Product Code Database
Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, political activist and writer, who was the World Chess Champion from 1985 to 2000. His peak FIDE chess rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by Magnus Carlsen in 2013. From 1984 until his retirement from regular competitive chess in 2005, Kasparov was ranked the world's No. 1 player for a record 255 months overall. Kasparov also holds records for the most consecutive professional tournament victories (15) and (11).
Kasparov became the youngest undisputed world champion in 1985 at age 22 by defeating then-champion Anatoly Karpov, a record he held until 2024.Ruslan Ponomariov won the disputed FIDE title, at the age of 18, when the world title was split He defended the title against Karpov three times, in 1986, 1987 and 1990. Kasparov held the official FIDE world title until 1993, when a dispute with FIDE led him to set up a rival organisation, the Professional Chess Association. In 1997, he became the first world champion to lose a match to a computer under standard when he was defeated by the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in a highly publicised match. He continued to hold the "Classical" world title until his defeat by Vladimir Kramnik in 2000. Despite losing the PCA title, he continued winning tournaments and was the world's highest-rated player at the time of his official retirement. Kasparov coached Carlsen in 2009–2010, during which time Carlsen rose to world No. 1. Kasparov stood unsuccessfully for FIDE president in 2013–2014.
Since retiring from chess, Kasparov has devoted his time to writing and politics. His book series My Great Predecessors, first published in 2003, details the history and games of the world champion chess players who preceded him. He formed the United Civil Front movement and was a member of The Other Russia, a coalition opposing the administration and Putinism of Vladimir Putin. 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. Gessen describes some of the obstacles Kasparov encountered during the attempt to build his campaign: his chartered plane was refused airport access; hotels were advised not to house him; event attendees and organisers were threatened; secret police were a constant presence; a "total television blackout" was enforced. These measures, Gessen concludes, kept the Kasparov movement from growing."Independent opposition candidates faced many obstacles. In February, Putin signed a law requiring all independent candidates to collect signatures from 3 percent of their constituents. The city didn't finalize the boundaries of the districts – which expanded from 35 to 45 – until April. Then in May, two of the original 'For Moscow' members were slapped with fraud charges, effectively ending their campaigns.paragraph The remaining would-be candidates had a few weeks in the summer to collect approximately 5,000 signatures. It proved an elusive goal for most coalition members." Following the Russian mass protests that began in 2011, he announced in June 2013 that he had left Russia for the immediate future out of fear of persecution. Following his flight from Russia, he lived in New York City with his family. In 2014, he obtained Croatian citizenship and has maintained a residence in Podstrana near Split. GARI KASPAROV: 'Vladimir Putin ima previše problema da bi nastavio svoje agresivne politike na području Balkana' Nacional, 22 December 2020, # 1183, p. 51.
Kasparov was chairman of the Human Rights Foundation from 2011 to 2024. In 2017, he founded the Renew Democracy Initiative (RDI), an American political organisation promoting and defending liberal democracy in the U.S. and abroad. He serves as chairman of the group.
When he was seven years old, his father died of leukaemia. 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, Kasparov, upon the request of his mother Klara and with the consent of the family, adopted Klara's surname Kasparov. (1996). 9780192800497, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192800497
Kasparov and his family had to flee Baku pogrom in January 1990.
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 7/9 points, at age 13. He repeated the feat the following year, winning with a score of 8.5/9. He was being coached by Alexander Shakarov during this time. Extract of page 11
Kasparov first qualified for the USSR Chess Championship at age 15 in 1978, the youngest-ever player at that level, by winning a 64-player Swiss system tournament at Daugavpils. He scored 8.5/17 in that Soviet championship.
Kasparov's first international tournament was in Banja Luka, Yugoslavia, in April 1979 while he was still unrated. Kasparov won this high-class tournament by 2 points, Event Details: Banja Luka, 1979, Chessmetrics, 2005 emerging with a provisional rating of 2545, enough to rank him equal 40th in the world. The next year, 1980, he won the World Junior Chess Championship in Dortmund, West Germany. Later that year, he made his debut as the second reserve for the Soviet Union at the Chess Olympiad at Valletta, Malta, and became a Grandmaster. He quickly rose up the world rankings: equal 15th in January 1980, sixth in January 1981, equal fourth in July 1981, fourth in January 1982 and second behind Karpov in July 1982.
As a teenager, Kasparov shared the USSR Chess Championship in 1981 with Lev Psakhis (12.5/17), although Psakhis won their game. 'USSR Championship 1981" . Chessgames, undated, retrieved 25 February 2023 His first win in a superclass-level international tournament was scored at Bugojno, Yugoslavia, 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.
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 Victor Korchnoi, which was scheduled to be played in Pasadena, California. The Soviet authorities would not allow Kasparov to travel to the United States, meaning that Korchnoi could have had a walkover. This decision was met with disapproval by the chess world, and Korchnoi agreed to the match to being played in London instead, 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. 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 Kramnik in January 1996. That same year, he won the Candidates' final 8½–4½ (four wins, no losses) against former world champion Smyslov at Vilnius, thus qualifying to play Karpov for the world championship.
