Kasparov hid a family secret for many years

24. Harry Markowitz (b. 1927) Prominent American economist and programmer, founder of modern "portfolio theory", Nobel Prize winner in 1990 REVOLUTIONARY THEORIST Applying probability theory to investment planning is a bold step,

26. Harry Cohn Marilyn managed to play in only three films at the 20th Century Fox studio. The third picture was the burlesque “Skudda-u! Skudda-hey!", released in 1948. The film is as weak as the two cameo roles played in it by Marilyn. These were the roles

Harry I guess you could say that as a child I liked to show off. Mom was always sure that I would grow up and find a job in the entertainment industry. At school, I did not yet know what I wanted to do in the future, but even then it was clear: I love to perform, from the earliest years I received

At the age of ten, at a youth competition in Vilnius, Harry met master Alexander Nikitin, who became his coach for a long time. Until 1976, Nikitin periodically gave consultations and written assignments, then they began to work constantly in a team. On his recommendation, in August 1973, Harry came to see the ex-world champion Mikhail Botvinnik at the chess school and was accepted there. Botvinnik ensured that the young chess player studied according to an individual plan, and later received a scholarship. In 1974, in Moscow, at the Pioneer Palaces tournament (it was a team tournament in which the children's team of each Palace was led by a grandmaster who gave a simultaneous game session to other teams), Harry defeated grandmaster Yuri Averbakh. At the beginning of the next year, Harry took part in the youth championship of the country, playing against opponents 6-7 years older than him. In Leningrad, at the new tournament of the Palaces of Pioneers, in a session against world champion Anatoly Karpov, he achieved an equal position, but made a mistake and lost. In the same tournament, in a session against Viktor Korchnoi, he forced the grandmaster to a draw.

At the beginning of 1976, at the age of twelve, Garry Kasparov won the USSR Youth Chess Championship, most of whose participants were several years older. Thereafter, since Nikitin lived in Moscow, Baku master Alexander Shakarov became Kasparov's permanent coach. In the same year, at the insistence of the sports committee, Kasparov went to the World Championship among cadets (boys under 18), although his coaches objected to this, and shared third place. In early 1977, Kasparov again won the youth championship of the country, this time with a score of 8½ out of 9. At the World Cadet Championship, where the age limit had already been lowered to 17 years old, Kasparov took third place. Three rounds before the end, he shared first place with the future winner Jón Arnason, but due to fatigue, he brought the remaining games to a draw.

In January 1978, Kasparov won the Sokolsky Memorial in Minsk and received the title of Master of Sports in chess. He completed the master's norm five more rounds before the end, and in the last round he won against Anatoly Lutikov - this was Kasparov's first tournament meeting with a grandmaster. At the age of fifteen, Kasparov became Botvinnik's assistant. In July, he took first place in the qualifying tournament in Daugavpils and received the right to debut in the final of the USSR championship. The final took place at the end of the year, Kasparov scored 50% in 17 games, which allowed him not to qualify next year. In April 1979, Kasparov took part in a tournament in Banja Luka (Yugoslavia). The sixteen-year-old unranked master was admitted to the tournament, fourteen of the sixteen participants in which were grandmasters, at Botvinnik's urging. As a result, Kasparov sensationally took first place, without losing a single game and securing the overall victory with two rounds to go. Smeikal and Andersson are 2 points behind, while Petrosyan is 2½ points behind. In Banja Luka, Kasparov received his first grandmaster score. Having received an international rating for the first time, Kasparov immediately got to fifteenth place in the rating list. After returning to Baku, Kasparov was received by the influential politician Heydar Aliyev, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan and a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Since that time, Aliyev began to patronize Kasparov. At the end of the year, at the 47th USSR Championship, Kasparov started with three victories. A decline followed (six draws and three losses with one win), but a strong finish allowed him to share 3rd-4th places with 10 points out of 17. The veteran Yefim Geller won the tournament.

