess Tour (GCT) is a circuit of chess tournaments where players compete for multiple prize pools. Major tournaments that have been featured in the Grand Chess Tour include Norway Chess, the Sinquefield Cup, and the London Chess Classic. ...
event in Zagreb
Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...
, Croatia. He performed poorly, however, scoring 0.5/9 on the first day and 2.0/9 on the second day, getting his only win against Jorden Van Foreest
Jhr. Jorden van Foreest (born 30 April 1999) is a Dutch chess grandmaster. He was Dutch Chess Champion in 2016, and won the Tata Steel Masters in 2021. Van Foreest is the No. 2 ranked Dutch player behind Anish Giri.
Chess career
Introduced ...
. He also participated in 9LX 2, finishing fifth in a field of 10 players, with a score of 5/9.
Politics
1980s
Kasparov's grandfather was a staunch communist, but the young Kasparov gradually began to have doubts about the Soviet Union's political system at age 13 when he travelled abroad for the first time to Paris for a chess tournament. In 1981, at age 18, he read Solzhenitsyn's ''The Gulag Archipelago
''The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation'' (russian: Архипелаг ГУЛАГ, ''Arkhipelag GULAG'') is a three-volume non-fiction text written between 1958 and 1968 by Russian writer and Soviet dissident Aleksandr So ...
'', a copy of which he bought while abroad.
Nevertheless, Kasparov joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
"Hymn of the Bolshevik Party"
, headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow
, general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last)
, founded =
, banned =
, founder = Vladimir Lenin
, newspaper ...
(CPSU) in 1984, and was elected to the Central Committee of Komsomol
The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (russian: link=no, Всесоюзный ленинский коммунистический союз молодёжи (ВЛКСМ), ), usually known as Komsomol (; russian: Комсомол, links=n ...
in 1987. In 1990, he left the party.
1990s
In January 1990, Kasparov and his family fled Baku to escape pogroms against Armenians. In May 1990, Kasparov took part in the creation of the Democratic Party of Russia, which at first was a liberal anti-communist party, later shifting to centrism. Kasparov left the party on 28 April 1991, after its conference. In 1991, Kasparov received the Keeper of the Flame award from theCenter for Security Policy
The Center for Security Policy (CSP) is a US far-right, anti-Muslim, Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The organization's founder and current president is Frank Gaffney Jr. who is known for promoting falsehoods about former U.S. President B ...
, a Washington, D.C. based far-right, anti-Muslim think tank. In his acceptance speech Kasparov lauded the defeat of communism while also urging the United States to give no financial assistance to central Soviet leaders.In June 1993, Kasparov was involved with the creation of the "Choice of Russia" bloc of parties and in 1996 took part in the election campaign of
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
. In 2001 he voiced his support for the Russian television channel NTV.
In 1997, Kasparov was awarded honorary citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
for his support of Bosnian people during the Bosnian War
The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...
.
2000s
In 2002, he called for Turkey to be admitted to the European Union if Turkey recognizes theArmenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...
.
After his retirement from chess in 2005, Kasparov turned to politics and created the United Civil Front
United Civil Front (UCF; russian: Объединённый гражданский фронт; ОГФ; ''Obyedinonnyy grazhdanskiy front'', ''OGF'') is a social movement in Russia founded and led by chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. In 2006–200 ...
, a social movement whose main goal is to "work to preserve electoral
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...
democracy in Russia". He has vowed to "restore democracy" to Russia by restoring the rule of law
The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. The rule of law is defined in the ''Encyclopedia Britannica ...
.
Kasparov was instrumental in setting up The Other Russia, a coalition which opposes Putin's government. The Other Russia has been boycotted by the leaders of Russia's mainstream opposition parties, Yabloko
The Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko (RUDP Yabloko) (russian: Росси́йская объединённая демократи́ческая па́ртия «Я́блоко», Rossíyskaya obyedinyónnaya demokratícheskaya pártiya "Y ...
and Union of Right Forces
)"Liberty, Property, Legality"(russian: "Свобода, Собственность, Законность")
, headquarters = Moscow
, newspaper = Just Cause
, membership_year = 2007
, membership = 57,410
, ideology ...
due to its inclusion of both nationalist and radical groups. Kasparov has criticized these groups as being secretly under the auspices of the Kremlin.
In April 2005, Kasparov was in Moscow at a promotional event when he was struck over the head with a chessboard he had just signed. The assailant was reported to have said "I admired you as a chess player, but you gave that up for politics" immediately before the attack. Kasparov has been the subject of a number of other episodes since, including police brutality and alleged harassment from the Russian secret service.
Kasparov helped organize the Saint Petersburg Dissenters' March on 3 March 2007 and Dissenters March, The March of the Dissenters on 24 March 2007, both involving several thousand people rallying against Putin and Saint Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko's policies.
In April 2007, Kasparov led a pro-democracy demonstration in Moscow. Soon after the demonstration's start, however, over 9,000 police descended on the group and seized almost everyone. Kasparov, who was briefly arrested by the Moscow police, was warned by the prosecution office on the eve of the march that anyone participating risked being detained. He was held for some 10 hours and then fined and released. He was later summoned by the FSB (Russia), FSB for violations of Russian anti-extremism laws.
