U.S. Chess Mates - Gary Kasparov
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Garry Kasparov
Country Soviet Union, Russia
Born 13 April 1963
Title Grandmaster
World Champion
1985–1993 (undisputed)
1993–2000 (Classical)
FIDE rating 2812
Peak rating 2851 (July 1999)
Garry Kasparov (Russian: Га́рри Ки́мович Каспа́ров; Russian pronunciation: [ˈɡarʲɪ ˈkʲiməvʲɪtɕ kɐˈsparəf], born Garry Kimovich Weinstein, on
13 April 1963, in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, Soviet Union; now Azerbaijan) is a Russian former World Chess Champion, writer, and political
activist, widely regarded as the greatest chess players of all time.
Kasparov became the youngest ever undisputed World Chess Champion in 1985. He held the official FIDE world title until 1993, when a
dispute with FIDE led him to set up a rival organization, the Professional Chess Association. He continued to hold the "Classical" World Chess
Championship until his defeat by Vladimir Kramnik in 2000. He is also widely known for being the first world chess champion to lose a match
to a computer, when he lost to Deep Blue in 1997.
Kasparov's ratings achievements include being rated world #1 according to Elo rating almost continuously from 1986 until his retirement in 2005
and holding the all-time highest rating of 2851. He also holds records for consecutive tournament victories and Chess Oscars.
Since 1984, Kasparov has been a member of the Central Committee of Komsomol and a CPSU member.
Kasparov announced his retirement from professional chess on 10 March 2005, to devote his time to politics and writing. He formed the United
Civil Front movement, and joined as a member of The Other Russia, a coalition opposing the administration of Vladimir Putin. He was a
candidate for the 2008 Russian presidential race, but later withdrew. Widely regarded in the West as a symbol of opposition to Putin, Kasparov's
support in Russia is low.
Early career
Weinstein at age 11, Vilnius, 1974.
Garry Kasparov was born Garry Weinstein (Russian: Гарри Вайнштейн) in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, to an Armenian mother and Jewish father.
He first began the serious study of chess after he came across a chess problem set up by his parents and proposed a solution. His father died of
leukemia when he was seven years old. At the age of twelve, he adopted his mother's Armenian surname, Kasparyan, modifying it to a more
Russified version, Kasparov.
From age 7, Kasparov attended the Young Pioneer Palace and, at 10 began training at Mikhail Botvinnik's chess school under noted coach
Vladimir Makogonov. Makogonov helped develop Kasparov's positional skills and taught him to play the Caro-Kann Defence and the
Tartakower System of the Queen's Gambit Declined. Kasparov won the Soviet Junior Championship in Tbilisi in 1976, scoring 7 points of 9, at
age 13. He repeated the feat the following year, winning with a score of 8½ of 9. He was being trained by Alexander Shakarov during this time.
In 1978, Kasparov participated in the Sokolsky Memorial tournament in Minsk. He had been invited as an exception but took first place and
became a chess master. Kasparov has repeatedly said that this event was a turning point in his life, and that it convinced him to choose chess as
his career. "I will remember the Sokolsky Memorial as long as I live," he wrote. He has also said that after the victory, he thought he had a very
good shot at the World Championship.
He first qualified for the Soviet Chess Championship at age 15 in 1978, the youngest ever player at that level. He won the 64-player Swiss
system tournament at Daugavpils over tiebreak from Igor V. Ivanov, to capture the sole qualifying place.
Kasparov rose quickly through the FIDE (World Chess Federation) rankings. Starting with an oversight by the Russian Chess Federation, he
participated in a Grandmaster tournament in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina (then part of Yugoslavia), in 1979 while still unrated (the
federation thought it was a junior tournament). He 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 3 in the World, ex-champion Boris Spassky had 2630, while World Champion
Anatoly Karpov was at 2690–2700). The next year, 1980, he won the World Junior Chess Championship in Dortmund, West Germany. Later
that year, he made his debut as second reserve for the Soviet Union at the Chess Olympiad at La Valletta, Malta, and became a Grandmaster.