The fight for the title of world chess champion

In September 1982, an interzonal tournament was held in Moscow, from which the first two winners entered the candidates' matches. Kasparov went the distance without defeat (10 out of 13, +7 = 6) and was one and a half points ahead of Belyavsky and two points ahead of Tal and Andersson. In November, at the Olympiad in Lucerne, nineteen-year-old Kasparov played on the second board and scored 8½ points in 11 games. At the same time, in a match against Switzerland, he replaced Karpov in a principled game with black against Korchnoi and won in complications. Even then, Kasparov was considered as a favorite for the upcoming Candidates matches. At the beginning of the next year, Kasparov played a quarterfinal match in Moscow against Belyavsky. Kasparov won the second game, using the Tarrasch Defense specially prepared for this Candidates cycle. Belyavsky equalized in the fourth game, but Kasparov took the lead in the fifth, and finished the match ahead of schedule with victories in the eighth and ninth. According to the results of 1982, Kasparov became the owner of the chess "Oscar", largely due to the victory over Korchnoi in Lucerne.

Kasparov's opponent in the semi-final match scheduled for August 1983 was Viktor Korchnoi. According to the rules, the opponents had the right to choose the venue for the match from among the cities that provided the necessary conditions and the prize fund, and in disputable cases, the FIDE president had the decisive vote. Korchnoi chose Rotterdam, Kasparov chose Las Palmas, and FIDE President Campomanes chose the third option, Pasadena. The Soviet Chess Federation, on the pretext that the Soviet delegation would not be safe in the United States, decided that Kasparov would not go to Pasadena, and he was given a no-game loss. Three days later, in the second semi-final in Abu Dhabi, the loss to Smyslov in the match against Ribli was similarly credited. Heydar Aliyev, then First Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, helped Kasparov by persuading the country's leadership to give Kasparov the opportunity to play the match. As part of the agreements reached, the Soviet side agreed to pay a large fine and lift the embargo on performances by Soviet chess players along with Korchnoi. Both matches began in November 1983 in London. Korchnoi won the first game, the next four ended in a draw. In the sixth installment, Kasparov took advantage of his opponent's mistake and leveled the playing field. And starting from the seventh game, Kasparov imposed the Catalan opening for both colors on his opponent, which became a decisive factor. He won the seventh, ninth and eleventh games, again finishing the match ahead of schedule (+4 −1 =6). In the final, Kasparov met Smyslov, who was exactly three times his senior (Kasparov turned 21 on the last day of the match, Smyslov was 63). Kasparov won with a score of 8½:4½ without losing a single game.

In June 1984, Kasparov played board two in the USSR vs Rest of the World match. Kasparov won his micromatch against Timman +1 =3.

At the next FIDE congress, new rules were approved: matches for the title of world champion were played for the majority of 24 games, with a score of 12:12 the champion retained the title. In the summer of 1985, Kasparov gave a long interview to the West German magazine Spiegel, in which he accused the USSR Chess Federation of supporting Karpov by any means and antisemitism, and expressed doubt that a new match would take place. Three weeks before the start of the match, a meeting of the federation was to be held, at which a decision was planned to disqualify Kasparov. Kasparov was saved by the new head of the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Alexander Yakovlev, who convinced the country's leadership that the match should take place.

World champion

In April 1986, the “Kasparov-Botvinnik school” was opened in a rest home in Pestovo near Moscow, which was a renewed Botvinnik school. 13 talented schoolchildren were invited to the first session, including Konstantin Sakaev and Vladimir Akopyan. Later, Vladimir Kramnik, Alexei Shirov, Sergei Tiviakov and other future grandmasters studied at the school. In the same year, Kasparov graduated. In the rematch (London - Leningrad, July - October 1986), Kasparov defended the title of world champion. In this match, Kasparov received a comfortable three-point advantage after victories in the 14th and 16th games. Particularly tense and rich in events was the sixteenth game, in which Karpov countered an attack on his king with an attack on the queenside. In a game full of mistakes and difficult to analyze, Kasparov turned out to be stronger. But after that, the champion lost three games in a row and allowed Karpov to level the score. After the third defeat, Kasparov expelled International Master Yevgeny Vladimirov from the coaching staff, whom he suspected of passing the tests to Karpov. The decisive game was the 22nd game, in which Kasparov, recording the move before postponing, found a forced win. The last two meetings ended in a draw, Kasparov won 12½:11½.

