Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov[a] (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator. His peak rating of 2851,[2] achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by Magnus Carlsen in 2013. From 1984 until his retirement in 2005, Kasparov was ranked world No. 1 for a record 255 months overall for his career, the most in history. Kasparov also holds records for the most consecutive professional tournament victories (15) and Chess Oscars (11).
Kasparov became the youngest ever undisputed World Chess Champion in 1985 at age 22 by defeating then-champion Anatoly Karpov.[3] 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.[4] In 1997 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. Despite losing the title, he continued winning tournaments and was the world's highest-rated player when he retired from professional chess in 2005.
Since retiring, he devoted his time to politics and writing. He formed the United Civil Front movement and joined as a member of The Other Russia, a coalition opposing the administration and policies 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.[5][6][7] In the wake of the Russian mass protests that began in 2011, he announced in 2013 that he had left Russia for the immediate future out of fear of persecution.[8] Following his flight from Russia, he had lived in New York City with his family.[9][10] In 2014, he obtained Croatian citizenship, and has maintained a residence in Podstrana near Split.[11][12][13]
Kasparov is currently chairman of the Human Rights Foundation and chairs its International Council. In 2017, he founded the Renew Democracy Initiative (RDI), an American political organization promoting and defending liberal democracy in the U.S. and abroad. He serves as chairman of the group. Kasparov is also a Security Ambassador for the software company Avast.[14]
Early life and career
Kasparov was born Garik Kimovich Weinstein (Russian: Гарик Кимович Вайнштейн, Garik Kimovich Vainshtein) in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR (now Azerbaijan), Soviet Union. His father, Kim Moiseyevich Weinstein, was Jewish and his mother, Klara Shagenovna Kasparova, was Armenian.[15][16][17][18] Kasparov has described himself as a "self-appointed Christian", although "very indifferent"[19] and identifying as Russian: "[A]lthough I'm half-Armenian, half-Jewish, I consider myself Russian because Russian is my native tongue, and I grew up with Russian culture."[20][21] Kasparov and his family had to flee anti-Armenian pogroms in Baku in January 1990 that were coordinated by local leaders with Soviet acquiescence.[22]
According to Kasparov himself, he was named after United States President Harry Truman,[23] "whom my father admired for taking a strong stand against communism. It was a rare name in Russia, until Harry Potter came along."[24]
Kasparov began the serious study of chess after he came across a chess problem set up by his parents and proposed a solution.[25] When Garry was seven years old, his father died of leukemia.[26] At the age of twelve, Garry, upon request of his mother Klara and with the consent of the family, adopted Klara's surname Kasparov, which was done to avoid possible antisemitic tensions, which were common in the USSR at the time.[27][28]
From age 7, Kasparov attended the Young Pioneer Palace in Baku and, at 10 began training at Mikhail Botvinnik's chess school under coach Vladimir Makogonov. Makogonov helped develop Kasparov's positional skills and taught him to play the Caro-Kann Defence and the Tartakower System of the Queen's Gambit Declined.[29] 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 8.5 of 9. He was being trained by Alexander Shakarov during this time.[30]
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.[31]
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 on tiebreak over Igor V. Ivanov to capture the sole qualifying place.[32]
Kasparov rose quickly through the FIDE world rankings. Starting with oversight by the Russian Chess Federation, he participated in a grandmaster tournament in Banja Luka, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina (part of Yugoslavia at the time), in 1979 while still unrated (he was a replacement for the Soviet defector Viktor Korchnoi, who was originally invited but withdrew due to the threat of a boycott from the Soviets). Kasparov won this high-class tournament, emerging with a provisional rating of 2595, enough to catapult him to the top group of chess players (at the time, number 15 in the world).[33] 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.[34]
Career
As a teenager, Kasparov tied for first place in the USSR Chess Championship in 1981–82. His first win in a superclass-level international tournament was scored at Bugojno, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia in 1982. He earned a place in the 1982 Moscow Interzonal tournament, which he won, to qualify for the Candidates Tournament.[35] 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 No. 2-rated player in the world, trailing only World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov on the January 1983 list.
