Garry Kasparov

Garry Kimovich Kasparov ({{lang|ru|?????? ???????? ?????????}}, 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.

World Champion

The second Karpov-Kasparov match in 1985 was organized as the best of 24 games, where first player to 12.5 points would claim the title (in the event of a 12-12 draw, the title would go to Karpov as the reigning champion). Kasparov showed he had learned some valuable lessons in the previous match, and although the score was quite even down to the final wire, a few spectacular games involving the Sicilian defence secured the World Championship for Kasparov at the tender age of 22 by a score of 13-11. This broke the existing record of youngest winner held for over twenty years by Mikhail Tal (he was 23 when he beat Botvinnik in 1960).

Related Topics:
1985 - Sicilian defence - Mikhail Tal - 1960

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Kasparov cemented his authority at the top of the international rating ladder with a series of fine tournament performances as well as defending his title three times against his arch-opponent Karpov.

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With the World Champion title in his grasp, Kasparov switched to battling against FIDE — as Bobby Fischer had done twenty years earlier, but this time from within FIDE. He created an organisation to represent chess players, the GrandMaster's Association (GMA) to give players more of a say in FIDE's activities.

Related Topics:
Bobby Fischer - GrandMaster's Association

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