In an unexpected turn of events, there followed a series of 17 successive draws, some relatively short, others drawn in unsettled positions. Kasparov lost game 27 (5–0), then fought back with another series of draws until game 32, earning his first-ever win against the world champion and bringing the score to 5–1. Another 14 successive draws followed, through game 46; the previous record length for a world title match had been 34 games (José Raúl Capablanca vs. Alexander Alekhine in 1927). Extract of page 360
Kasparov won games 47 and 48 to bring the score to 5–3 in Karpov's favour. Then the match was ended without result by FIDE President Florencio Campomanes, 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, Campomanes cited the health of the players, which had been strained by the length of the match. According to grandmasters Boris Gulko and Korchnoi, and historians Vladimir Popow and Yuri Felshtinsky in their The KGB Plays Chess book, Campomanes had been a KGB agent and was tasked with preventing Karpov's defeat at all costs; and the match was terminated while Karpov was still ahead to avoid the impression that the decision had been made for his benefit. US Grandmaster Andy Soltis said it was "absurd" to suggest that Campomones was a KGB agent, but thought that his decisions in the match favoured Karpov. Kasparov, Karpov and the KGB? Four decades on from the most controversial chess match of all time, CNN, Feb 15, 2025
The match became the first, and so far only, world championship match to be abandoned without a result. Kasparov's relations with Campomanes and FIDE became strained, and matters came to a head in 1993 with Kasparov's complete break-away from FIDE.
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 Saint Petersburg,London-Leningrad Championship Games by Garry Kasparov 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 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 Chess opening preparation to the Karpov team. Kasparov's Child of Change, Edward Winter, 30 March, 2025 World Chess Championship 1986 Kasparov - Karpov Kasparov scored one more win and kept his title by a score of 12½–11½.
A fourth match for the world title took place in 1987 in Seville, as Karpov had qualified through the Candidates' Matches to become the official challenger once again. This match was also very close, with neither player holding more than a one-point lead at any time. With one game left, Kasparov was down a point 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. Kasparov then won a long ending to retain the title on a 12–12 scoreline.
Kasparov and Karpov met for a fifth time, on this occasion in New York City and Lyon 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.
This stand-off lasted until 1993, by which time a new challenger had qualified through the Candidates cycle: Nigel Short, a British grandmaster who had defeated Karpov in a qualifying match and then Jan Timman in the finals held in early 1993. 'Candidates final 1993' . 365Chess.com, undated, retrieved 10 March 2023 After a confusing and compressed bidding process produced lower financial estimates than expected,Cathy Forbes, Nigel Short: Quest for the Crown (Everyman, 1993) the world champion and his challenger both rejected FIDE's bid for an August match in Manchester and decided to play outside FIDE's jurisdiction. Their match took place under the auspices of the Professional Chess Association (PCA), an organisation established by Kasparov and Short. 'Professional Chess Association'. Britannica, undated, retrieved 10 March 2023 At this point, a fracture occurred in the lineage of the FIDE World Championship. In an interview in 2007, Kasparov called the break with FIDE in 1993 the worst mistake of his career, as it hurt the game in the long run. 'My decision to break away from fide was a mistake' , DNA, 10 September 2007. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
Kasparov and Short were ejected from FIDE and played their well-sponsored match in London in September 1993. Kasparov won convincingly by a score of 12½–7½. The match considerably raised the profile of chess in the UK, with a substantial level of coverage on Channel 4. Meanwhile, FIDE organised its world championship match between Timman (the defeated Candidates finalist) and former world champion Karpov (a defeated Candidates semi-finalist), which Karpov won.
FIDE removed Kasparov and Short from its rating list. Subsequently, the PCA created a rating list of its own, which featured all the world's 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 PCA 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.
Kasparov tried to organise another world championship match under a different organisation, the World Chess Association (WCA), with Linares organiser Luis Rentero. Alexei Shirov and Kramnik 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 materialised, the WCA collapsed. Yet another body stepped in, BrainGames.com, headed by Raymond Keene. After a match with Shirov could not be agreed by BrainGames.com and talks with Anand collapsed, a match was instead arranged against Kramnik.
During this period, Kasparov was approached by Oakham School 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.
In 1999, he played a well-known game against Topalov wherein he won after a rook sacrifice and king hunt.
Kasparov found that Kramnik was better prepared. As White, Kasparov could not crack the passive but solid Berlin Defence in the Ruy Lopez, and Kramnik managed to draw all his games as Black. As black, Kasparov lost two (games 2 and 10), meaning Kramnik won the match 8½–6½, and Kramnik succeeded Kasparov as the Classical World Champion.
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 Champion. In 2001, he refused an invitation to the 2002 Candidates Tournament to choose Kramnik's first challenger, 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. Kasparov suffered a surprise loss (1.5 – 2.5). Anatoly Karpov wins X3D Rapid Match , ChessBase News, 21 December 2002
Because of Kasparov's continuing strong results and status as FIDE world No. 1, 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 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 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 arrange a match and had decided to stop all efforts to become undisputed world champion once more.
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 in Russian politics, which he viewed as "headed down the wrong path."
Kasparov and Karpov played a 12-game match from 21 to 24 September 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 won 6–2, winning the match with a final result of 9–3. The event took place exactly 25 years after the two players' unfinished encounter at World Chess Championship 1984.