At the end of the year, Kasparov, as part of the USSR national team, won the Olympiad in Dubai. The FIDE congress and the election of the president of the organization were also held there. Kasparov, in tandem with Raymond Keane, has supported Campomanes's opponent, the Brazilian Lucena, over the past year. However, Campomanes secured the support of the majority of the delegates, and Lucena withdrew his candidacy even before the vote.

On February 15, 1987, at the initiative of Kasparov, the Association of Grandmasters was created, whose task was to protect the interests of leading chess players and create a counterbalance to FIDE, which pursued a policy of supporting small federations. Kasparov became its president. At the end of the year, in Seville, Kasparov again faced a match against Karpov, who had previously defeated Andrei Sokolov, the finalist of the Candidates Cycle, in a match. Karpov took the lead twice after the second and fifth games, then Kasparov won two victories, in the sixteenth game Karpov equalized. In the penultimate, twenty-third game, Kasparov made a tactical miscalculation: he sacrificed a rook, but after three moves the sacrifice was refuted. In the last game, Kasparov needed to win, and he coped with this task. Contrary to assumptions, he did not go for aggravations, but accumulated a positional advantage. Karpov did not defend well, and Kasparov won the game, retaining his title (12:12).

In the 1988-1989 season, the Association of Grandmasters held the World Cup for the 25 strongest chess players in the world, which consisted of six round-robin stages. Each chess player could play in four tournaments, and the three best results counted. Kasparov took part in tournaments in Belfort, Reykjavik, Barcelona and Skelleftea. He won the first two tournaments, in the other two he shared first places with Lyuboevich and Karpov, respectively, and eventually took first place in the overall standings, slightly ahead of Karpov. All the strongest Soviet grandmasters took part in the 1988 USSR Championship. Kasparov and Karpov went the whole distance without defeat and shared first place, overtaking the closest pursuers Yusupov and Salov by one and a half points. The regulations provided for a match of four games for first place, but it did not take place.

In the fall of 1989, Kasparov won the double round-robin grandmaster tournament in Tilburg by a huge margin. He scored 12 points out of 14 and was 3½ ahead of second-place finisher Korchnoi. Thanks to this victory, Kasparov surpassed Fisher's record rating of 1972 (2785 points). At the end of the year, Kasparov won another tournament in Belgrade with a score of 9½ out of 11 (Timman and Ehlvest were three points behind), and his rating reached 2811. When Kasparov won the tournament in Linares in 1990 with a score of 8 out of 11 (second place was taken by Boris Gelfand, Boris Gulko inflicted the only defeat on the champion), the points scored were not enough to maintain the rating. At the end of 1990, in New York and Lyon, in the fifth match against Karpov, which won the Candidates cycle, Kasparov again defended the title. At the start of the match, there was a scandal: Kasparov did not play under the Soviet flag, but under the white-blue-red Russian one. Karpov's delegation protested, and after four games both flags were removed. In the interval from 16 to 20 games, Kasparov won three games with one defeat, and after draws in the next two games, Kasparov scored the twelfth point, which allowed him to retain the title ahead of schedule. The result of the match is 12½:11½ in favor of the champion. As the winner, Kasparov received a check for $1.7 million and a diamond trophy valued at $600,000 - the largest prize money in the history of world championships. Shortly before this match, Kasparov broke up with his longtime coach A. Nikitin.