Speaking about Kasparov, former KGB defector Oleg Kalugin in 2007 remarked, "I do not talk in details – people who knew them are all dead now because they were vocal, they were open. I am quiet. There is only one man who is vocal and he may be in trouble: [former] world chess champion [Garry] Kasparov. He has been very outspoken in his attacks on Putin and I believe that he is probably next on the list."
Kasparov gave speeches at think tanks such as the Hoover Institution.
On 30 September 2007, Kasparov entered the 2008 Russian presidential election, Russian presidential race, receiving 379 of 498 votes at a congress held in Moscow by The Other Russia. In October 2007, Kasparov announced his intention of standing for the Russian presidency as the candidate of the "The Other Russia (coalition), Other Russia" coalition and vowed to fight for a "democratic and just Russia". Later that month he traveled to the United States, where he appeared on several popular television programs, which were hosted by Stephen Colbert, Wolf Blitzer, Bill Maher, and Chris Matthews.
In November 2007, Kasparov and other protesters were detained by police at an Other Russia rally in Moscow, which drew 3,000 demonstrators to protest election rigging. Following an attempt by about 100 protesters to march through police lines to the electoral commission, which had barred Other Russia candidates from parliamentary elections, arrests were made. The Russian authorities stated a rally had been approved but not any marches, resulting in several detained demonstrators. He was subsequently charged with resisting arrest and organizing an unauthorized protest and given a jail sentence of five days. Kasparov appealed the charges, citing that he had been following orders given by the police, although it was denied. He was released from jail on 29 November. Putin criticized Kasparov at the rally for his use of English when speaking rather than Russian.
In December 2007, Kasparov announced that he had to withdraw his presidential candidacy due to inability to rent a meeting hall where at least 500 of his supporters could assemble. With the deadline expiring on that date, he explained it was impossible for him to run. Russian election laws required sufficient meeting hall space for assembling supporters. Kasparov's spokeswoman accused the government of using pressure to deter anyone from renting a hall for the gathering and said that the electoral commission had rejected a proposal that would have allowed for smaller gathering sizes rather than one large gathering at a meeting hall.
2010s–2020s
Kasparov was among the 34 first signatories and a key organizer of the online anti-Putin campaign "Putin must go", started on 10 March 2010. The campaign was begun by a coalition of opposition to Putin who regard his rule as lacking any rule of law. Within the text is a call to Russian law enforcement to ignore Putin's orders. By June 2011, there were 90,000 signatures. While the identity of the petition author remained anonymous, there was wide speculation that it was indeed Kasparov.Особое мнение. Гость: Владимир Рыжков. [Echo Moskvy], 12 March 2010 Kasparov was named Chairman of the Human Rights Foundation in 2011. On 31 January 2012, Kasparov hosted a meeting of opposition leaders planning a Protests following the 2011 Russian elections#4 February, mass march on 4 February 2012, the third major opposition rally held since the 2011 Russian legislative election, disputed State Duma elections of December 2011. Among other opposition leaders attending were Alexey Navalny and Putin must go#The rally of 12 December, Yevgenia Chirikova. On 17 August 2012, Kasparov was arrested and beaten outside of the Moscow court while attending the sentencing in the case involving the all-female punk band Pussy Riot. On 24 August, he was cleared of charges that he took part in an unauthorized protest against the conviction of three members of Pussy Riot. Judge Yekaterina Veklich said there were "no grounds to believe the testimony of the police". He could still face criminal charges over a police officer's claims that the opposition leader bit his finger while he was being detained. He later thanked all the bloggers and reporters who provided video evidence that contradicted the testimony of the police. Kasparov wrote in February 2013 that "fascism has come to Russia. ...Project Putin, just like the old Project Hitler, is but the fruit of a conspiracy by the ruling elite. Fascist rule was never the result of the free will of the people. It was always the fruit of a conspiracy by the ruling elites!" In April 2013, Kasparov joined in an HRF condemnation of Kanye West for having performed for Nursultan Nazarbayev, the leader of Kazakhstan in exchange for a $3 million paycheck, saying that West "has entertained a brutal killer and his entourage" and that his fee "came from the loot stolen from the Kazakhstan treasury". Kasparov denied rumors in April 2013 that he planned to leave Russia for good. "I found these rumors to be deeply saddening and, moreover, surprising," he wrote. "I was unable to respond immediately because I was in such a state of shock that such an incredibly inaccurate statement, the likes of which is constantly distributed by the Kremlin's propagandists, came this time from Ilya Yashin, a fellow member of the Opposition Coordination Council (KSO) and my former colleague from the Solidarity movement." In an April 2013 op-ed piece, Kasparov accused prominent Russian journalist Vladimir Pozner Jr., Vladimir Posner of failing to stand up to Putin and to earlier Russian and Soviet leaders. Kasparov was presented with the Morris B. Abram Human Rights Award, UN Watch's annual human-rights prize, in 2013. The organization praised him as "not only one of the world's smartest men" but "also among its bravest". At the 2013 Women in the World conference, Kasparov told ''The Daily Beast''s Michael C. Moynihan, Michael Moynihan that democracy no longer existed in what he called Russia's "dictatorship". Kasparov said at a press conference in June 2013 that if he returned to Russia he doubted he would be allowed to leave again, given Putin's ongoing crackdown against dissenters. "So for the time being," he said, "I refrain from returning to Russia." He explained shortly thereafter in an article for ''The Daily Beast'' that this had not been intended as "a declaration of leaving my home country, permanently or otherwise", but merely an expression of "the dark reality of the situation in Russia today, where nearly half the members of the opposition's Coordinating Council are under criminal investigation on concocted charges". He noted that the Moscow prosecutor's office was "opening an investigation that would limit my ability to travel", making it impossible for him to fulfill "professional speaking engagements" and hindering his "work for the nonprofit Kasparov Chess Foundation, which has centers in New York City, Brussels, and Johannesburg to promote chess in education". Kasparov further wrote in his June 2013 ''Daily Beast'' article that the mass protests in Moscow 18 months earlier against fraudulent Russian elections had been "a proud moment for me". He recalled that after joining the opposition movement in March 2005, he had been