Kasparov coached Carlsen for approximately one year, beginning in February 2009. The collaboration remained secret until September 2009. Under Kasparov's tutelage, in October 2009 Carlsen 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, Carlsen indicated that he would remain in contact and that he would continue to attend training sessions with Kasparov;" Magnus Carlsen on his chess career ", ChessBase News, 15 March 2010. however, no further training sessions were held, and the cooperation fizzled out over the course of the spring."NIC's Cafe: Last Call", New in Chess Magazine, 2011/07, p. 6. In 2011, Carlsen said: "Thanks to Kasparov I began to understand a whole class of positions better. ... Kasparov gave me a great deal of practical help." In 2012, when asked what he learnt from working with Kasparov, Carlsen answered: "Complex positions. That was the most important thing."
In May 2010, Kasparov played and won 30 games simultaneously against players at Tel Aviv University in Israel. In the same month, it was revealed that he had aided Anand in his preparation for the World Chess Championship 2010 against challenger Veselin Topalov. Anand won the match 6½–5½ to retain the title.
Kasparov began training the U.S. grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura in January 2011. 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.Peterson, Macauley. "The Spirit of Saint Louis" New in Chess Magazine, 2001/07, p. 12. In December 2011, it was announced that their 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, in Clichy (France), which Kasparov won 1½–½. The second was a longer match consisting of eight blitz games played on 9 October, against English grandmaster 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.
On 25 and 26 April 2015, Kasparov played a mini-match against Short. The match consisted of two rapid games and eight blitz games and was contested over the course of two days. Commentators GM Maurice Ashley and Alejandro Ramírez remarked how Kasparov was an 'initiative hog' throughout the match, consistently not allowing Short to gain any foothold in the games. Kasparov won the match decisively (8½–1½), winning all five games on the second day. These victories were characterised by aggressive pawn moves breaking up Short's position, thereby allowing Kasparov's pieces to achieve positional superiority.
Kasparov played and won all nineteen games of a simultaneous exhibition in Pula, Croatia on 19 August 2015. At the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis on 28 and 29 April 2016, Kasparov played a 6-round exhibition blitz round-robin tournament with Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Nakamura in an event called the Ultimate Blitz Challenge. He finished the tournament third with 9.5/18, behind Nakamura (11/18) and 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. He won all games.
Kasparov participated in the inaugural St. Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament from 14 to 19 August 2017, scoring 3.5/9 in the rapid and 9/18 in the blitz, representing Croatia. He finished eighth in a strong field of ten, including Nakamura, Caruana, former world champion Anand and the eventual winner, Levon Aronian. Kasparov promised that any tournament money he earned would go towards charities to promote chess in Africa.
In 2020, he participated in 9LX, a Chess 960 tournament, and finished eighth of a field of ten players. His game against Carlsen, who tied for first place, was drawn.
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 the Grand Chess Tour 2021 event in Zagreb, Croatia. He performed poorly, however, scoring 0.5/9 on the first day and 2/9 on the second day, getting his only win against Jorden Van Foreest. He also participated in 9LX 2, finishing fifth in a field of ten players, with a score of 5/9.
For the 1994 Moscow Olympiad, he had a significant organisational role in helping to put together the event on short notice, after Thessaloniki cancelled its offer to host only a few weeks before the scheduled dates. Kasparov's detailed Olympiad record follows:
Kasparov made his international 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 record in this event follows:
Kasparov also represented the USSR once at the Youth Olympiad in Austria (1981). He scored 9/10 (+8–0=2) on the top board and his team lifted the title. 'The chess games of Garry Kasparov' . Chessgames, undated, retrieved 25 February 2023
Between 1981 and 1991, he won or tied for first place in every tournament he entered. In 1999, Kasparov reached an Elo rating of 2851, a record that stood for over thirteen years, until Carlsen achieved 2861 in January 2013. With the exception of the PCA period and sharing first place with Kramnik in 1996, Kasparov led the rating list from 1985 to 2006 – a total of 255 months.Colin McGourty, 'Magnus Carlsen celebrates 10 years unbroken as world no. 1' . Chess24, 2 July 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2023 On 1 January 2006, Kasparov ranked first with 2812. However, he was excluded from the FIDE rating list of 1 April 2006 because he had not participated in tournaments for the previous twelve months.
The rivalry between Kasparov and Karpov (often referred to as the "two Ks") is one of the greatest in the history of chess. In six years they played five matches comprising 144 games. For a long time there was personal enmity between Karpov and Kasparov. The conflict between the two men also had a political connotation. Karpov was considered a representative of the Soviet nomenklatura, while Kasparov was young and popular, positioned himself as a "child of change", willingly gave candid interviews and (especially in Western world) had an aura of a rebel, although he was never a dissident. Kasparov's 1985 victory coincided with the start of perestroika in the Soviet Union.
Carlsen said of Kasparov: "I've never seen someone with such a feel for dynamics in complex positions." Kramnik has opined that Kasparov's "capacity for study is second to none", adding "There is nothing in chess he has been unable to deal with."
In 2007, the international consulting company Synectics published a rating of 100 living geniuses in science, politics, art and entrepreneurship, in which Kasparov ranked 25th.
Less known about Kasparov is his emphasis on physical fitness, including taking a month off each year to work out strenuously.
