Garry Kasparov

Garry Kimovich Kasparov (, pronounced with stress falling on the second syllable: kas-PA-rov) (born April 13, 1963) is a chess grandmaster and one of the strongest chess players in history. His 2851 ELO rating in the July 1999 FIDE rating list is the highest rating ever achieved. As of July 2005, Kasparov's 2812 ELO rating places him highest on the FIDE listing http://www.fide.com/ratings/top.phtml. Ranked first in the world for nearly all of the 20 years from 1985 to 2005, Kasparov was the last undisputed World Chess Champion from 1985 until 1993; and continued to be "classical" World Chess Champion (of the PCA and WCA) until his defeat by Vladimir Kramnik in 2000. He also won the Chess Oscar four times, in 1995, 1996, 2001 and 2002.

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Kasparov announced his retirement from professional chess on March 10 2005, instead devoting time to politics and to do "everything in my power to resist Vladimir Putin's dictatorship." He is a leading member of the Committee 2008: Free Choice, a group of liberal opposition leaders.

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Garry Kasparov was born as Garry Vajnshtejn (the surname analogous to English Weinstein) in Baku, Azerbaijan (at that time republic of Soviet Union) to Armenian-Jewish parentage. He first began the serious study of chess after he came across a chess problem set up by his parents and proposed a solution to it. When he was 7, his father died, and he adopted his mother's surname as soon as was legally possible, at the age of 12. His mother Klara is an Armenian woman whose surname is "Kasparian", and "Kasparov" is the Russianised version of this name.

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1963: 1963 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar)....

Chess: :For other meanings, see Chess (disambiguation)....

Grandmaster: Grandmaster and/or Grand Master could mean:...