1991 began with a tournament in Linares, where Kasparov was ahead of Vasily Ivanchuk, who won against the champion and a personal meeting. In Amsterdam, Kasparov shared 3rd-4th places, and Salov won. Kasparov then won the double round-robin tournament in Tilburg with a score of 10 out of 14; second place winner Short was one and a half points behind. At the end of the year, Kasparov shared 2-3 places with Gelfand at the tournament in Reggio nel Emilia. The first place was taken by Viswanathan Anand , for whom this victory was a breakthrough into the chess elite . Linares in 1992 was a victorious year for Kasparov, he did not lose a single game and scored 10 out of 13, two points more than Ivanchuk and Timman, who took prizes. That same year, a tournament was held in Dortmund, where Kasparov tied for first place with Ivanchuk. He scored 6 out of 9 and lost two games at once - to Kamsky and Huebner. Linares in 1993, Kasparov again won with a score of 10 out of 13, while winning a bright victory over Karpov with black in 27 moves.

In February 1992, the first congress of the Russian Chess Federation took place. Kasparov nominated Arkady Murashev, head of the Moscow police department and Kasparov's ally in the Democratic Party of Russia, for the presidency. Murashev won, and Karpov, due to a conflict with Kasparov around the elections, refused to play for the Russian team at the 1992 Olympiad (the Russian team won it thanks to the very productive game of Kasparov and the young Vladimir Kramnik). A year later, new presidential elections were held, in which instead of Murashev, Yevgeny Bebchuk, supported by Karpov, was elected.

Break with FIDE and creation of the Professional Chess Association

Disagreeing with the policy pursued by FIDE, on February 27, 1993, Kasparov and Nigel Short, who won the Candidates cycle, announced that they would play their match without the participation of FIDE and under the auspices of a new body - the Professional Chess Association (PCHA). FIDE stripped Garry Kasparov of the title of world chess champion and excluded him from their rating lists. Kasparov and Short were reinstated in the rankings only the following year, before the PCA had time to release its own ranking, which was headed by Kasparov. Simultaneously with the Kasparov-Short match, a FIDE World Championship match was held between Karpov and the finalist of the Candidates Cycle Timman. The match between Kasparov and Short was played for most of the 24 games. Kasparov immediately took the lead 3½:½ and ended the match ahead of schedule after the 20th game (+6 −1 =13). Subsequently, Kasparov said that the break with FIDE in 1993 was the biggest mistake in his chess career.

At the 1994 Linares Category XVIII Super Tournament, Kasparov tied for second place with Shirov, with Karpov taking first place with 11 out of 13 points and a 2½ point lead. This tournament is considered one of the strongest in the history of chess, and Karpov's performance is one of the most impressive tournament victories of all time. The tournament was also notable for an incident involving Kasparov and seventeen-year-old Judit Polgar. Kasparov made a knight's move, saw a possible response from White and moved the piece to another square. The camera recorded that before that he took his hand off the knight for 1/4 second, so according to the rules, Kasparov could no longer change the move, but the game continued. In August, Kasparov won a two-round tournament in Novgorod, and in September, a tournament in Zurich, and at the finish of the tournament he defeated two direct competitors - Shirov and Yusupov. In April 1995, the first of three stages of the PSHA Super Classic series of tournaments took place - the Tal Memorial in Riga. Decisive for determining the winner was the game between Kasparov and Anand, who were soon to have a match for the world championship. Kasparov played the rarely seen Evans Gambit at the highest level and won on the 25th move. The second tournament of the series was held in Novgorod a month later. Kasparov was a point ahead of Short, Ivanchuk, Elvest and Topalov.