Kasparov's first (quarter-final) Candidates match was against Alexander Beliavsky, whom he defeated 6–3 (four wins, one loss).[36] 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 manoeuvres prevented Kasparov from playing Korchnoi, and Kasparov forfeited the match. This was resolved by Korchnoi allowing the match to be replayed in London, along with the previously scheduled match between Vasily Smyslov and Zoltán Ribli. The Kasparov-Korchnoi match was put together on short notice by Raymond Keene. Kasparov lost the first game but won the match 7–4 (four wins, one loss).[37]
In January 1984, Kasparov became the No. 1 ranked player in the world, with a FIDE rating of 2710. He became the youngest ever world No. 1, a record that lasted 12 years until being broken by Vladimir Kramnik in January 1996; the record is currently held by Magnus Carlsen.[38]
Later 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.[39]
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.[40]
In an unexpected turn of events, there followed a series of 17 successive draws, some relatively short, and others drawn in unsettled positions. Kasparov lost game 27 (5–0), then fought back with another series of draws until game 32 (5–1), earning his first-ever win against the World Champion. Another 14 successive draws followed, through game 46; the previous record length for a world title match had been 34 games, the match of José Raúl Capablanca vs. Alexander Alekhine in 1927.[41]
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 the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), and a new match was announced to start a few months later. The termination was controversial, as both players stated that they preferred the match to continue. Announcing his decision at a press conference, Campomanes cited the health of the players, which had been strained by the length of the match.[42]
The match became the first, and so far only, world championship match to be abandoned without result. Kasparov's relations with Campomanes and FIDE were greatly strained, and the feud between them finally came to a head in 1993 with Kasparov's complete break-away from FIDE.
The second Karpov–Kasparov match in 1985 was organized in Moscow as the best of 24 games where the first player to win 12½ points would claim the World Champion title. The scores from the terminated match would not carry over; however, in the event of a 12–12 draw, the title would remain with Karpov. On 9 November 1985, Kasparov secured the title by a score of 13–11, winning the 24th game with Black,[43] using a Sicilian defence. He was 22 years old at the time, making him the youngest ever World Champion[44] and breaking the record held by Mikhail Tal for over 20 years.[45] Kasparov's win as Black in the 16th game has been recognized as one of the all-time masterpieces in chess history, including being voted the best game played during the first 64 issues of the magazine Chess Informant.[46][47]
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,[48][49] 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 12½–11½.[49]
A fourth match for the world title took place in 1987 in Seville,[50] as Karpov had qualified through the Candidates' Matches to again become the official challenger. This match was very close, with neither player holding more than a one-point lead at any time during the contest. Kasparov was down one full point at the time of the final game and needed a win to draw the match and retain his title. A long tense game ensued in which Karpov blundered away a pawn just before the first time control, and Kasparov eventually won a long ending. Kasparov retained his title as the match was drawn by a score of 12–12.[51]
The 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 12½–11½. In their five world championship matches, Kasparov had 21 wins, 19 losses, and 104 draws in 144 games.[52]
With the World Champion title in hand, Kasparov began opposing FIDE. In November 1986, he created the Grandmasters Association (GMA), an organization to represent professional chess players and give them more say in FIDE's activities. Kasparov assumed a leadership role. GMA's major achievement was in organizing a series of six World Cup tournaments for the world's top players. This caused a somewhat uneasy relationship to develop between him and FIDE.
This stand-off lasted until 1993, by which time a new challenger had qualified through the Candidates cycle for Kasparov's next World Championship defence: Nigel Short, a British grandmaster who had defeated Anatoly Karpov in a qualifying match and then Jan Timman in the finals held in early 1993. After a confusing and compressed bidding process produced lower financial estimates than expected,[53] the world champion and his challenger decided to play outside FIDE's jurisdiction, under another organization created by Kasparov called the Professional Chess Association (PCA). At this point, a great fracture occurred in the lineage of the FIDE World Championship. In an interview in 2007, Kasparov called the break with FIDE the worst mistake of his career, as it hurt the game in the long run.[54]
Kasparov and Short were ejected from FIDE and played their well-sponsored match in London in 1993. Kasparov won convincingly by a score of 12½–7½. The match considerably raised the profile of chess in the UK, with an unprecedented level of coverage on Channel 4. Meanwhile, FIDE organized a World Championship match between Jan Timman (the defeated Candidates finalist) and former World Champion Karpov (a defeated Candidates semi-finalist), which Karpov won.