criticized for seeking to unite "every anti-Putin element in the country to march together regardless of ideology". Therefore, the sight of "hundreds of flags representing every group from liberals to nationalists all marching together for 'Russia Without Putin' was the fulfillment of a dream." Yet most Russians, he lamented, had continued to "slumber" even as Putin had "taken off the flimsy mask of democracy to reveal himself in full as the would-be KGB dictator he has always been". Kasparov responded with several sardonic Twitter postings to a September 2013 ''The New York Times'' op-ed by Putin. "I hope Putin has taken adequate protections," he tweeted. "Now that he is a Russian journalist his life may be in grave danger!" Also: "Now we can expect NY Times op-eds by Robert Mugabe, Mugabe on fair elections, Fidel Castro, Castro on free speech, & Kim Jong-un on prison reform. The Axis of Hypocrisy." In a 12 May 2013 op-ed for ''The Wall Street Journal'', Kasparov questioned reports that the Russian security agency, the Federal Security Service, FSB, had fully cooperated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI in the matter of the Boston Marathon bombing, Boston bombers. He noted that the elder bomber, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, had reportedly met in Russia with two known jihadists who "were killed in Dagestan by the Russian military just days before Tamerlan left Russia for the U.S." Kasparov argued, "If no intelligence was sent from Moscow to Washington" about this meeting, "all this talk of FSB cooperation cannot be taken seriously." He further observed, "This would not be the first time Russian security forces seemed strangely impotent in the face of an impending terror attack," pointing out that in both the Moscow theater hostage crisis, 2002 Moscow theater siege and the Beslan school siege, 2004 Beslan school attack, "there were FSB informants in both terror groups – yet the attacks went ahead unimpeded." Given this history, he wrote, "it is impossible to overlook that the Boston bombing took place just days after the U.S. Magnitsky Act, Magnitsky List was published, creating the first serious external threat to the Putin power structure by penalizing Russian officials complicit in human-rights crimes." In sum, Putin's "dubious record on counterterrorism and its continued support of terror sponsors Iran and Syria mean only one thing: common ground zero". Kasparov wrote in July 2013 about the trial in Kirov, Russia, Kirov of fellow opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who had been convicted "on concocted embezzlement charges", only to see the prosecutor, surprisingly, ask for his release the next day pending appeal. "The judicial process and the democratic process in Russia," wrote Kasparov, "are both elaborate mockeries created to distract the citizenry at home and to help Western leaders avoid confronting the awkward fact that Russia has returned to a police state". Still, Kasparov felt that whatever had caused the Kirov prosecutor's about-face, "my optimism tells me it was a positive sign. After more than 13 years of predictable repression under Putin, anything different is good." Kasparov had maintained a summer home in the Croatian city of Makarska. In February 2014, he applied for Croatian nationality law#Citizenship by naturalisation, citizenship by naturalisation in Croatia, according to media reports, claiming he was finding it increasingly difficult to live in Russia. According to an article in ''The Guardian'', Kasparov was "widely perceived" as having been a vocal supporter of Independence of Croatia, Croatian independence during the early 1990s. Later in February 2014, his application for naturalisation was approved and he had a meeting with Croatian prime minister Zoran Milanović on 27 February. Croatian press cited his "lobbying for Croatia in 1991" as grounds for the expedited naturalisation. In an interview for a Croatian daily published in February 2022, Kasparov said he was "very grateful" to Croatian president Zoran Milanović for the help rendered by him (then as prime minister) in obtaining Croatian citizenship. On 20 May 2022, Kasparov was designated as "foreign agent" by the Ministry of Justice (Russia), Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.
Political views
In September 2013, Kasparov wrote in ''Time (magazine), Time'' magazine that in Syria, Vladimir Putin, Putin and Bashar al-Assad "won by forfeit when President Obama, Prime Minister Cameron and the rest of the so-called leaders of the free world walked away from the table." Kasparov lamented the "new game at the negotiating table where Putin and Assad set the rules and will run the show under the protection of the U.N." Kasparov said in September 2013 that Russia was now a dictatorship. In the same month he told an interviewer that "Obama going to Russia now is dead wrong, morally and politically," because Putin's regime "is behind Assad". Kasparov has been outspoken against Russian gay propaganda law, Putin's antigay laws, describing them as "only the most recent encroachment on the freedom of speech and association of Russia's citizens" which the international community had largely ignored. Regarding Russia's hosting of the 2014 Winter Olympics, Kasparov explained in August 2013 that he had opposed Russia's bid from the outset, since it would "allow Vladimir Putin's cronies to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars" and "lend prestige to Putin's authoritarian regime". Kasparov did not support the Concerns and controversies at the 2014 Winter Olympics, proposed Sochi Olympics boycott—writing that it would "unfairly punish athletes"—but called for athletes and others to "transform Putin's self-congratulatory pet project into a spotlight that exposes his authoritarian rule" to the world. In September, Kasparov called upon politicians to refuse to attend the games and the public to pressure sponsors and the media, such that Coca-Cola, for example, could put "a Rainbow flag (LGBT), rainbow flag on each Coca-Cola can" and NBC could "do interviews with Russian gay activists or with Russian political activists". Kasparov also emphasized that although he was "still a Russian citizen", he had "good reason to be concerned about my ability to leave Russia if I returned to Moscow". Kasparov has spoken out against the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and has stated that control of Crimea should be returned to Ukraine after the overthrow of Putin without additional conditions. Kasparov's website was blocked by the Russian government censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, at the behest of the public prosecutor, allegedly due to Kasparov's opinions on the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, Crimean crisis. Kasparov's block was made in unison with several other notable Russian sites that were accused of inciting public outrage. Reportedly, several of the blocked sites received an affidavit noting their violations. However, Kasparov stated that his site had received no such notice of violations after its block. In 2015, a whole note on Kasparov was removed from a Russian language encyclopedia of greatest Soviet players after an intervention from "senior leadership".
