Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov

Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein, 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, and political activist. He was ranked world No. 1 for 255 months overall for his career. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by Magnus Carlsen in 2013. He is widely regarded in the West as a symbol of opposition to Putin, and he was barred from the presidential ballot in 2008.

About Garry Kasparov in brief

Summary Garry KasparovGarry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein, 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, and political activist. He was ranked world No. 1 for 255 months overall for his career. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by Magnus Carlsen in 2013. He is widely regarded in the West as a symbol of opposition to Putin, and he was barred from the presidential ballot as the political climate in Russia makes it difficult for opposition candidates to organize. In 2008, he announced an intention to run as a candidate in that year’s Russian presidential race, but failure to find a sufficiently large rental space to assemble the number of supporters that is legally required to endorse such a candidacy led him to withdraw. In 2017, he founded the Renew Democracy Initiative, an American political organization promoting and defending liberal democracy in the U.S. and abroad. He currently lives in New York City. He has described himself as a \”self-appointed Christian\”, although \”very indifferent\” and identifies as Russian: “Although I’m half-Armenian, half-Jewish, I consider myself Russian because Russian is my native tongue, and I grew up with Russian culture” He has also said that after the victory at the Sokolsky Memorial Memorial he thought he had a very good shot at the World Championship. He won the Soviet Junior Championship in Tbilisi in 1976, scoring 7 points of 9, at age 13.

He repeated the feat the following year, winning with a score of 8. 5 of 9. In 1978, he won the 64-player Swiss tournament at Daugavpils over Ivan Vavilov over tiebreak. He became the youngest ever grandmaster at that level at age 15 in 1978. He participated in a tournament in Banja Luka with an oversight by the Russian Chess Federation, and won the sole qualifying place. He also qualified for the Soviet Chess Championship at 15, and was the youngest player ever to do so. In 1999, he became the first world champion to lose a match to a computer under standard time controls, when he lost to the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in a highly publicized match. He continued to hold the \”Classical\” World Chess Championship until his defeat by Vladimir Kramnik in 2000. In spite of losing the title, he continued winning tournaments and was the world’s highest-rated player when he retired from professional chess in 2005. In 2009, he was elected to the International Chess Association’s International Council. He holds records for consecutive professional tournament victories and Chess Oscars. He held the official FIDE world title until 1993, when a dispute with FIDE lead him to set up a rival organization, the Professional Chess Association. At the age of twelve, Garry, upon request of his mother Klara and with the consent of the family, adopted Klara’s surname Kasparova, which was done to avoid possible antisemitic tensions, which were common in the USSR.