Kasparov's attacking style of play has been compared by many to Alekhine, his chess idol since childhood. Kasparov has described his style as being influenced chiefly by Alekhine, Tal and Fischer.Kasparov, Garry (2003). My Great Predecessors, part I. Everyman Chess. . p. 9 . Other influences on Kasparov were his early coaches. At a young age, he met with experienced teachers Alexander Nikitin and Alexander Shakarov. Shakarov collected and systematised materials, and then became the keeper of Kasparov's "information bank". A revolutionary step at that time was the involvement of computer programs in analysing games, and it was Kasparov and his team who took the first steps in this direction. In 1973, Kasparov entered the Botvinnik school and immediately attracted attention. Botvinnik commented on the young schoolboy: "Garry's speed and memory capacity are amazing. He counts deep variations and finds unexpected moves. The power of combinational vision makes him similar to Alekhine himself".
Another well-known case of winning an important game thanks to a novelty in the opening is Kasparov's 10th game of the 1995 match against Anand. On the 14th move, in a well-known position of the open variation of the Spanish Game (Ruy Lopez), Kasparov discovered a new idea with a rook sacrifice, which brought a decisive attack.
Kasparov has also co-authored several books on opening theory.
In January 1990, Kasparov achieved the (then) highest FIDE rating ever, passing 2800 and breaking Fischer's old record of 2785. By the July 1999 and January 2000 FIDE rating lists, Kasparov had reached a 2851 Elo rating, at that time the highest rating ever achieved. The Week in Chess 270 , The Week in Chess, 10 January 2000. He held that record until Carlsen attained a new record high rating of 2861 in January 2013.
Kasparov went nine years winning every super-tournament he played, in addition to contesting his series of five consecutive matches with Karpov. His only failure in this time period in either tournament or match play was the 1984 world title match against Karpov.
In the late 1990s, Kasparov went on another long streak of ten consecutive super-tournament wins.
In these tournament victories, Kasparov had a score of 53 wins, 61 draws and 1 loss in 115 games, his only defeat coming against Ivan Sokolov in Wijk aan Zee 1999.
Computer chess magazine editor Frederic Friedel consulted with Kasparov in 1985 on how a chess database program would be useful preparation for competition. Friedel founded Chessbase two years later, and he gave a copy of the program to Kasparov, who started using it in his preparation.Garry Kasparov. Deep Thinking. That same year, Kasparov played against thirty-two chess computers in Hamburg, winning all games. Several commercially available Kasparov computers were made in the 1980s, the Saitek Kasparov Turbo King models. On 22 October 1989, Kasparov defeated the chess computer Deep Thought in both games of a two-game match. In December 1992, Kasparov played thirty-seven blitz games against Fritz 2 in Cologne, winning 24, drawing 4 and losing 9. Computerschach & Spiele. 1993#1 p. 40
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 at a time control of twenty-five minutes per game. In May, Chessbase's Fritz 3 running on an Intel Pentium PC defeated Kasparov in their first game in the Intel Express blitz tournament in Munich, but Kasparov managed to tie it for first and won the play-off (+3=2). The next day, Kasparov lost to Fritz 3 again in a game on ZDF TV.Kasparov, Speelman and Wade. 1995. Garry Kasparov's Fighting Chess. p. 290 In August, Kasparov was knocked out of the London Intel Grand Prix by Richard Lang's ChessGenius 2 program in the first round.William Harstson, 'Machine beats man again at chess grand prix' . The Independent, 2 September 1994, retrieved 27 February 2023 In 1995, during Kasparov's world title match with Anand, he unveiled an opening novelty that had been checked with a chess engine, an approach that would become increasingly common in subsequent years.Garry Kasparov. 2014. Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov Part II 1993–2005. Everyman Chess.
Kasparov played in a pair of six-game chess matches with IBM supercomputer Deep Blue. The first match took place in Philadelphia in February 1996 and was won by Kasparov (4–2).Hsu (2002), pp. 162–185 The second was played in New York City in May 1997 and won by Deep Blue (3½–2½). The 1997 match was the first defeat of a reigning world champion by a computer under tournament conditions.
The match was even after five games but Kasparov lost quickly in Game 6. 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 chess players had intervened in contravention of the rules. IBM denied that it had cheated, stating 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 them on the Internet. Much later, it was suggested that the behaviour Kasparov noted had resulted from a glitch in the computer program. Plans for further engagement between Kasparov and IBM, including a rematch, did not come to fruition, due to the accusations of cheating.Hsu (2002), p. 268.
Kasparov versus the World was a game that took place in 1999. Kasparov conducted the white moves while more than 50,000 people from all over the globe played against him. The game was a huge mixture of tactical and strategical ideas, with Kasparov saying: "It is the greatest game in the history of chess. The sheer number of ideas, the complexity, and the contribution it has made to chess make it the most important game ever played." After 62 moves, Kasparov won the game.
In January 2003, he engaged in a six-game classical time control match, with a $1 million prize fund, against Deep Junior. It was billed as the FIDE "Man vs. Machine" world championship. 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 accepted by the Deep Junior team. Asked why he had 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 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 and took home a golden trophy. He continued to regret the blunder in the second game that cost him a crucial point. He felt that he had outplayed the machine overall and performed well: "I only made one mistake but unfortunately that one mistake lost the game."