In October 2015, Kasparov published a book titled ''Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped''. In the book, Kasparov likens Putin to Adolf Hitler, and explains the need for the West to oppose Putin sooner, rather than appeasing him and postponing the eventual confrontation. According to his publisher, "Kasparov wants this book out fast, in a way that has potential to influence the discussion during the United States presidential primary, primary season." In 2018, he said that "anything is better than Putin because that eliminates the probability of a Nuclear warfare, nuclear war. Putin is insane."
In the 2016 United States presidential election, Kasparov described Republican Party (United States), Republican Donald Trump as "a celebrity showman with racist leanings and authoritarian tendencies" and criticised Trump for calling for closer ties with Putin. After Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, called Putin a strong leader, Kasparov said that Putin is a strong leader "in the same way arsenic is a strong drink". He also criticised the economic policies of Democratic Party (United States), Democratic primary candidate Bernie Sanders, but showed respect for Sanders as "a charismatic speaker and a passionate believer in his cause". Kasparov opined that Henry Kissinger "was selling the Trump Administration on the idea of a mirror of 1972 [Richard Nixon's visit to China], except, instead of a Sino-U.S. alliance against the U.S.S.R., this would be a Russian-American alliance against China."
In 2017, he condemned the violence unleashed by the Spanish police against the 2017 Catalan independence referendum, independence referendum in Catalonia. He criticized the Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy and accused him of "betraying" the European promise of peace. After the 2017 Catalan regional election, Catalan regional election held later the same year, Kasparov wrote: "Despite unprecedented pressure from Madrid, Catalonian separatists won a majority. Europe must speak and help find a peaceful path toward resolution and avoid more violence". Kasparov recommended that Spain look to how Britain handled the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, adding: "look only at how Turkey and Iraq have treated the Kurdish nationalism, separatist Kurds. That cannot be the road for Spain and Catalonia."
Kasparov supports Armenian genocide recognition.
He welcomed the 2018 Armenian revolution, Velvet Revolution in Armenia in 2018, just a few days after it happened.
Kasparov condemned the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, assassination of Saudi Arabia, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In October 2018, he wrote that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Erdoğan's regime in Turkey "has jailed more journalists than any country in the world and scores of them remain in prison in Turkey. Since 2016, Turkey's intelligence agency has abducted at least 80 people in operations in 18 countries."
In 2021, Kasparov stated that "the only language that Putin understands is power, and his power is his money," arguing that the United States should target the bank accounts of Russian oligarchs to force Russia to rein in its Cybercrime, criminals' cyberattacks against American agencies and companies.
In 2022, Kasparov spoke out against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces on Twitter, stating "The only way this really ends is the fall of Putin's regime by collapse of Russian economy and defeat in Ukraine." He also believed that "pressure must be kept up" in terms of 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine#Sanctions, sanctions and condemnations against Russia's actions and joined with other prominent Russian figures-in-exile to form the Anti-War Committee of Russia. He said that Russia should be "thrown back into the Stone Age to make sure that the oil and gas industry and any other sensitive industries that are vital for survival of the regime cannot function without Western technological support."
Playing style
Kasparov's attacking style of play has been compared by many to Alexander Alekhine, Alekhine's. Kasparov has described his style as being influenced chiefly by Alekhine, Tal and Fischer. Kramnik has opined that "[Kasparov's] capacity for study is second to none", and said "There is nothing in chess he has been unable to deal with." Magnus Carlsen, whom Kasparov coached from 2009 to 2010, said of Kasparov, "I've never seen someone with such a feel for Glossary of chess#Dynamism, dynamics in complex positions." Kasparov was known for his extensive opening preparation and aggressive play in the opening.Olympiads and other major team events
Kasparov played in a total of eight Chess Olympiads. He represented the Soviet Union four times and Russia four times, following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. In his 1980 Olympiad debut, he became, at age 17, the youngest player to represent the Soviet Union or Russia at that level, a record which was broken by Vladimir Kramnik in 1992. In 82 games, he has scored (+50−3=29), for 78.7% and won a total of 19 medals, including team gold medals all eight times he competed.