As a teenager, Kasparov twice tied for first place in the USSR Chess Championship, in 1980–81 and 1981–82. His first win in a superclass-level
international tournament was scored at Bugojno, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1982. He earned a place in the 1982 Moscow Interzonal tournament,
which he won, to qualify for the Candidates Tournament. At age 19, he was the youngest Candidate since Bobby Fischer, who was 15 when he
qualified in 1958. At this stage, he was already the #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 Kasparov defeated 6–3 (four wins, one loss). Politics
threatened Kasparov's semi-final against Viktor Korchnoi, which was scheduled to be played in Pasadena, California. Korchnoi had defected from
the Soviet Union in 1976, and was at that time the strongest active non-Soviet player. Various political maneuvers prevented Kasparov from
playing Korchnoi, and Kasparov forfeited the match. This was resolved by Korchnoi allowing the match to be replayed in London, along with
the previously scheduled match between Vasily Smyslov and Zoltan Ribli. The Kasparov-Korchnoi match was put together on short notice by
Raymond Keene. Kasparov lost the first game but won the match 7–4 (four wins, one loss).
In 1984, he won the Candidates' final 8½–4½ (four wins, no losses) against the resurgent former world champion Vasily Smyslov, at Vilnius,
thus qualifying to play Anatoly Karpov for the World Championship. That year he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), as
a member of which he was elected to the Central Committee of Komsomol in 1987.
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.
But Kasparov dug in and battled Karpov to 17 successive draws. He lost game 27, then fought back with another series of draws until game 32,
his first-ever win against the World Champion. Another 15 successive draws followed, through game 46; the previous record length for a world
title match had been 34 games, the match of Jose Capablanca 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, the President of 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 eventually came to a head in 1993 with Kasparov's complete break-away from FIDE.
World Champion
Kasparov after winning the FIDE World Championship title in 1985.
The second Karpov-Kasparov match in 1985 was organized in Moscow as the best of 24 games where the first player to win 12.5 points would
claim the title. The scores from the terminated match would not carry over. But in the event of a 12–12 draw, the title would remain with
Karpov. Kasparov secured the title at age 22 by a score of 13–11, winning the 24th game with Black, a Sicilian defence, on 9 November 1985.
This broke the existing record of youngest World Champion, held for over 20 years by Mikhail Tal, who was 23 when he defeated Mikhail
Botvinnik in 1960. Kasparov's win as Black in the 16th game has been recognized as one of the all-time masterpieces in chess history.
As part of the arrangements following the aborted 1984 match, Karpov had been granted (in the event of his defeat) a right to rematch. Another
match took place in 1986, hosted jointly in London and Leningrad, with each city hosting 12 games. At one point in the match, Kasparov opened
a three-point lead and looked well on his way to a decisive match victory. But Karpov fought back by winning three consecutive games to level
the score late in the match. At this point, Kasparov dismissed one of his seconds, Grandmaster Evgeny Vladimirov, accusing him of selling his
opening preparation to the Karpov team (as described in Kasparov's autobiography Unlimited Challenge, chapter Stab in the Back). Kasparov
scored one more win and kept his title by a final score of 12.5–11.5.
A fourth match for the world title took place in 1987 in Seville, as Karpov had qualified through the Candidates' Matches to again become the
official challenger. This match was very close, with neither player holding more than a one-point lead at any point. Kasparov was down one
point in the final game, needing a win to hold his title. A long tense game ensued in which Karpov blundered away a pawn just before the first
time control, and Kasparov eventually won a long ending. Kasparov retained his title as the match was drawn by a score of 12–12. (All this
meant that Kasparov had played Karpov four times in the period 1984–1987, a statistic unprecedented in chess. Matches organised by FIDE
had taken place every three years since 1948, and only Botvinnik had a right to a rematch before Karpov.)
A fifth match between Kasparov and Karpov was held in New York and Lyon in 1990, with each city hosting 12 games. Again, the result was a
close one with Kasparov winning by a margin of 12.5–11.5. In their five world championship matches, Kasparov had 21 wins, 19 losses, and 104
draws in 144 games.
Break with and ejection from FIDE
Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand in a publicity photo on top of the World Trade Center in New York, on September 11, 1995.