FIDE removed Kasparov and Short from the FIDE rating lists. Until this happened, there was a parallel rating list presented by PCA which featured all the world top players regardless of their relation to FIDE. There were now two World Champions: PCA champion Kasparov and FIDE champion Karpov. The title remained split for 13 years.
Kasparov defended his title in a 1995 match against Viswanathan Anand at the World Trade Center in New York City. Kasparov won the match by four wins to one, with thirteen draws.[55]
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 an upset. But when Rentero admitted that the funds required and promised had never materialized, the WCA collapsed. This left Kasparov stranded, and yet another organization stepped in: BrainGames.com, headed by Raymond Keene. No match against Shirov was arranged, and talks with Anand collapsed, so a match was instead arranged against Kramnik.[56]
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,[57] and developed an interest in the use of chess in education. In 1997, Kasparov supported a scholarship programme at the school.[58] Kasparov also won the Marca Leyenda trophy that year.[59]
In 1999, he played a well-known game against Topalov wherein he won after a rook sacrifice and king hunt.[60][61]
The Kasparov-Kramnik match took place in London during the latter half of 2000. Kramnik had been a student of Kasparov's at the famous Botvinnik/Kasparov chess school in Russia and had served on Kasparov's team for the 1995 match against Viswanathan Anand.[62]
The better-prepared Kramnik won game 2 against Kasparov's Grünfeld Defence and achieved winning positions in Games 4 and 6, although Kasparov held the draw in both games. Kasparov made a critical error in Game 10 with the Nimzo-Indian Defence, which Kramnik exploited to win in 25 moves. As White, Kasparov could not crack the passive but solid Berlin Defence in the Ruy Lopez, and Kramnik successfully drew all his games as Black. Kramnik won the match 8½–6½.[63]
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.[64]
Kasparov and Karpov played a four-game match with rapid time controls over two days in December 2002 in New York City. Karpov surprised the experts and emerged victorious, winning two games and drawing one.[65]
Because of Kasparov's continuing strong results and status as world No. 1 in much of the public eye, he was included in the so-called "Prague Agreement", masterminded by Yasser Seirawan and intended to reunite the two World Championships. Kasparov was to play a match against the FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov in September 2003. But this match was called off after Ponomariov refused to sign his contract for it without reservation. In its place, there were plans for a match against Rustam Kasimdzhanov, 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 organize a match and so had decided to stop all efforts to regain the World Championship title.[66]
After winning the prestigious Linares tournament for the ninth time, Kasparov announced on 10 March 2005 that he would retire from serious competitive chess. He cited as the reason a lack of personal goals in the chess world (he commented when winning the Russian championship in 2004 that it had been the last major title he had never won outright) and expressed frustration at the failure to reunify the world championship.[67][66]
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."[68][69]
On 22 August 2006, in his first public chess games since his retirement, Kasparov played in the Lichthof Chess Champions Tournament, a blitz event played at the time control of 5 minutes per side and 3-second increments per move. Kasparov tied for first with Anatoly Karpov, scoring 4½/6.[70]
Kasparov and Anatoly 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 total result of 9–3. The event took place exactly 25 years after the two players' legendary encounter at World Chess Championship 1984.[71]
Kasparov actively coached Magnus Carlsen for approximately one year, beginning in February 2009. The collaboration remained secret until September 2009.[72] Under Kasparov's tutelage, Carlsen in October 2009 became the youngest ever to achieve a FIDE rating higher than 2800, and he rose from world number four to world number one. While the pair initially planned to work together throughout 2010,[73] in March of that year it was announced that Carlsen had split from Kasparov and would no longer be using him as a trainer.[74] 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;[75] however, in fact, no further training sessions were held, and the cooperation gradually fizzled out over the course of the spring.[76]
In May 2010, he played 30 games simultaneously, winning each one, against players at Tel Aviv University in Israel.[77] In the same month, it was revealed that Kasparov had aided Viswanathan Anand in preparation for the World Chess Championship 2010 against challenger Veselin Topalov. Anand won the match 6½–5½ to retain the title.[78]
On 22 August 2006, in his first public chess games since his retirement, Kasparov played in the Lichthof Chess Champions Tournament, a blitz event played at the time control of 5 minutes per side and 3-second increments per move. Kasparov tied for first with Anatoly Karpov, scoring 4½/6.[70]
Kasparov and Anatoly 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 total result of 9–3. The event took place exactly 25 years after the two players' legendary encounter at World Chess Championship 1984.[71]
Kasparov actively coached Magnus Carlsen for approximately one year, beginning in February 2009. The collaboration remained secret until September 2009.[72] Under Kasparov's tutelage, Carlsen in October 2009 became the youngest ever to achieve a FIDE rating higher than 2800, and he rose from world number four to world number one. While the pair initially planned to work together throughout 2010,[73] in March of that year it was announced that Carlsen had split from Kasparov and would no longer be using him as a trainer.[74] 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;[75] however, in fact, no further training sessions were held, and the cooperation gradually fizzled out over the course of the spring.[76]
In May 2010, he played 30 games simultaneously, winning each one, against players at Tel Aviv University in Israel.[77] In the same month, it was revealed that Kasparov had aided Viswanathan Anand in preparation for the World Chess Championship 2010 against challenger Veselin Topalov. Anand won the match 6½–5½ to retain the title.[78]In January 2011, Kasparov began training the U.S. grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. The first of several training sessions was held in New York just before Nakamura participated in the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands.[79] In December 2011, it was announced that the cooperation had come to an end.[80]
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 Nigel Short. Kasparov won again by a score of 4½–3½.