In 2021, Kasparov promoted a series of 32 NFTs that detailed important moments in his career. The top four sold for more than $11,000.
A few days before the election took place, the New York Times Magazine had published a 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 organisation 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.
In May 1990, Kasparov took part in the creation of the Democratic Party of Russia.Nick Gillespie, 'Garry Kasparov's Gambit|Reason|November 19, 2021' . Garry Kasparov official website, 19 November 2021, retrieved 5 April 2023 He left the party on 28 April 1991, after its conference. Kasparov was also involved with the creation of the "Choice of Russia" bloc of parties in June 1993. He took part in the election campaign of Boris Yeltsin in 1996. In 2001, he voiced his support for the Russian television channel NTV Russia.
After his retirement from chess in 2005, Kasparov turned to politics and created the United Civil Front, a social movement whose main goal is to "work to preserve Election democracy in Russia". He has vowed to "restore democracy" to Russia by restoring the rule of law. A year later the United Civil Front became part of The Other Russia. Kasparov was instrumental in setting up this coalition, which opposes Putin's government and the United Russia party. The Other Russia was boycotted by the leaders of Russia's mainstream opposition parties, Yabloko and Union of Right Forces, due to its inclusion of both nationalist and radical groups. Kasparov has criticised these two parties 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 organise the Saint Petersburg Dissenters' March on 3 March 2007 and Dissenters March on 24 March 2007, both involving several thousand people rallying against Putin and Saint Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko.
Kasparov led a pro-democracy demonstration in Moscow in April 2007. Soon after it started, however, over 9,000 police descended on the group and seized almost everyone. Kasparov, who was briefly arrested, was warned by the prosecution office on the eve of the march that anyone participating risked being detained. He was held for some ten hours and then fined and released. He was later summoned by the FSB for violations of Russian anti-extremism laws.
Speaking about Kasparov in 2007, former KGB defector Oleg Kalugin 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: world chess champion Kasparov. He has been very outspoken in his attacks on Putin, and I believe that he is probably next on the list."
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 against 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 demonstrators being detained. Kasparov was subsequently charged with resisting arrest and organising an unauthorised protest, and was given a jail sentence of five days. Kasparov appealed the charges, citing that he had been following orders given by the police. He was released from jail on 29 November. Putin castigated Kasparov at the rally for his use of English when speaking rather than Russian. A Bible, But No E-mail Time magazine
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.Andrew E. Kramer, "Kasparov Says He Was Forced to End Bid for Presidency" , The New York Times, 13 December 2007.
Kasparov was arrested and beaten outside a Moscow court on 17 August 2012 while attending sentencing in the case involving the all-female punk band Pussy Riot. On 24 August, he was cleared of charges that he had taken part in an unauthorised protest against the conviction of three members of the band. Judge Yekaterina Veklich said there were "no grounds to believe the testimony of the police". Kasparov 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!"
Kasparov denied rumours in April 2013 that he was planning 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." He also accused prominent Russian journalist Vladimir Posner of failing to stand up to Putin and to earlier Russian and Soviet leaders.
However, Kasparov subsequently fled Russia less than three months later. On 6 June 2013, he announced that he had left his homeland on account of fear of persecution for his political views.Kirit Radia, 'Chess Grand Master Is Latest Russian To Flee' . Abc News, 6 June 2013, retrieved 1 March 2023 Further, at the 2013 Women in the World conference, Kasparov told The Daily Beasts Michael Moynihan that democracy no longer existed in what he called Russia's "dictatorship".
Kasparov responded with several 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 on fair elections, Fidel Castro on free speech, & Kim Jong-un on prison reform. The Axis of Hypocrisy."
Kasparov wrote in July 2013 about the trial in Kirov of fellow opposition leader 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 has been outspoken regarding 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 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 on each Coca-Cola can" and NBC could "do interviews with Russian gay activists or with Russian political activists". Kasparov also emphasised 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 spoke out against the 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. After removing Putin of Russia returns the Crimea Ukraine – Kasparov , Ukrayinska Pravda (25 August 2016) 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. 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 encyclopaedia 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 primary season." In 2018, he said that "anything is better than Putin because that eliminates the probability of a Nuclear warfare. Putin is insane."
Following reports of Russian ransomware attacks against American agencies and companies 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 of to force Russia to rein in its Cybercrime.
Kasparov spoke out against the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on Twitter: "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 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."
On 20 May 2022, Kasparov was designated as "foreign agent" by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.
In May 2023, along with a large group of fellow exiles, Kasparov participated in the drafting of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's "Declaration of Russia's Democratic Forces".
On 4 August 2023, Kasparov participated on the radio show Open to Debate. In a debate with Charles Kupchan, he argued for Ukrainian admission into NATO and against any form of appeasement towards Putin. "Should NATO admit Ukraine?" Open to Debate, 4 August 2023, retrieved 7 August 2023.
In March 2024, Russia placed Kasparov on its list of "terrorists and extremists."
On 24 April 2024 an arrest warrant was issued by a court in Russia's Komi region charging Kasparov of creating and leading a "terrorist" group.