With the World Champion title in hand, Kasparov began fighting against FIDE — as Bobby Fischer had done 20 years earlier but this time from
within FIDE. Beginning in 1986, he created the Grandmasters Association (GMA), an organization to represent professional chess players and
give them more say in FIDE's activities. Kasparov assumed a leadership role. GMA's major achievement was in organizing a series of six World
Cup tournaments for the world's top players. A somewhat uneasy relationship developed with FIDE, and a sort of truce was brokered by Bessel
Kok, a Dutch businessman.
This stand-off lasted until 1993, by which time a new challenger had qualified through the Candidates cycle for Kasparov's next World
Championship defense: Nigel Short, a British Grandmaster who had defeated 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,[16] the world champion
and his challenger decided to play outside FIDE's jurisdiction, under another organization created by Kasparov called the Professional Chess
Association (PCA). This is where a great fracture in the lineage of World Champions began.
In an interview in 2007, Kasparov would call 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. Kasparov won convincingly by a score of 12.5–
7.5. The match considerably raised the profile of chess in the UK, with an unprecedented level of coverage on Channel 4. Meanwhile, FIDE
organized a World Championship match between Jan Timman (the defeated Candidates finalist) and former World Champion Karpov (a defeated
Candidates semifinalist), which Karpov won.
There were now two World Champions: PCA champion Kasparov, and FIDE champion Karpov. The title would remain split for 13 years.
Kasparov defended his title in a 1995 match against Viswanathan Anand at the World Trade Center in New York City. Kasparov won the match
by four wins to one, with thirteen draws. It was the last World Championship to be held under the auspices of the PCA, which collapsed when
Intel, one of its major backers, withdrew its sponsorship.
Kasparov tried to organize another World Championship match, under another organization, the World Chess Association (WCA) with Linares
organizer Luis Rentero. Alexei Shirov and Vladimir Kramnik played a candidates match to decide the challenger, which Shirov won in a surprising
upset. But when Rentero admitted that the funds required and promised had never materialized, the WCA collapsed.
This left Kasparov stranded, and yet another organization stepped in — BrainGames.com, headed by Raymond Keene. No match against Shirov
was arranged, and talks with Anand collapsed, so a match was instead arranged against Kramnik.
Losing the title and aftermath
Kasparov playing against Vladimir Kramnik in the Botvinnik Memorial match in Moscow, 2001.
The Kasparov-Kramnik match took place in London during the latter half of 2000. Kramnik had been a student of Kasparov's at the legendary
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 and achieved winning positions in Games 4 and 6. 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 8.5–
6.5, and for the first time in 15 years Kasparov had no world championship title. He became the first player to lose a world championship match
without winning a game since Emanuel Lasker lost to Capablanca in 1921.
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 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 victoriously, winning two games and drawing one.
Due to Kasparov's continuing strong results, and status as world #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, winner of the FIDE World Chess
Championship 2004, to be held in January 2005 in the United Arab Emirates. These also fell through due to 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 March 10, 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 may play in some rapid chess events for fun, but intends to spend more time on his books, including both the My Great
Predecessors series (see below) and a work on the links between decision-making in chess and in other areas of life, and will continue to involve
himself in Russian politics, which he views as "headed down the wrong path."
Kasparov 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, with whom he also has a child.
Post-retirement chess
On August 22, 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
4.5/6.
Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov played a 12-game match from September 21-24, 2009, in Valencia, Spain. It consisted of four rapid (or
semi rapid) games, in which Kasparov won 3-1 and eight blitz games, in which Kasparov also won 6-2, winning the match with total result 9-3.
The event took place exactly 25 years after the two players' legendary encounter at World Chess Championship 1984.
Kasparov has been coaching Magnus Carlsen since March 2009, in secret until September 2009.
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 =29 -3), 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, from, follows.
* Valletta 1980, USSR 2nd reserve, 9.5/12 (+8 =3 -1), team gold, board bronze;
* Lucerne 1982, USSR 2nd board, 8.5/11 (+6 =5 -0), team gold, board bronze;
* Dubai 1986, USSR 1st board, 8.5/11 (+7 =3 -1), team gold, board gold, performance gold;
* Thessaloniki 1988, USSR 1st board, 8.5/10 (+7 =3 -0), team gold, board gold, performance gold;
* Manila 1992, Russia board 1, 8.5/10 (+7 =3 -0), team gold, board gold, performance silver;
* Moscow 1994, Russia board 1, 6.5/10 (+4 =5 -1), team gold;
* Yerevan 1996, Russia board 1, 7/9 (+5 =4 -0), team gold, board gold, performance silver;
* Bled 2002, Russia board 1, 7.5/9 (+6 =3 -0), team gold, board 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, from, follows.
