Garry Kasparov is a popular chess grandmaster and is consider to be the greatest chess player of all time.
Biography[]
Garry Kasparov was born in 1963 in Baku, Azerbaijan (in the former Soviet Union), as Garry Vajnshtejn (Weinstein). His father died when Garry was seven, and Garry switched his surname to his mother's maiden name, Kasparian (which russified as "Kasparov" not not sound foreign anymore).
Garry began to learn of chess in a chess school that was taught by Mikhail Botvinnik (who also became the teacher of Anatoly Karpov and Vladimir Kramnik). Garry formed a friendship with Botvinnik during his studies.
After competing in two tournaments at age 13 and 14, Garry entered the Sokolsky Memorial tournament and won, earning him the title of master. This tournament inspired Garry to play chess as a career, instead of a hobby.
Kasparov continued to compete in tournaments, hoping to one day challenge world champion Anatoly Karpov. After competing in a special tournament, Garry had the chance to take on Karpov and take his title. In the match between the two players, Karpov began to take the lead over Kasparov. But the match was suddenly closed by the FIDE president, and neither player had won. This was due to Karpov's health situation. He had been hospitalized several times during the match.
Another match began, and Kasparov won over Karpov with a score of 13-11. He earned the title of world champion. Karpov called for a rematch several times, but Kasparov emerged victorious.
Kasparov became sick of the FIDE. When Nigel Short challenged Garry's title, the match was held outside of the hold of the FIDE. For this reason, Kasparov was ejected from the FIDE and formed a new chess organization known as the Professional Chess Association. The match continued, and Kasparov became the PCA world champion.
This title was challenged by Vladimir Kramnik in the year 2000. Garry lost the match, and Kramnik became the PCA world champion.
Kasparov retired in 2005, saying he would stop playing competitively, but instead only for fun. After losing his final game to Vesselin Topalov.
Trivia[]
At his peak, his rating was 2851, the #2 highest rating under Magnus Carlsen's peak at 2882