In a 12 May 2013 op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Kasparov questioned reports that the Russian security agency, the FSB, had fully cooperated with the FBI in the matter of the 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 2002 Moscow theater siege and the 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 was published, creating the first serious external threat to the Putin power structure by penalising 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".
In the 2016 United States presidential election, Kasparov described Republican Donald Trump as "a celebrity showman with racist leanings and authoritarian tendencies" and criticised him 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 disparaged the economic policies of 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, except, instead of a Sino-U.S. alliance against the U.S.S.R., this would be a Russian-American alliance against China".
In a 2024 interview with HuffPost, Kasparov expressed concern over Elon Musk potentially running the Department of Government Efficiency: "Musk could be the first oligarch", he stated.
He welcomed the Velvet Revolution in Armenia in 2018. Kasparov supports Armenian genocide recognition.
Before the Gulf War, Kasparov expressed an unconventional viewpoint, recommending the United States to consider the use of an atomic bomb against Saddam Hussein in Iraq. In 2002, supporting Iraq War, he also recommended planning for military action against Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia.
In April 2013, Kasparov joined in an HRF condemnation of Kanye West for having performed for the leader of Kazakhstan in exchange for a payment of $3 million, saying that West "has entertained a brutal killer and his entourage" and that his fee "came from the loot stolen from the Kazakhstan treasury". Further, in September 2013, Kasparov wrote in Time magazine that in Syria, 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 was critical of the violence unleashed by the Spanish police against the 2017 independence referendum in Catalonia and accused the Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy of "betraying" the European promise of peace. After the 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 separatist Kurds. That cannot be the road for Spain and Catalonia."
On the occasion of the 2015 centennial of the Armenian genocide, Kasparov reflected that in 2002 he had called for Turkey to be admitted to the European Union if Turkey recognised the genocide. He condemned the assassination of Saudi Arabia journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In October 2018, Kasparov wrote that President 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."
The second series of Rise of the Nazis, broadcast by the BBC in February 2022, featured Kasparov's views on the Soviet leader Josef Stalin. Kasparov stated: "Stalin, ruthless dictator, didn't hesitate to eliminate opposition, didn't hesitate to send millions of people to die. It's recorded that Stalin had very high opinion about the Night of the Long Knives, Hitler's ruthlessness. And, of course, in 1940 Stalin admires Hitler because he succeeded in destroying France and almost bringing up England on her knees. It's a very special love story."
In the wake of the Gaza war, Kasparov vigorously called on the Biden administration for the destruction of Hamas and Hezbollah. He further demanded the US to set up regime change in Russia and Iran.
He has annotated his own games extensively for the Yugoslav Chess Informant series. In 1982, he co-authored Batsford Chess Openings with British grandmaster Keene. That book sold well and was updated in a second edition in 1989.
In 2000, Kasparov co-authored Kasparov Against the World: The Story of the Greatest Online Challenge
Kasparov has written in support of the pseudohistory New Chronology (Fomenko), although with some reservations.Winter, Edward "Garry Kasparov and New Chronology" Chess Notes 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 inconsistent.
Kasparov is the chief advisor for the book publisher Everyman Chess. He 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 for release in March 2013 but cancelled after the authors disagreed on its contents. Why We Can't Solve Big Problems , MIT Technology Review, 24 October 2012. In an editorial comment on Google's AlphaZero chess-playing system, 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: "I was pleased to see that AlphaZero had a dynamic, open style like my own," he wrote in late 2018.Garry Kasparov, "Chess, a Drosophila of reasoning". Science 7 December 2018: Vol. 362, Issue 6419, pp. 1087. Full text
Kasparov served as a consultant for the 2020 Netflix miniseries The Queen's Gambit and gave an interview to Slate on his contributions. That same year, Kasparov collaborated with Matt Calkins, founder and CEO of Appian, on Hyperautomation, a book about low-code development and the future of business automation. Kasparov wrote the foreword where he discusses his experiences with human–machine relationships. Foreword by Garry Kasparov. 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. This work was later published in a compendium titled Question Everything: A Stone Reader.
He has been married three times: to Masha, with whom he had a daughter, Polina, before divorcing; to Yulia, with whom he had a son, Vadim, before their 2005 divorce; and to Daria (Dasha), with whom he has two children, daughter Aida born in 2006 and son Nickolas born in 2015.Garry Kasparov (2017). Deep Thinking. Where machine intelligence ends and human creativity begins (John Murray, London), dedication page Kasparov's wife manages his business activities worldwide through Kasparov International Management Inc.
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 with Anand.
Retirement from regular competitive chess
After winning the prestigious Linares tournament for the ninth time, Kasparov announced on 10 March 2005 that he would retire from regular competitive chess. He cited as the reason a lack of personal goals in the chess world. When winning the Russian championship in 2004, he commented that it had been the last major title he had never won outright. He also expressed frustration at the failure to reunify the world championship.
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 fast chess event played at the time control of five minutes per side and three-second increments per move. Kasparov tied for first with Karpov, scoring 4½/6.
Olympiads and major team events
Kasparov played in a total of eight . He represented the Soviet Union four times and Russia four times, following the break-up 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 Kramnik in 1992. In 82 games, he scored (+50−3=29), for 78.7%, and won a total of nineteen medals, including team gold medals all eight times he competed.