* Skara 1980, USSR 2nd reserve, 5.5/6 (+5 =1 -0), team gold, board gold;
* Debrecen 1992, Russia board 1, 6/8 (+4 =4 -0), team gold, board gold, performance silver.
Kasparov also represented the USSR once in Youth Olympiad competition, but the detailed data is incomplete at http://www.olimpbase.
org/1981k/1981in.html; the site http://www.chessmetrics.com, the Garry Kasparov player file, has his individual score from that event.
* Graz 1981, USSR board 1, 9/10 (+8 =2 -0), team gold.
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.[citation needed] The streak was broken by Vasily Ivanchuk at Linares 1991, where Kasparov placed 2nd, half a point behind him.
The details of this record winning streak follow:
* Frunze 1981, USSR Championship, 12.5/17, 1st=;
* Bugojno 1982, 9.5/13, 1st;
* Moscow 1982, Interzonal, 10/13, 1st;
* Niksic 1983, 11/14, 1st;
* Brussels OHRA 1986, 7.5/10, 1st;
* Brussels 1987, 8.5/11, 1st=;
* Amsterdam Optiebeurs 1988, 9/12, 1st;
* Belfort (World Cup) 1988, 11.5/15, 1st;
* Moscow 1988, USSR Championship, 11.5/17, 1st=;
* Reykjavik (World Cup) 1988, 11/17, 1st;
* Barcelona (World Cup) 1989, 11/16, 1st=;
* Skelleftea (World Cup) 1989, 9.5/15, 1st=;
* Tilburg 1989, 12/14, 1st;
* Belgrade (Investbank) 1989, 9.5/11, 1st;
* Linares 1990, 8/11, 1st.
Kasparov won the Chess Oscar a record eleven times.
Country Soviet Union, Russia
Born 13 April 1963
Title Grandmaster
World Champion
1985–1993 (undisputed)
1993–2000 (Classical)
FIDE rating 2812
Peak rating 2851 (July 1999)
Garry Kasparov (Russian: Га́рри Ки́мович Каспа́ров; Russian pronunciation: [ˈɡarʲɪ ˈkʲiməvʲɪtɕ kɐˈsparəf], born Garry Kimovich Weinstein, on
13 April 1963, in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, Soviet Union; now Azerbaijan) is a Russian former World Chess Champion, writer, and political
activist, widely regarded as the greatest chess players of all time.
Kasparov became the youngest ever undisputed World Chess Champion in 1985. He held the official FIDE world title until 1993, when a
dispute with FIDE led him to set up a rival organization, the Professional Chess Association. He continued to hold the "Classical" World Chess
Championship until his defeat by Vladimir Kramnik in 2000. He is also widely known for being the first world chess champion to lose a match
to a computer, when he lost to Deep Blue in 1997.
Kasparov's ratings achievements include being rated world #1 according to Elo rating almost continuously from 1986 until his retirement in 2005
and holding the all-time highest rating of 2851. He also holds records for consecutive tournament victories and Chess Oscars.
Since 1984, Kasparov has been a member of the Central Committee of Komsomol and a CPSU member.
Kasparov announced his retirement from professional chess on 10 March 2005, to devote his time to politics and writing. He formed the United
Civil Front movement, and joined as a member of The Other Russia, a coalition opposing the administration of Vladimir Putin. He was a
candidate for the 2008 Russian presidential race, but later withdrew. Widely regarded in the West as a symbol of opposition to Putin, Kasparov's
support in Russia is low.
Early career
Weinstein at age 11, Vilnius, 1974.
Garry Kasparov was born Garry Weinstein (Russian: Гарри Вайнштейн) in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, to an Armenian mother and Jewish father.