A little after that, in October 2011, Kasparov played and defeated fourteen opponents in a simultaneous exhibition that took place in Bratislava.[81]
On 25 and 26 April 2015, Kasparov played a mini-match against Nigel Short. The match consisted of two rapid games and eight blitz games and was contested over the course of two days. Both commentators GM Maurice Ashley and Alejandro RamÃrez remarked how Kasparov was an 'initiative hog' throughout the match, consistently not allowing Short to gain any foothold in the games, and won the match decisively with a score of 8½–1½.[82] Kasparov also managed to win all five games on the second day, with his victories characterised by aggressive pawn moves breaking up Short's position, thereby allowing Kasparov's pieces to achieve positional superiority.[83]
On Wednesday 19 August 2015, he played and won all 19 games of a simultaneous exhibition in Pula, Croatia.[84]
On Thursday 28 April and Friday 29 April 2016 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, Kasparov played a 6-round exhibition blitz round-robin tournament with Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, and Hikaru Nakamura in an event called the Ultimate Blitz Challenge.[85] He finished the tournament third with 9.5/18, behind Hikaru Nakamura (11/18) and Wesley So (10/18). At the post-tournament interview, Kasparov announced that he would donate his winnings from playing the next top-level blitz exhibition match to assist funding of the American Olympic Team.[86]
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.[87]
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.[88] Kasparov's candidacy was supported by his former student, reigning World Chess Champion and FIDE#1 ranked player Magnus Carlsen.[89] At the FIDE General Assembly in August 2014, Kasparov lost the presidential election to incumbent FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, with a vote of 110–61.[90]
A few days before the election took place, the New York Times Magazine had published a lengthy report on the viciously fought campaign. Included was information about a leaked contract between Kasparov and former FIDE Secretary General Ignatius Leong from Singapore, in which the Kasparov campaign reportedly "offered to pay Leong US$500,000 and to pay $250,000 a year for four years to the ASEAN Chess Academy, an organization Leong helped create to teach the game, specifying that Leong would be responsible for delivering 11 votes from his region [...]".[91] In September 2015, the FIDE Ethics Commission found Kasparov and Leong guilty of violating its Code of Ethics[92] and later suspended them for two years from all FIDE functions and meetings.[93]
In 2017, Kasparov came out of retirement to participate in the inaugural St. Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament from 14 to 19 August, scoring 3.5/9 in the rapid and 9/18 in the blitz, finishing eighth out of ten participants, which included Nakamura, Caruana, former world champion Anand, and the eventual winner, Aronian.[94][95] Any tournament money that he earned would go towards charities to promote chess in Africa.[96]
In 2020, he participated in 9LX, which is a Chess 960 tournament. He finished eighth in a field of 10 players.[97] Notably, he drew a game against Magnus Carlsen, who tied for first place.