For the 1994 Moscow Olympiad, he had a significant organizational role, in helping to put together the event on short notice, after Thessaloniki canceled its offer to host, a few weeks before the scheduled dates. Kasparov's detailed Olympiad record follows:
* 24th Chess Olympiad, Valletta 1980, USSR 2nd reserve, 9½/12 (+8−1=3), team gold, board bronze;
* 25th Chess Olympiad, Lucerne 1982, USSR 2nd board, 8½/11 (+6−0=5), team gold, board bronze;
* 27th Chess Olympiad, Dubai 1986, USSR 1st board, 8½/11 (+7−1=3), team gold, board gold, performance gold;
* 28th Chess Olympiad, Thessaloniki 1988, USSR 1st board, 8½/10 (+7−0=3), team gold, board gold, performance gold;
* 30th Chess Olympiad, Manila 1992, Russia board 1, 8½/10 (+7−0=3), team gold, board gold, performance silver;
* 31st Chess Olympiad, Moscow 1994, Russia board 1, 6½/10 (+4−1=5), team gold;
* 32nd Chess Olympiad, Yerevan 1996, Russia board 1, 7/9 (+5−0=4), team gold, board silver, performance gold;
* 35th Chess Olympiad, Bled 2002, Russia board 1, 7½/9 (+6−0=3), team gold, performance gold.
Kasparov made his international teams debut for the USSR at age 16 in the 1980 European Team Championship and played for Russia in the 1992 edition of that championship. He won a total of five medals. His detailed Euroteams record follows:
* Skara 1980, USSR 2nd reserve, 5½/6 (+5−0=1), team gold, board gold;
* Debrecen 1992, Russia board 1, 6/8 (+4−0=4), team gold, board gold, performance silver.
Kasparov also represented the USSR once in Youth Olympiad competition, sharing the title against Lev Psakhis who would become a Grand Master the following year, it remains one of Psakhis' most memorable games.
Records and achievements
Chess ratings achievements
Kasparov holds the record for the longest time as the List of FIDE chess world number ones, No. 1 rated player in the world—from 1984 to 2005 (Vladimir Kramnik shared the No. 1 ranking with him once, in the January 1996 FIDE rating list). He was also briefly ejected from the list following his split from FIDE in 1993, but during that time he headed the rating list of the rival Professional Chess Association, PCA. At the time of his retirement, he was still ranked No. 1 in the world, with a rating of 2812. His rating has fallen inactive since the January 2006 rating list. In January 1990, Kasparov achieved the (then) highest FIDE rating ever, passing 2800 and breaking Bobby Fischer's old record of 2785. By the July 1999 and January 2000 FIDE rating lists, Kasparov had reached a 2851 Elo rating system, Elo rating, at that time the highest rating ever achieved. He held that record for the highest rating ever achieved until Magnus Carlsen attained a new record high rating of 2861 in January 2013.Other records
Kasparov holds the record for most consecutive professional tournament victories, placing first or equal first in 15 individual tournaments from 1981 to 1990. The streak was broken by Vasyl Ivanchuk at Linares 1991, where Kasparov placed second, half a point behind him after losing their individual game. The details of this record winning streak follow: * Bishkek, Frunze 1981, USSR Championship, 12½/17, tie for 1st; *Bugojno
Bugojno ( sr-cyrl, Бугојно) is a town and municipality located in Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated on river Vrbas, to the northwest from Sarajevo. Acco ...
1982, 9½/13, 1st;
* Moscow 1982, Interzonal, 10/13, 1st;
* Nikšić 1983, 11/14, 1st;
* Brussels OHRA 1986, 7½/10, 1st;
* Brussels SWIFT 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, Jaén, Linares 1990, 8/11, 1st.
Kasparov went 9 years winning every super-tournament he played, in addition to contesting his series of 5 consecutive matches with Anatoly Karpov.
His only failure in this time period in either tournament or match play was in the World Chess Championship 1984 when the 21-year-old Kasparov was trailing (−5, +3 = 40) against the defending champion Karpov before the match was abruptly cancelled.
Later on in his career, Kasparov went on another long streak of consecutive super-tournament wins.
* Wijk aan Zee Hoogovens 1999, 10/13, 1st;
* Linares, Jaén, Linares 1999, 10½/14, 1st;
* Sarajevo 1999, 7/9, 1st;
* Wijk aan Zee Corus 2000, 9½/13, 1st;
* Linares, Jaén, Linares 2000, 6/10, tie for 1st;
* Sarajevo 2000, 8½/11, 1st;
* Wijk aan Zee Corus 2001, 9/13, 1st;
* Linares, Jaén, Linares 2001, 7.5/10, 1st;
* Astana 2001, 7/10, 1st;
* Linares, Jaén, Linares 2002, 8/12, 1st.
In these 10 consecutive classical super-tournaments wins, Kasparov had a score of 53 wins, 61 draws and 1 loss in 115 games with his only loss coming against Ivan Sokolov (chess player), Ivan Sokolov in Wijk aan Zee 1999.
Kasparov won the Chess Oscar
Chess Oscar was an international award given annually to the best chess player. The winner was selected by votes that were cast by chess journalists from across the world.
The traditional voting procedure was to request hundreds of chess journalis ...
a record eleven times.
Chess and computers
In 1983, Acorn Computers acted as one of the sponsors for Kasparov's Candidates semi-final match againstViktor Korchnoi
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi ( rus, Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й, p=vʲiktər lʲvovʲɪtɕ kɐrtɕˈnoj; 23 March 1931 – 6 June 2016) was a Soviet (before 1976) and Swiss (after 1980) chess grandmaster (GM) and chess writer. He ...