He first began the serious study of chess after he came across a chess problem set up by his parents and proposed a solution. His father died of
leukemia when he was seven years old. At the age of twelve, he adopted his mother's Armenian surname, Kasparyan, modifying it to a more
Russified version, Kasparov.
From age 7, Kasparov attended the Young Pioneer Palace and, at 10 began training at Mikhail Botvinnik's chess school under noted coach
Vladimir Makogonov. Makogonov helped develop Kasparov's positional skills and taught him to play the Caro-Kann Defence and the
Tartakower System of the Queen's Gambit Declined. Kasparov won the Soviet Junior Championship in Tbilisi in 1976, scoring 7 points of 9, at
age 13. He repeated the feat the following year, winning with a score of 8½ of 9. He was being trained by Alexander Shakarov during this time.
In 1978, Kasparov participated in the Sokolsky Memorial tournament in Minsk. He had been invited as an exception but took first place and
became a chess master. Kasparov has repeatedly said that this event was a turning point in his life, and that it convinced him to choose chess as
his career. "I will remember the Sokolsky Memorial as long as I live," he wrote. He has also said that after the victory, he thought he had a very
good shot at the World Championship.
He first qualified for the Soviet Chess Championship at age 15 in 1978, the youngest ever player at that level. He won the 64-player Swiss
system tournament at Daugavpils over tiebreak from Igor V. Ivanov, to capture the sole qualifying place.
Kasparov rose quickly through the FIDE (World Chess Federation) rankings. Starting with an oversight by the Russian Chess Federation, he
participated in a Grandmaster tournament in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina (then part of Yugoslavia), in 1979 while still unrated (the
federation thought it was a junior tournament). He 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 3 in the World, ex-champion Boris Spassky had 2630, while World Champion
Anatoly Karpov was at 2690–2700). The next year, 1980, he won the World Junior Chess Championship in Dortmund, West Germany. Later
that year, he made his debut as second reserve for the Soviet Union at the Chess Olympiad at La Valletta, Malta, and became a Grandmaster.
As a teenager, Kasparov twice tied for first place in the USSR Chess Championship, in 1980–81 and 1981–82. His first win in a superclass-level
international tournament was scored at Bugojno, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1982. He earned a place in the 1982 Moscow Interzonal tournament,
which he won, to qualify for the Candidates Tournament. At age 19, he was the youngest Candidate since Bobby Fischer, who was 15 when he
qualified in 1958. At this stage, he was already the #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 Kasparov defeated 6–3 (four wins, one loss). Politics
threatened Kasparov's semi-final against Viktor Korchnoi, which was scheduled to be played in Pasadena, California. Korchnoi had defected from
the Soviet Union in 1976, and was at that time the strongest active non-Soviet player. Various political maneuvers prevented Kasparov from
playing Korchnoi, and Kasparov forfeited the match. This was resolved by Korchnoi allowing the match to be replayed in London, along with
the previously scheduled match between Vasily Smyslov and Zoltan Ribli. The Kasparov-Korchnoi match was put together on short notice by
Raymond Keene. Kasparov lost the first game but won the match 7–4 (four wins, one loss).
In 1984, he won the Candidates' final 8½–4½ (four wins, no losses) against the resurgent former world champion Vasily Smyslov, at Vilnius,
thus qualifying to play Anatoly Karpov for the World Championship. That year he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), as
a member of which he was elected to the Central Committee of Komsomol in 1987.
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.
But Kasparov dug in and battled Karpov to 17 successive draws. He lost game 27, then fought back with another series of draws until game 32,
his first-ever win against the World Champion. Another 15 successive draws followed, through game 46; the previous record length for a world
title match had been 34 games, the match of Jose Capablanca 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, the President of 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 eventually came to a head in 1993 with Kasparov's complete break-away from FIDE.
World Champion
Kasparov after winning the FIDE World Championship title in 1985.
The second Karpov-Kasparov match in 1985 was organized in Moscow as the best of 24 games where the first player to win 12.5 points would
claim the title. The scores from the terminated match would not carry over. But in the event of a 12–12 draw, the title would remain with
Karpov. Kasparov secured the title at age 22 by a score of 13–11, winning the 24th game with Black, a Sicilian defence, on 9 November 1985.