In the fall of 1995, Kasparov won a world championship match against Viswanathan Anand held at the World Trade Center in New York. The first eight games ended in a draw, the ninth was won by Anand, but in the next five games Kasparov scored four victories. The match ended ahead of schedule again - after the eighteenth game. Kasparov explained the result as follows: “He was prepared very well, personally for me. Anand's coaches took into account all my habits, preferences and peculiarities, the openings that I play, and so on and so forth, but they did not take into account the individual characteristics of Anand himself. They imposed on Vishy a style of play that was unusual for him. At the end of the year, in the last Super Classic tournament in Horgen, Kasparov finished fifth with 5 points out of 10 and only one game won. The first and second places were shared by Ivanchuk, who inflicted the only defeat on Kasparov, and Kramnik.

In January 1996, the main sponsor of the PCA, Intel, announced that it would not renew its sponsorship agreement with the PCA. According to Kasparov, the reason for this was Kasparov's desire to play a match against the Deep Blue computer, developed by IBM, a competitor to Intel. Soon the PCA ceased to exist.

In 1996, Kasparov won the first ever category XXI tournament in Las Palmas, which had a record average rating of participants (2756.6). In this tournament Anand, Ivanchuk, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik and Topalov played in two rounds. Kasparov scored one victory each over Topalov, Karpov and Ivanchuk and drew the rest of the games, ahead of Anand, who eventually took second place, by a point. The first tournament with a higher average rating of participants took place in 2009 (Tal Memorial in Moscow). The following year, Kasparov won in Linares, while winning head-to-head matches against all participants ranked second to sixth, and losing to Ivanchuk, and Novgorod, and also shared first place in Tilburg with Kramnik and Svidler.

In 1998, Kasparov and the newly created organization the World Chess Council, led by the organizer of tournaments in Linares, Luis Rentero, scheduled a match for the title. The challenger was supposed to be decided in the match between Anand and Kramnik, but Anand refused, as he was bound by obligations not to play in the challenger cycles not under the auspices of FIDE, so he was replaced by Shirov. Shirov unexpectedly won 5½:3½ and qualified for the match against Kasparov, which was scheduled for the fall of that year. However, due to financial problems of the sponsor - Rentero - the match did not take place.

In 1999 he won an exceptional match against the whole world. Subsequently, over 18 months in 1999 and 2000, Kasparov won six super tournaments in a row, not lower than the 18th category each. In early 1999, Kasparov won the annual Wijk aan Zee tournament (10 out of 13 with one loss to I. Sokolov; Anand scored 9½, Kramnik 8). He then won in Linares with a score of +7 −0 =7, with five victories as black. Kramnik and Anand were 2½ points behind. In May, a tournament was held in Sarajevo, in which Anand and Kramnik did not take part. Kasparov scored 7 out of 9 (without defeat), Bareev and Shirov shared 2-3 places (6 each). In the FIDE rating list of July 1999, Kasparov achieved a record rating of 2851. The following year, he won another tournament each in Wijk aan Zee, Linares and Sarajevo. In Sarajevo, Shirov became Kasparov's main competitor, but he lost in the penultimate round to Movsesyan, whom Kasparov himself defeated in the last round.

According to Kasparov, this is the best game he has ever played.

Man versus computer

Of great interest were Garry Kasparov's matches against chess programs. In 1989, the Deep Thought chess program, running on the hardware of the Sun-4 computer, achieved significant success. For the first time in history, the program beat an international grandmaster (Bent Larsen) in an official tournament.

On October 22, 1989, a match of two blitz games between Garry Kasparov and Deep Thought took place in New York. The world champion won them easily. Particularly indicative was the second meeting, in which Kasparov won in a spectacular combinational style. After the match, Kasparov stated:

If a computer can beat the best of the best in chess, this will mean that the computer is able to compose the best music, write the best books. I can not believe it. If a computer with a rating of 2800, that is, equal to mine, is created, I myself will consider it my duty to challenge it to a match in order to protect the human race.