. Kasparov was awarded a BBC Micro, which he took back with him to Baku, making it perhaps the first Western-made microcomputer to reach Baku at that time. In 1985, computer chess magazine editor Frederic Friedel invited Kasparov to his house, and the two of them discussed how a chess database program would be useful for preparation. Two years later, Friedel founded Chessbase, and he gave a copy of the program to Kasparov, who started using it in his preparation.
In 1985, Kasparov played against thirty-two different chess computers in Hamburg, winning all games, albeit with some difficulty.
Several commercially available Kasparov computers were made in the 1980s, Saitek Kasparov Turbo King models, which were the gold standard of electronic chess machines.
On 22 October 1989, Kasparov defeated the chess computer Deep Thought (chess computer), Deep Thought in both games of a two-game match.
In December 1992, Kasparov visited Frederic Friedel in his hotel room in Cologne, and played 37 blitz games against Fritz (chess), Fritz 2 winning 24, drawing 4 and losing 9.
Kasparov cooperated in producing video material for the computer game ''Kasparov's Gambit'' released by Electronic Arts in November 1993. In April 1994, Intel acted as a sponsor for the first Professional Chess Association Grand Prix event in Moscow played a time control of 25 minutes per game. In May, Chessbase's Fritz (chess), Fritz 3 running on an Intel Pentium PC defeated Kasparov in their first in the Intel Express blitz tournament in Munich, but Kasparov managed to tie it for first, and then win the playoff with 3 wins and 2 draws. The next day, Kasparov lost to Fritz 3 again in a game on ZDF TV. In August, Kasparov was knocked out of the London Intel Grand Prix by Richard Lang's ChessGenius 2 program in the first round.
In 1995, during Kasparov's world title match with Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating of ...
, he unveiled an opening novelty that had been checked with a chess engine, an approach that would become increasingly common in subsequent years.
Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov, Kasparov played in a pair of six-game chess matches with an IBM supercomputer called Deep Blue
Deep Blue may refer to:
Film
* ''Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads'', a 1992 documentary film about Mississippi Delta blues music
* Deep Blue (2001 film), ''Deep Blue'' (2001 film), a film by Dwight H. Little
* Deep Blue (2003 ...
. The first match was played in Philadelphia in 1996 and won by Kasparov. The second was played in New York City in 1997 and won by Deep Blue. The 1997 match was the first defeat of a reigning world chess champion by a computer under tournament conditions.
In May 1997, an updated version of IBM Deep Blue, Deep Blue defeated Kasparov 3½–2½ in a highly publicized six-game match. The match was even after five games but Kasparov lost quickly in Deep Blue - Kasparov, 1997, Game 6, Game 6. This was the first time a computer had ever defeated a world champion in a match. A documentary film was made about this famous match entitled ''Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine''.
Kasparov said that he was "not well prepared" to face Deep Blue in 1997. He said that based on his "objective strengths" his play was stronger than that of Deep Blue. Kasparov claimed that several factors weighed against him in this match. In particular, he was denied access to Deep Blue's recent games, in contrast to the computer's team, which could study hundreds of Kasparov's.
After the loss, Kasparov said that he sometimes saw deep intelligence and creativity in the machine's moves, suggesting that during the second game, human chess players, in contravention of the rules, intervened. IBM denied that it cheated, saying the only human intervention occurred between games. The rules provided for the developers to modify the program between games, an opportunity they said they used to shore up weaknesses in the computer's play revealed during the course of the match. Kasparov requested printouts of the machine's log files but IBM refused, although the company later published the logs on the Internet. Much later, it was suggested that the behavior Kasparov noted had resulted from a glitch in the computer program. Although Kasparov wanted another rematch, IBM refused and had dismantled Deep Blue after its victory.
In January 2003, he engaged in a six-game classical time control match with a $1 million prize fund which was billed as the FIDE "Man vs. Machine" World Championship, against Deep Junior. The engine evaluated three million positions per second. After one win each and three draws, it was all up to the final game. After reaching a decent position, Kasparov offered a draw, which was soon accepted by the Deep Junior team. Asked why he offered the draw, Kasparov said he feared making a blunder.
Deep Junior was the first machine to beat Kasparov with black and at a standard time control.
In June 2003, Mindscape (company), Mindscape released the computer game ''Kasparov Chessmate'', with Kasparov himself listed as a co-designer.
In November 2003, he engaged in a four-game match against the computer program X3D Fritz, using a virtual board, 3D glasses and a speech recognition system. After two draws and one win apiece, the X3D Man–Machine match ended in a draw. Kasparov received $175,000 for the result and took home the golden trophy. Kasparov continued to criticize the blunder in the second game that cost him a crucial point. He felt that he had outplayed the machine overall and played well. "I only made one mistake but unfortunately that one mistake lost the game."
In 2021, Kasparov promoted a series of 32 Non-fungible token, NFTs that detailed important moments in his career; the top four NFTs sold for $14,342, $14,342, $11,439 and $11,439.