In 2021, he launched Kasparovchess, a subscription-based online chess community featuring documentaries, lessons, puzzles, podcasts, articles, interviews, and playing zones.[98]
In 2021, Kasparov played in the blitz section of the Grand Chess Tour event in Zagreb, Croatia. He performed poorly, however, scoring 0.5/9 on the first day and 2.0/9 on the second day, getting his only win against Jorden Van Foreest.[99][100] He also participated in 9LX 2, finishing fifth in a field of 10 players, with a score of 5/9.[101]
Records and achievements
Kasparov holds the record for the longest time as the No. 1 rated player in the world—from 1984 to 2005 (Vladimir Kramnik shared the No. 1 ranking with him once, in the January 1996 FIDE rating list).[200] He was also briefly ejected from the list following his split from FIDE in 1993, but during that time he headed the rating list of the rival PCA. At the time of his retirement, he was still ranked No. 1 in the world, with a rating of 2812. His rating has fallen inactive since the January 2006 rating list.[201]
In January 1990, Kasparov achieved the (then) highest FIDE rating ever, passing 2800 and breaking Bobby Fischer's old record of 2785. By the July 1999 and January 2000 FIDE rating lists, Kasparov had reached a 2851 Elo rating, at that time the highest rating ever achieved.[202] He held that record for the highest rating ever achieved until Magnus Carlsen attained a new record high rating of 2861 in January 2013.[203]
Kasparov holds the record for most consecutive professional tournament victories, placing first or equal first in 15 individual tournaments from 1981 to 1990.[204] 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:[35]
Frunze 1981, USSR Championship, 12½/17, tie for 1st;
Bugojno 1982, 9½/13, 1st;
Moscow 1982, Interzonal, 10/13, 1st;
Nikšić 1983, 11/14, 1st;
Brussels OHRA 1986, 7½/10, 1st;
Brussels SWIFT 1987, 8½/11, tie for 1st;
Amsterdam Optiebeurs 1988, 9/12, 1st;
Belfort (World Cup) 1988, 11½/15, 1st;
Moscow 1988, USSR Championship, 11½/17, tie for 1st;
ReykjavÃk (World Cup) 1988, 11/17, 1st;
Barcelona (World Cup) 1989, 11/16, tie for 1st;
SkellefteÃ¥ (World Cup) 1989, 9½/15, tie for 1st;
Tilburg 1989, 12/14, 1st;
Belgrade (Investbank) 1989, 9½/11, 1st;
Linares 1990, 8/11, 1st.
Kasparov went 9 years winning every super-tournament he played, in addition to contesting his series of 5 consecutive matches with Anatoly Karpov. His only failure in this time period in either tournament or match play was in the World Chess Championship 1984 when the 21-year-old Kasparov was trailing (−5, +3 = 40) against the defending champion Karpov before the match was abruptly cancelled.
Later on in his career, Kasparov went on another long streak of consecutive super-tournament wins.[205]
Wijk aan Zee Hoogovens 1999, 10/13, 1st;
Linares 1999, 10½/14, 1st;
Sarajevo 1999, 7/9, 1st;
Wijk aan Zee Corus 2000, 9½/13, 1st;
Linares 2000, 6/10, tie for 1st;
Sarajevo 2000, 8½/11, 1st;
Wijk aan Zee Corus 2001, 9/13, 1st;
Linares 2001, 7.5/10, 1st;
Astana 2001, 7/10, 1st;
Linares 2002, 8/12, 1st.
In these 10 consecutive classical super-tournaments wins, Kasparov had a score of 53 wins, 61 draws and 1 loss in 115 games with his only loss coming against Ivan Sokolov in Wijk aan Zee 1999.