Assessment and legacy
Kasparov received a Chess Oscar eleven times as the best chess player of the year, in 1982–1983, 1985–1988, 1995–1996, 1999, and 2001–2002. He was also awarded the Marca Leyenda trophy in 1997.
Playing style
Kramnik called Kasparov a chess player with virtually no weaknesses. His games are characterised by a dynamic style of play with a focus on tactics, depth of strategy, subtle calculation and original Chess opening ideas. Kasparov was known for his extensive opening preparation and aggressive play in it. Sergey Shipov considered Kasparov's moral and volitional qualities (impulsiveness and psychological instability) and excessive reliance on options, which can lead to overwork and mistakes, as amongst his few shortcomings.
Contributions to opening theory
Kasparov has made many contributions to opening theory. In the 1990s, he systematically developed new variants with computer programs. He also "reanimated" the Scotch Game in top-level competitions. Kasparov successfully used this opening, which was considered outdated, in the 1990 match against Karpov and in matches with Short and Anand. One of the offshoots of the Sicilian in the Szén Variation is called the Kasparov Gambit. Kasparov used this variation in the 12th and 16th games of the match with Karpov in 1985; in the second of these games, he scored a victory.
Chess rating
Kasparov holds the record for the longest time as the No. 1 rated player in the world—from 1984 to 2005 (Kramnik shared the No. 1 ranking with him once, in the January 1996 FIDE rating list). He headed the PCA rating list during the split from FIDE. 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.
Other achievements
Kasparov holds the record for most consecutive professional tournament victories, placing first or equal first in fifteen 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:
Notable games
Chess and computers
Acorn Computers acted as one of the sponsors for Kasparov's Candidates semi-final match against Korchnoi in 1983. This was Kasparov's first introduction to computers. Kasparov was awarded a BBC Micro, which he took back with him to Baku, making it perhaps one of the first Western-made microcomputers to reach the Soviet Union at that time.
Candidate for FIDE presidency
On 7 October 2013, Kasparov announced his candidacy for World Chess Federation president during a reception in Tallinn, Estonia, where the 84th FIDE Congress took place. He was supported by reigning world champion and FIDE #1 ranked player Carlsen. At the FIDE General Assembly in August 2014, Kasparov lost the presidential election to the incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, with a vote of 110–61.
Politics and political views
Russia
Early political activities
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 in 1976 to Paris for a chess tournament. 'Garry Kasparov on Resisting Authoritarianism' . Persuasion, 27 November 2021, retrieved 5 April 2023 In 1981, at age 18, he read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, a copy of which he bought while abroad. Nevertheless, Kasparov joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1984, and was elected to the Central Committee of Komsomol in 1987. In 1990, he left the party.
Presidential candidate (2008)
On 30 September 2007, Kasparov entered the 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 "Other Russia" coalition and vowed to fight for a "democratic and just Russia". Later that month he travelled to the United States, where he appeared on several popular television programmes.
Opposition to Putin administration (2010–2013)
Kasparov was among the 34 first signatories and a key organiser of the online anti-Putin campaign "Putin Must Go", started on 10 March 2010. 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, 12 March 2010 Гарри Каспаров: В интернет ОМОН не пришлешь Novaya Gazeta, No. 27 of 17 March 2010. On 31 January 2012, Kasparov hosted a meeting of opposition leaders planning a mass march on 4 February 2012, the third major opposition rally held since the disputed State Duma elections of December 2011. Among other opposition leaders attending were Alexei Navalny and Yevgeniya Chirikova.
Opposition to Putin from exile (2013–)
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 on 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 fulfil "professional speaking engagements" and hindering his "work for the non-profit Kasparov Chess Foundation, which has centres 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 criticised 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".
United States
Kasparov received the Keeper of the Flame award in 1991 from the Center for Security Policy, 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. Kasparov gave speeches at other think tanks such as the Hoover Institution.
Armenia
In a 2020 interview discussing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Kasparov stated that the Republic of Artsakh has a right to independence and that Azerbaijan has no sovereign right over it. He considers this stance to be objective and without bias, as Soviet law allowed for autonomous republics (such as the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast) to vote for independence separately and were given an equal right for self-determination, a factor he felt often went ignored. Kasparov recalled that he was criticised by Armenians for not taking a strong stance when the Karabakh movement began in 1988, explaining that he was living in Baku with 200,000 other Armenians at the time and did not want to increase tensions. Kasparov and his family later fled Baku in January 1990 to escape Baku pogrom. Kasparov has declined invitations back to visit Baku, stating he would only return "if every other Armenian born there can do it without a problem and without special favors from the government."
Other international affairs
During the Yugoslav Wars, Kasparov advocated for the Western world to destroy the Yugoslav People's Army and accused Slobodan Milošević of creating a "siege mentality" to maintain control over Serbia. In 1997, he was awarded honorary citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina for his support of Bosnian people during the Bosnian War. Kasparov was named Chairman of the Human Rights Foundation in 2011; he served in this position until 2024, being succeeded by Yulia Navalnaya. In addition, Kasparov was presented with the Morris B. Abram Human Rights Award, UN Watch's annual human-rights prize, in 2013. The organisation praised him as "not only one of the world's smartest men" but "also among its bravest".