This broke the existing record of youngest World Champion, held for over 20 years by Mikhail Tal, who was 23 when he defeated Mikhail
Botvinnik in 1960. Kasparov's win as Black in the 16th game has been recognized as one of the all-time masterpieces in chess history.
As part of the arrangements following the aborted 1984 match, Karpov had been granted (in the event of his defeat) a right to rematch. Another
match took place in 1986, hosted jointly in London and Leningrad, with each city hosting 12 games. At one point in the match, Kasparov opened
a three-point lead and looked well on his way to a decisive match victory. But Karpov fought back by winning three consecutive games to level
the score late in the match. At this point, Kasparov dismissed one of his seconds, Grandmaster Evgeny Vladimirov, accusing him of selling his
opening preparation to the Karpov team (as described in Kasparov's autobiography Unlimited Challenge, chapter Stab in the Back). Kasparov
scored one more win and kept his title by a final score of 12.5–11.5.
A fourth match for the world title took place in 1987 in Seville, as Karpov had qualified through the Candidates' Matches to again become the
official challenger. This match was very close, with neither player holding more than a one-point lead at any point. Kasparov was down one
point in the final game, needing a win to hold his title. A long tense game ensued in which Karpov blundered away a pawn just before the first
time control, and Kasparov eventually won a long ending. Kasparov retained his title as the match was drawn by a score of 12–12. (All this
meant that Kasparov had played Karpov four times in the period 1984–1987, a statistic unprecedented in chess. Matches organised by FIDE
had taken place every three years since 1948, and only Botvinnik had a right to a rematch before Karpov.)
A fifth match between Kasparov and Karpov was held in New York and Lyon in 1990, with each city hosting 12 games. Again, the result was a
close one with Kasparov winning by a margin of 12.5–11.5. In their five world championship matches, Kasparov had 21 wins, 19 losses, and 104
draws in 144 games.
Break with and ejection from FIDE
Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand in a publicity photo on top of the World Trade Center in New York, on September 11, 1995.
With the World Champion title in hand, Kasparov began fighting against FIDE — as Bobby Fischer had done 20 years earlier but this time from
within FIDE. Beginning in 1986, he created the Grandmasters Association (GMA), an organization to represent professional chess players and
give them more say in FIDE's activities. Kasparov assumed a leadership role. GMA's major achievement was in organizing a series of six World
Cup tournaments for the world's top players. A somewhat uneasy relationship developed with FIDE, and a sort of truce was brokered by Bessel
Kok, a Dutch businessman.
This stand-off lasted until 1993, by which time a new challenger had qualified through the Candidates cycle for Kasparov's next World
Championship defense: Nigel Short, a British Grandmaster who had defeated 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,[16] the world champion
and his challenger decided to play outside FIDE's jurisdiction, under another organization created by Kasparov called the Professional Chess
Association (PCA). This is where a great fracture in the lineage of World Champions began.
In an interview in 2007, Kasparov would call 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. Kasparov won convincingly by a score of 12.5–
7.5. The match considerably raised the profile of chess in the UK, with an unprecedented level of coverage on Channel 4. Meanwhile, FIDE
organized a World Championship match between Jan Timman (the defeated Candidates finalist) and former World Champion Karpov (a defeated
Candidates semifinalist), which Karpov won.
There were now two World Champions: PCA champion Kasparov, and FIDE champion Karpov. The title would remain split for 13 years.
Kasparov defended his title in a 1995 match against Viswanathan Anand at the World Trade Center in New York City. Kasparov won the match
by four wins to one, with thirteen draws. It was the last World Championship to be held under the auspices of the PCA, which collapsed when
Intel, one of its major backers, withdrew its sponsorship.
Kasparov tried to organize another World Championship match, under another organization, the World Chess Association (WCA) with Linares
organizer Luis Rentero. Alexei Shirov and Vladimir Kramnik played a candidates match to decide the challenger, which Shirov won in a surprising
upset. But when Rentero admitted that the funds required and promised had never materialized, the WCA collapsed.
This left Kasparov stranded, and yet another organization stepped in — BrainGames.com, headed by Raymond Keene. No match against Shirov
was arranged, and talks with Anand collapsed, so a match was instead arranged against Kramnik.