In 1996, IBM representatives invited Garry Kasparov to play a match against their Deep Blue chess machine with a prize fund of $500,000. Deep Blue is a supercomputer based on the RS6000 system, consisting of 32 nodes, including a total of 512 processors , of which 480 were hardware-optimized for the chess program. The performance of "Deep Blue" on general calculations (without the use of special chess processors) corresponded to 11.38 GFLOPS; the computer could evaluate up to 200 million positions per second. Kasparov's first match against a chess computer took place in February 1996, and the man won it with a score of 4: 2, but at the same time lost the first game. It was the first time in history that a computer won a game against a world champion in classical time control.

In the second match, IBM offered a prize pool of $1.1 million, of which $700,000 was to go to the winner. A six-match duel with normal time control (120 minutes for 40 moves) took place in May 1997. As a result, for the first time in history, the world champion lost to the computer with a score of 2½:3½.

2nd game of the match "Deep Blue" - Kasparov (1997). The computer brilliantly implements positional superiority 35. Bxd6! Bxd6 36. ab ab 37. Ce4!!. Why didn't White play 36. Qb6 Qe7 and then 37. ab Rab8 38 Qxa6? Black sacrifices three pawns, getting difficult counterplay with possible chances, but the benefit of the continuation chosen by the program 37. Ce4 not at all obvious. According to Sergei Makarychev, it is difficult to explain how a chess program could find such a typically human subtle positional move.

The supercomputer was in a separate room. A representative of the IBM team was sitting at the board opposite Kasparov Feng Xiong Xu, who stood at the origins of the project, or one of the other two Deep Blue programmers. All communication with "Deep Blue" Feng Xiong Xu carried out through a special monitor. The technical terminal (monitor) in the room adjacent to the machine room was under the control of one of the referees of the match. One of the full-time grandmasters was also on duty there, who could accept or reject Kasparov's offer of a draw. Theoretically, a specially invited chess player could be between the monitor in the game room and the supercomputer and influence the course of the game.

In the second game of the 1997 match, Kasparov, having fallen into a difficult situation, sacrificed a pawn (see diagram). "Deep Blue" thought about the 35th move for 14 minutes, and about the 36th move for 6 minutes, although usually it took from one to five minutes to "think over" the move, and fragments of key moments for Kasparov. Details of how the program "thought" were not provided, and Kasparov accused IBM of cheating. According to Kasparov, in several cases a person could help the computer, since the program played with drops, periodically choosing moves that were not typical for publicly available programs of that time.

20 years after the match, Kasparov summed up his doubts in his new book Deep Thinking:

I've been asked countless times "did Deep Blue cheat?" and my candid answer has always been "I don't know". After twenty years of soul-searching, debunking and analysis, my answer is now no. As for IBM, how far they went to win was a betrayal of fair competition, but the real victim of that betrayal was science.

Worked under Windows Server 2000 operating system and 8 Intel Xeon 1.6 GHz processors. Kasparov, using an "anti-computer" strategy, won the first game and had a significant advantage in the second, but brought it to a draw. In the third game, he made a gross miscalculation and resigned on move 34. In the remaining games, Kasparov was cautious and brought them to quick draws. Match result - 3:3.

In November 2003, the Kasparov match against Fritz X3D (Deep Fritz version with a three-dimensional interface) took place. According to the conditions of the match, a person had to play in special 3D glasses. "Deep Fritz" ran on a computer with 4 Intel Xeon processors. The year before, the same program had drawn in a duel with Vladimir Kramnik, which was similar in terms of rules. The meeting took place in New York. In a match of 4 games with one victory, one defeat and two draws, an equal result of 2:2 was achieved. It is interesting to note that in the fourth game "Deep Fritz" unexpectedly offered to sacrifice the queen, but the grandmaster rejected the sacrifice and calmly brought the game to a draw. Kasparov received $175,000 and a gold statuette as a result of the fight.

"Deep Junior" and "Deep Fritz" are commercial programs with an evaluation speed of the order of 3-4 million positions per second (2003). Copies of the programs were provided to Kasparov before the match for analysis. The computer with the program was located directly in the playing hall. There were no suspicions of fraud on the part of Kasparov. Summing up the match with Deep Junior, Kasparov shared the idea that in a few years a person will no longer have any chances in confrontation with chess programs.