Kasparov won the Chess Oscar a record eleven times.[206]
Books and other writings
Kasparov has written books on chess. He published a controversial[232] autobiography when still in his early 20s, originally titled Child of Change, later retitled Unlimited Challenge. This book was subsequently updated several times after he became World Champion. Its content is mainly literary, with a small chess component of key unannotated games. He published an annotated games collection in 1983, Fighting Chess: My Games and Career,[233] which has been updated several times in further editions. He also wrote a book annotating the games from his World Chess Championship 1985 victory, World Chess Championship Match: Moscow, 1985.[234]
He has annotated his own games extensively for the Yugoslav Chess Informant series and for other chess publications. In 1982, he co-authored Batsford Chess Openings with British grandmaster Raymond Keene and this book was an enormous seller. It was updated into a second edition in 1989. He also co-authored two opening books with his trainer Alexander Nikitin in the 1980s for British publisher Batsford – on the Classical Variation of the Caro-Kann Defence and on the Scheveningen Variation of the Sicilian Defence. Kasparov has also contributed extensively to the five-volume openings series Encyclopedia of Chess Openings from Chess Informant which Kasparov also wrote personal columns Garry's Choice, the publication which is inarguably the beginning of modern chess.[235][236]
In 2000, Kasparov co-authored Kasparov Against the World: The Story of the Greatest Online Challenge[237] with grandmaster Daniel King. The 202-page book analyzes the 1999 Kasparov versus the World game, and holds the record for the longest analysis devoted to a single chess game.[238]
In 2003, the first volume of his five-volume work Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors was published. This volume, which deals with the world chess champions Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, and some of their strong contemporaries, has received lavish praise from some reviewers (including Nigel Short), while attracting criticism from others for historical inaccuracies and analysis of games directly copied from unattributed sources. Through suggestions on the book's website, most of these shortcomings were corrected in following editions and translations. Despite this, the first volume won the British Chess Federation's Book of the Year award in 2003. Volume two, covering Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov and Mikhail Tal appeared later in 2003. Volume three, covering Tigran Petrosian and Boris Spassky appeared in early 2004. In December 2004, Kasparov released volume four, which covers Samuel Reshevsky, Miguel Najdorf, and Bent Larsen (none of these three were World Champions), but focuses primarily on Bobby Fischer. The fifth volume, devoted to the chess careers of World Champion Anatoly Karpov and challenger Viktor Korchnoi, was published in March 2006.[239]
His book Revolution in the 70s (published in March 2007) covers "the openings revolution of the 1970s–1980s" and is the first book in a new series called "Modern Chess Series", which intends to cover his matches with Karpov and selected games. The book Revolution in the 70s concerns the revolution in opening theory that was witnessed in that decade. Such systems as the controversial (at the time) "Hedgehog" opening plan of passively developing the pieces no further than the first three ranks are examined in great detail. Kasparov also analyzes some of the most notable games played in that period. In a section at the end of the book, top opening theoreticians provide their own "take" on the progress made in opening theory in the 1980s.[240]
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 organization composed solely of democratic countries to replace the United Nations. In an interview, he called the United Nations a "catwalk for dictators".[102]
Kasparov believes that the conventional history of civilization is radically incorrect. Specifically, he believes that the history of ancient civilizations is based on misdatings of events and achievements that actually occurred in the medieval period.[241][242] He has cited several aspects of ancient history that he says are likely to be anachronisms.[243]
Kasparov has written in support of the pseudohistorical New Chronology (Fomenko), although with some reservations.[244] 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."[245] "When I stop playing chess, it may well be that I concentrate on promoting these ideas... I believe they can improve our lives."[245]
Later, Kasparov renounced his support of Fomenko theories but reaffirmed his belief that mainstream historical knowledge is highly inconsistent.[246][247]In 2007, he wrote How Life Imitates Chess, an examination of the parallels between decision-making in chess and in the business world.[248]
In 2008, Kasparov published a sympathetic obituary for Bobby Fischer, writing: "I am often asked if I ever met or played Bobby Fischer. The answer is no, I never had that opportunity. But even though he saw me as a member of the evil chess establishment that he felt had robbed and cheated him, I am sorry I never had a chance to thank him personally for what he did for our sport."[249]
He is the chief advisor for the book publisher Everyman Chess.[250]
Kasparov works closely with Mig Greengard and his comments can often be found on Greengard's blog.[251][252]
Kasparov collaborated with Max Levchin and Peter Thiel on The Blueprint, a book calling for a revival of world innovation, planned to release in March 2013 from W. W. Norton & Company. The book was never released, as the authors disagreed on its contents.[253]
Kasparov argued that chess has become the model for reasoning in the same way that the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster became a model organism for geneticists, in an editorial comment on Google's AlphaZero chess-playing system. "I was pleased to see that AlphaZero had a dynamic, open style like my own," he wrote in late 2018.[254]
Kasparov served as a consultant for the 2020 Netflix miniseries The Queen's Gambit. He gave an extended interview to Slate describing his contributions.[255]
In 2020, 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.[256][257]
The New York Times published an essay by Kasparov titled "Garry Kasparov: What We Believe About Reality" in 2021.[258] The essay is part of a series called The Big Ideas: What Do We Believe,[259] which also includes essays by T.M. Luhrmann, Harry Reid, Ini Archibong, Errol Morris, and Carlo Rovelli, amongst others.