Losing the title and aftermath
Kasparov playing against Vladimir Kramnik in the Botvinnik Memorial match in Moscow, 2001.
The Kasparov-Kramnik match took place in London during the latter half of 2000. Kramnik had been a student of Kasparov's at the legendary
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 and achieved winning positions in Games 4 and 6. 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 8.5–
6.5, and for the first time in 15 years Kasparov had no world championship title. He became the first player to lose a world championship match
without winning a game since Emanuel Lasker lost to Capablanca in 1921.
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 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 victoriously, winning two games and drawing one.
Due to Kasparov's continuing strong results, and status as world #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, winner of the FIDE World Chess
Championship 2004, to be held in January 2005 in the United Arab Emirates. These also fell through due to 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 March 10, 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 may play in some rapid chess events for fun, but intends to spend more time on his books, including both the My Great
Predecessors series (see below) and a work on the links between decision-making in chess and in other areas of life, and will continue to involve
himself in Russian politics, which he views as "headed down the wrong path."
Kasparov 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, with whom he also has a child.
Post-retirement chess
On August 22, 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
4.5/6.
Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov played a 12-game match from September 21-24, 2009, in Valencia, Spain. It consisted of four rapid (or
semi rapid) games, in which Kasparov won 3-1 and eight blitz games, in which Kasparov also won 6-2, winning the match with total result 9-3.
The event took place exactly 25 years after the two players' legendary encounter at World Chess Championship 1984.
Kasparov has been coaching Magnus Carlsen since March 2009, in secret until September 2009.
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 =29 -3), 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, from, follows.
* Valletta 1980, USSR 2nd reserve, 9.5/12 (+8 =3 -1), team gold, board bronze;
* Lucerne 1982, USSR 2nd board, 8.5/11 (+6 =5 -0), team gold, board bronze;
* Dubai 1986, USSR 1st board, 8.5/11 (+7 =3 -1), team gold, board gold, performance gold;
* Thessaloniki 1988, USSR 1st board, 8.5/10 (+7 =3 -0), team gold, board gold, performance gold;
* Manila 1992, Russia board 1, 8.5/10 (+7 =3 -0), team gold, board gold, performance silver;
* Moscow 1994, Russia board 1, 6.5/10 (+4 =5 -1), team gold;
* Yerevan 1996, Russia board 1, 7/9 (+5 =4 -0), team gold, board gold, performance silver;
* Bled 2002, Russia board 1, 7.5/9 (+6 =3 -0), team gold, board 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, from, follows.
* Skara 1980, USSR 2nd reserve, 5.5/6 (+5 =1 -0), team gold, board gold;
* Debrecen 1992, Russia board 1, 6/8 (+4 =4 -0), team gold, board gold, performance silver.
Kasparov also represented the USSR once in Youth Olympiad competition, but the detailed data is incomplete at http://www.olimpbase.
org/1981k/1981in.html; the site http://www.chessmetrics.com, the Garry Kasparov player file, has his individual score from that event.
* Graz 1981, USSR board 1, 9/10 (+8 =2 -0), team gold.
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.[citation needed] The streak was broken by Vasily Ivanchuk at Linares 1991, where Kasparov placed 2nd, half a point behind him.
The details of this record winning streak follow:
* Frunze 1981, USSR Championship, 12.5/17, 1st=;
* Bugojno 1982, 9.5/13, 1st;
* Moscow 1982, Interzonal, 10/13, 1st;
* Niksic 1983, 11/14, 1st;
* Brussels OHRA 1986, 7.5/10, 1st;
* Brussels 1987, 8.5/11, 1st=;
* Amsterdam Optiebeurs 1988, 9/12, 1st;
* Belfort (World Cup) 1988, 11.5/15, 1st;
* Moscow 1988, USSR Championship, 11.5/17, 1st=;
* Reykjavik (World Cup) 1988, 11/17, 1st;
* Barcelona (World Cup) 1989, 11/16, 1st=;
* Skelleftea (World Cup) 1989, 9.5/15, 1st=;
* Tilburg 1989, 12/14, 1st;
* Belgrade (Investbank) 1989, 9.5/11, 1st;
* Linares 1990, 8/11, 1st.
Kasparov won the Chess Oscar a record eleven times.
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