Books and other writings
Early writings
Kasparov has written books on chess. He published a controversial autobiography when still in his early 20s, originally titled ''Child of Change'', later retitled ''Unlimited Challenge''. This book was subsequently updated several times after he became World Champion. Its content is mainly literary, with a small chess component of key unannotated games. He published an annotated games collection in 1983, ''Fighting Chess: My Games and Career'', which has been updated several times in further editions. He also wrote a book annotating the games from his World Chess Championship 1985 victory, ''World Chess Championship Match: Moscow, 1985''. He has annotated his own games extensively for the Yugoslav '' Chess Informant'' series and for other chess publications. In 1982, he co-authored ''Batsford Chess Openings'' with British grandmasterRaymond Keene
Raymond Dennis Keene (born 29 January 1948) is an English chess grandmaster, a FIDE International Arbiter, a chess organiser, and a journalist and author. He won the British Chess Championship in 1971, and was the first player from England t ...
and this book was an enormous seller. It was updated into a second edition in 1989. He also co-authored two opening books with his trainer Alexander Nikitin in the 1980s for British publisher Pavilion Books, Batsfordon the Caro-Kann Defence#Classical / Capablanca Variation, Classical Variation of the Caro-Kann Defence and on the Sicilian Defence, Scheveningen Variation, Scheveningen Variation of the Sicilian Defence. Kasparov has also contributed extensively to the five-volume openings series ''Encyclopedia of Chess Openings'' from Chess Informant which Kasparov also wrote personal columns ''Garry's Choice'', the publication which is inarguably the beginning of modern chess.
In 2000, Kasparov co-authored ''Kasparov Against the World: The Story of the Greatest Online Challenge'' with grandmaster Daniel J. King, Daniel King. The 202-page book analyzes the 1999 Kasparov versus the World game, and holds the record for the longest analysis devoted to a single chess game.
''My Great Predecessors'' series
In 2003, the first volume of his five-volume work ''Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors'' was published. This volume, which deals with the world chess champions Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker,José Raúl Capablanca
José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he is widely renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play.
Capablanc ...
, Alexander Alekhine, and some of their strong contemporaries, has received lavish praise from some reviewers (including Nigel Short), while attracting criticism from others for historical inaccuracies and analysis of games directly copied from unattributed sources. Through suggestions on the book's website, most of these shortcomings were corrected in following editions and translations. Despite this, the first volume won the British Chess Federation's Book of the Year award in 2003. Volume two, covering Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov and Mikhail Tal appeared later in 2003. Volume three, covering Tigran Petrosian and Boris Spassky appeared in early 2004. In December 2004, Kasparov released volume four, which covers Samuel Reshevsky, Miguel Najdorf, and Bent Larsen (none of these three were World Champions), but focuses primarily on Bobby Fischer. The fifth volume, devoted to the chess careers of World Champion Anatoly Karpov and challenger Viktor Korchnoi, was published in March 2006.
''Modern Chess'' series
His book ''Revolution in the 70s'' (published in March 2007) covers "the openings revolution of the 1970s–1980s" and is the first book in a new series called "Modern Chess Series", which intends to cover his matches with Karpov and selected games. The book ''Revolution in the 70s'' concerns the revolution in opening theory that was witnessed in that decade. Such systems as the controversial (at the time) Hedgehog Defense, "Hedgehog" opening plan of passively developing the pieces no further than the first three ranks are examined in great detail. Kasparov also analyzes some of the most notable games played in that period. In a section at the end of the book, top opening theoreticians provide their own "take" on the progress made in opening theory in the 1980s.''Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov'' series
Kasparov published three volumes of his games, spanning his entire career.''Winter Is Coming''
In October 2015, Kasparov published a book titled ''Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped''. The title is a reference to the Home Box Office, HBO television series ''Game of Thrones''. In the book, Kasparov writes about the need for an organization composed solely of democratic countries to replace the United Nations. In an interview, he called the United Nations a "catwalk for dictators".Historical revision
Kasparov believes that the conventional history of civilization is radically incorrect. Specifically, he believes that the history of ancient civilizations is based on misdatings of events and achievements that actually occurred in the medieval period. He has cited several aspects of ancient history that he says are likely to be anachronisms. Kasparov has written in support of the pseudohistory, pseudohistorical New Chronology (Fomenko), New Chronology (Fomenko), although with some reservations. In 2001, he expressed a desire to devote his time to promoting the New Chronology after his chess career. "New Chronology is a great area for investing my intellect ... My analytical abilities are well placed to figure out what was right and what was wrong." "When I stop playing chess, it may well be that I concentrate on promoting these ideas... I believe they can improve our lives." Later, Kasparov renounced his support of Fomenko theories but reaffirmed his belief that mainstream historical knowledge is highly inconsistent.Other post-retirement writing
In 2007, he wrote ''How Life Imitates Chess'', an examination of the parallels between decision-making in chess and in the business world. In 2008, Kasparov published a sympathetic obituary forBobby Fischer
Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 11� ...
, writing: "I am often asked if I ever met or played Bobby Fischer. The answer is no, I never had that opportunity. But even though he saw me as a member of the evil chess establishment that he felt had robbed and cheated him, I am sorry I never had a chance to thank him personally for what he did for our sport."
He is the chief advisor for the book publisher Everyman Chess.
Kasparov works closely with Mig Greengard and his comments can often be found on Greengard's blog.
Kasparov collaborated with Max Levchin and Peter Thiel on ''The Blueprint'', a book calling for a revival of world innovation, planned to release in March 2013 from W. W. Norton & Company. The book was never released, as the authors disagreed on its contents.
Kasparov argued that chess has become the model for reasoning in the same way that the fruit fly ''Drosophila melanogaster'' became a model organism for geneticists, in an editorial comment on Google's AlphaZero chess-playing system. "I was pleased to see that AlphaZero had a dynamic, open style like my own," he wrote in late 2018.