Former world champion

During 2001, Kasparov won three tournaments in a row. The first competition in the rank of ex-world champion for him was the tournament in Wijk aan Zee. Kasparov scored 9 out of 13 and beat Anand by half a point, Kramnik shared 3rd-4th places. Kasparov then went on to win the annual tournament in Linares (7½ out of 10) and the tournament in Astana, in which Russia again finished first. On the first board, he scored 7½ points out of 9, this result corresponded to a rating of 2933, and according to this indicator, Kasparov's performance was absolutely the best at the Olympiad.

Linares 2003 was unsuccessful, Kasparov shared 3-4 places with Anand. In the second round, Kasparov lost the winning position against fifteen-year-old Teimour Radjabov. When it was announced at the closing that this game was recognized as the most beautiful in the tournament, Kasparov publicly stated that he regards this choice as a public insult and humiliation. In 2004, Kasparov played in the Russian Chess Championship for the first time. In the 57th National Championship, ten of the strongest chess players played, with the exception of Kramnik and Karpov. Kasparov won with a score of +5 −0 =5 and was one and a half points ahead of Grischuk.

Kasparov announced the end of his sports career on March 10, 2005 at a press conference after the end of the super tournament in Linares. In it, Kasparov scored an equal number of points with Topalov, from whom he suffered the only defeat in the last round, but according to additional indicators (the number of victories in black) he was declared the winner. Kasparov explained his decision by a lack of motivation - he achieved everything in chess - and by the fact that he was never given the opportunity to fight for the world title again after losing to Kramnik (in particular, the match against FIDE world champion Ponomarev did not take place). Kasparov also said that he plans to continue playing in blitz tournaments and other demonstration events in the future, and will make work on books and participation in Russian politics his main priorities. Carlsen later clarified that he had become responsible for his career decisions, but would continue to be in contact with Kasparov.

In the autumn of the same 2010, Kasparov supported Karpov, who ran for the presidency of FIDE. However, the incumbent president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov won the election.

In 2014, Kasparov, running for Croatia, himself became Ilyumzhinov's rival in the next elections. He built the campaign around criticizing FIDE as a "corrupt organization" and Ilyumzhinov as an ally of "Putin's dictatorial regime." In turn, Ilyumzhinov accused Kasparov of trying to buy delegate votes: as a result of a leak, a draft agreement between Kasparov and a member of his team, the FIDE Secretary General, became available to the public Ignatius Leong, according to which Leong was supposed to ensure that Asian delegates vote for Kasparov for a fee. Ilyumzhinov won the election with a score of 110:61. In September 2015, the FIDE Ethics Commission found Kasparov and Leong guilty of violating paragraph 2.1 of the FIDE Code of Ethics, which prohibits offering or accepting a bribe to influence the outcome of a chess game or election to a FIDE position. On October 21, 2015, FIDE suspended Kasparov and Leong from any official activity related to chess. “Kasparov and Leong are prohibited from holding any position in FIDE, including in its member national federations, continental associations, affiliated organizations, as well as taking part in FIDE meetings as a delegate, representative or member for two years,” the statement reads. in the organization's statement. He scored 3.5 out of 9 in rapid chess and 9 out of 18 in blitz chess, separating 8-10 places on total points.

Garry Kimovich Kasparov (surname at birth Weinstein). Born on April 13, 1963 in Baku. Soviet and Russian chess player, 13th world chess champion, chess writer and politician.