Artificial intelligence
Speaking to Forbes in spring 2023, Kasparov said that he was not overly concerned about the potential for ChatGPT to gain unauthorised access into everyday appliances. Rather, he felt that it is individuals who "still have the monopoly on evil."Martine Paris, 'Google AI And Microsoft ChatGPT Are Not Our Biggest Security Risks | Forbes | March 20, 2023'. Kasparov.com, 20 March 2023. Retrieved 5 February 2025
Croatian citizenship
Kasparov had maintained a summer home in the Croatian city of Makarska. In February 2014, he applied for 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 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 Milanović for the help rendered by him (then as prime minister) in obtaining Croatian citizenship.Jutarnji list, 5 February 2022, #8431, p. 22. Veliki intervju. Gari Kasparov
Books and other writings
Early writings
Kasparov has written books on chess. He published a controversial Kasparov's Child of Change by Edward Winter chesshistory.com autobiography when still in his early 20s. Originally titled Child of Change, it was later published as Unlimited Challenge. This book was 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, (1983). 9780713419849, HarperCollins Distribution Services. ISBN 9780713419849 which has been updated in further editions. He also wrote a book annotating the games from his World Chess Championship 1985 victory, World Chess Championship Match: Moscow, 1985.G. K. Kasparov (1986). 008034044X, Pergamon Press. 008034044X
(1989). 9780020339915, American Chess Promotions. ISBN 9780020339915 He also co-authored two opening books with his trainer Alexander Nikitin in the 1980s for British publisher Pavilion Books the Classical Variation of the Caro–Kann Defence and on the Scheveningen Variation of the Sicilian Defence. Kasparov also contributed extensively to the five-volume openings series Encyclopedia of Chess Openings from Chess Informant, for which Kasparov also wrote personal columns called Garry's Choice.
(2025). 9780970481306, KasparovChess Online, Incorporated. ISBN 9780970481306 with grandmaster Daniel King. The 202-page book analyses the 1999 Kasparov versus the World game, and holds the record for the longest analysis devoted to a single chess game.Winter, Edward "Chess Records" Chess Notes
My Great Predecessors series
In 2003, the first volume of his five-volume work Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors was published. This volume deals with world champions Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker, Capablanca and Alekhine, and some of their strong contemporaries. It won the British Chess Federation's Book of the Year award in 2003. Volume two, covering Max Euwe, Botvinnik, Smyslov and Tal, appeared later in 2003. Volume three, featuring Tigran Petrosian and Boris Spassky, was published in early 2004. In December 2004, Kasparov released volume four, which covers Samuel Reshevsky, Miguel Najdorf and Bent Larsen (none of whom was world champion), but focuses on Fischer. The fifth volume, devoted to the chess careers of world champion Karpov and challenger Korchnoi, was published in March 2006.
Modern Chess series
His Revolution in the 70s (published in March 2007) covers "the openings revolution of the 1970s–1980s" and was the first work in a new venture, "Modern Chess Series", which recounted his matches with Karpov and selected games. Revolution in the 70s is about the development of opening theory witnessed in that decade. Systems like the novel Hedgehog Defense opening plan of passively developing the pieces no further than the first three ranks were examined in great detail. Kasparov also analysed some of the most notable games played in that period. In a section at the end of the book, top opening theoreticians provided their opinion on progress made in opening theory in the 1980s.
Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov series
From 2011 to 2014, Kasparov published a three-volume series of his games, spanning his career in three eras until he stopped playing full-time in 2005.[https://www.kasparov.com/books/ 'Books']. Garry Kasparov official website, undated, retrieved 1 March 2023
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 HBO television series Game of Thrones. In the book, Kasparov writes about the need for an organisation 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 civilisation is incorrect. Specifically, he contends that the history of ancient civilisations is based on misdating of events and achievements that occurred in the medieval period. He has cited several aspects of ancient history that, he argues, are likely to be anachronisms.
Other post-retirement writing
Kasparov wrote How Life Imitates Chess, an examination of the parallels between decision-making in chess and in the business world, in 2007. In 2008, Kasparov published a sympathetic obituary for Fischer: "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." The Chessman, Time, 26 January 2008
(2025). 9781324091837, W. W. Norton (Liverlight). ISBN 9781324091837
Bibliography
(2025). 9781610397865, PublicAffairs, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC. ISBN 9781610397865 with Mig Greengard (2017, Public Affairs)
Videos
Personal life
Kasparov has lived in New York City since 2013.
See also
Notes
Further reading
External links
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Garry Kasparov's best games analyzed in video
Categories: Official Website, 1963 Births, Living People, 2011–2013 Russian Protests, 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, 21st-century Russian Chess Players, 21st-century Russian Sportsmen, Russian Chess Writers, Russian Dissidents, Russian Liberals, Sportspeople Of Armenian Descent, Russian People Of Armenian Descent, Russian People Of Jewish Descent, Russian Activists, Russian Sportsperson-politicians, Russian Democracy Activists, Solidarnost Politicians, Soviet Chess Players, Soviet Chess Writers, Soviet Male Writers, The Other Russia, World Chess Champions, World Junior Chess Champions, Russian Activists Against The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine, People Listed In Russia As Foreign Agents, 20th-century Russian Chess Players
|
|