Kasparov served as a consultant for the 2020 Netflix miniseries ''The Queen's Gambit (miniseries), The Queen's Gambit''. He gave an extended interview to ''Slate (magazine), Slate'' describing his contributions.
In 2020, Kasparov collaborated with Matt Calkins, founder and CEO of Appian Corporation, Appian, on ''HYPERAUTOMATION'', a book about Low-code development platform, low-code development and the future of business automation. Kasparov wrote the foreword where he discusses his experiences with human–machine relationships.
The New York Times published an essay by Kasparov titled "Garry Kasparov: What We Believe About Reality" in 2021. The essay is part of a series called ''The Big Ideas: What Do We Believe'', which also includes essays by Tanya Luhrmann, T.M. Luhrmann, Harry Reid, Ini Archibong, Errol Morris, and Carlo Rovelli, amongst others.
Bibliography
* ''Kasparov Teaches Chess'' (1984–85, Sport in the USSR Magazine; 1986, First Collier Books) * ''The Test of Time (Russian Chess)'' (1986, Pergamon Pr) * ''World Chess Championship Match: Moscow, 1985'' (1986, Everyman Chess) * ''Child of Change: An Autobiography'' (1987, Hutchinson) * ''London–Leningrad Championship Games'' (1987, Everyman Chess) * ''Unlimited Challenge'' (1990, Grove Pr) * ''The Sicilian Scheveningen'' (1991, B.T. Batsford Ltd) * ''The Queen's Indian Defence: Kasparov System'' (1991, B.T. Batsford Ltd) * ''Kasparov Versus Karpov, 1990'' (1991, Everyman Chess) * ''Kasparov on the King's Indian'' (1993, B.T. Batsford Ltd) * Kasparov, Garry. Jon Speelman and Bob Wade. 1995. ''Garry Kasparov's Fighting Chess.'' Henry Holt. * ''Garry Kasparov's Chess Challenge'' (1996, Everyman Chess) * ''Lessons in Chess'' (1997, Everyman Chess) * ''Kasparov Against the World: The Story of the Greatest Online Challenge'' (2000, Kasparov Chess Online) * ''My Great Predecessors Part I'' (2003, Everyman Chess) * ''My Great Predecessors Part II'' (2003, Everyman Chess) * ''Checkmate!: My First Chess Book'' (2004, Everyman Mindsports) * ''My Great Predecessors Part III'' (2004, Everyman Chess) * ''My Great Predecessors Part IV'' (2004, Everyman Chess) * ''My Great Predecessors Part V'' (2006, Everyman Chess) * ''How Life Imitates Chess'' (2007, William Heinemann Ltd.) * ''Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess, Part I: Revolution in the 70s'' (2007, Everyman Chess) * ''Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess, Part II: Kasparov vs Karpov 1975–1985'' (2008, Everyman Chess) * ''Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess, Part III: Kasparov vs Karpov 1986–1987'' (2009, Everyman Chess) * ''Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess, Part IV: Kasparov vs Karpov 1988–2009'' (2010, Everyman Chess) * ''Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov, part I'' (2011, Everyman Chess) * ''Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov, part II'' (2013, Everyman Chess) * ''Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov, part III'' (2014, Everyman Chess) * ''Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped'' (2015, Public Affairs) * ''Deep Thinking'' with Mig Greengard (2017, Public Affairs)Videos
* Kasparov, Garry, Nigel Short,Raymond Keene
Raymond Dennis Keene (born 29 January 1948) is an English chess grandmaster, a FIDE International Arbiter, a chess organiser, and a journalist and author. He won the British Chess Championship in 1971, and was the first player from England t ...
and Daniel King (chess player), Daniel King. 1993. ''Kasparov Short The Inside Story.'' Grandmaster Video.
* Kasparov, Garry, Jonathan Tisdall and Jim Plaskett. 2000. ''My Story.'' Grandmaster Video.
* Kasparov, Garry. 2004. ''How to Play the Queen's Gambit.'' Chessbase.
* Kasparov, Garry. 2005. ''How to Play the Najdorf.'' Chessbase. vol. 1 , vol. 2
* Kasparov, Garry. 2012. ''How I Became World Champion 1973–1985.'' Chessbase.
* Kasparov, Garry. 2017. ''Garry Kasparov Teaches Chess.'' Masterclass.com.
* Kasparov, Garry. 2022. ''Stand with Ukraine in the fight against evil'', Ted Talk.
Personal life
Kasparov has lived in New York City since 2013. He has been married three times: to Masha, with whom he had a daughter before divorcing; to Yulia, with whom he had a son before their 2005 divorce; and to Daria (Dasha), with whom he has two children, a daughter born in 2006 and a son born in 2015. Kasparov's wife manages his business activities worldwide as the founder of Kasparov International Management Inc.See also
* Kasparov Chess, Internet chess club. * Kasparov versus the World * List of chess games between Kasparov and Kramnik * Committee 2008 * PutinismReferences
Notes
Further reading
* * * * * * * *External links
* * * * Garry Kasparov"Man of the Year?"
''OpinionJournal.com, OpinionJournal'', 23 December 2007 * Edward Winter (chess historian), Edward Winter
List of Books About Fischer and Kasparov
*
Kasparov's "Deep Thinking" talk at Google
Garry Kasparov's best games analyzed in video
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