International Grandmaster (1980), Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1985), Champion of the USSR (1981, 1988), Champion of Russia (2004). Eight-time winner of the World Chess Olympiads: four times as a member of the USSR team (1980, 1982, 1986, 1988) and four times as a member of the Russian team (1992, 1994, 1996, 2002). Winner of eleven chess "Oscars" (prizes for the best chess player of the year). Kasparov single-handedly led the FIDE rating from 1985 to 2006 with two short breaks: in 1994 he was excluded from the rating by a FIDE decision made in 1993, and in January 1996 Kasparov had the same rating as Vladimir Kramnik. In 1999, Garry Kasparov reached a record rating of 2851 points, which lasted 13.5 years until he was beaten by Magnus Carlsen.

Kasparov became world champion in 1985 by defeating . The confrontation between the “two Ks” lasted from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, during which time Karpov and Kasparov played five matches for the world title. In 1993, Kasparov and new challenger Nigel Short left FIDE and played a match under the auspices of the new organization, the PCA. FIDE stripped Kasparov of his title, and until 2006 there were two world champions - according to FIDE and according to the "classic" version. In 2000, Kasparov lost a world championship match to Vladimir Kramnik.

In 2005, he announced that he was ending his chess career in order to devote himself to political activities. He participated in a number of opposition movements: he was the chairman of the United Civil Front, one of the co-chairs of the All-Russian Civil Congress, and a deputy of the National Assembly of the Russian Federation. In 2008, he became one of the founders and a member of the Federal Bureau of the United Democratic Movement "Solidarity", but in 2013 he left its governing bodies. In October 2012, he was elected to the Coordinating Council of the Russian opposition. In June 2013, he announced his departure from Russia and the continuation of the fight against the "Putin regime" in the international arena. Since 2011, he has been the head of the International Council of the Human Rights Defense Fund in New York.

In 2014, he participated in the FIDE presidential election, losing to the incumbent president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

Garry Kasparov was born in Baku on April 13, 1963, his father Kim Moiseevich Weinstein was an energy engineer by profession, his mother Klara (Aida) Shagenovna Kasparova was an engineer, a specialist in automation and telemechanics. Kasparov is of Jewish descent on the paternal side and of Armenian origin on the maternal side.

Harry's grandfather - Moses Rubinovich Weinstein (1906-1963) - was a famous Baku composer and conductor, head of the musical part of several drama theaters in the city. The whole family on the paternal side was musical: the younger brother of his father, Leonid Moiseevich Weinstein, is also a composer, an honored art worker of Azerbaijan, and his grandmother is a music teacher in a secondary school. Cousin Timur Weinstein is a TV producer.

Kasparov's parents were fond of chess and solved chess problems published in the newspaper. Harry often followed them and once suggested a solution; he was five years old. After that, his father taught Harry the game. Garry began regular chess lessons at the Baku Palace of Pioneers at the age of seven, master Oleg Isaakovich Privorotsky became his first coach. At the same age, he lost his father, who died of lymphosarcoma. Klara Shagenovna, after the death of her husband, devoted herself entirely to her son's chess career.

In 1975, when Harry was 12 years old, Klara Kasparova changed his last name from his father's Weinstein to Kasparov. This was done with the consent of relatives to facilitate the further chess career of a young, but already promising chess player, who, as she believed, could be hampered by anti-Semitism that existed in the USSR.

In 1977, Garry Kasparov joined the Komsomol.

At the age of ten, at a youth competition in Vilnius, Harry met master Alexander Nikitin, who became his coach for a long time. Until 1976, Nikitin periodically gave consultations and written assignments, then they began to work constantly as a team. On his recommendation, in August 1973, Harry came to see the ex-world champion's chess school and was accepted there. Botvinnik ensured that the young chess player studied according to an individual plan, and later received a scholarship.

In 1974, in Moscow, at the Pioneer Palaces tournament (it was a team tournament in which the children's team of each Palace was led by a grandmaster who gave simultaneous play to other teams), Harry defeated grandmaster Yuri Averbakh. At the beginning of the next year, Harry took part in the youth championship of the country, playing against opponents 6-7 years older than him. In Leningrad, at the new tournament of the Palaces of Pioneers, in a session against world champion Anatoly Karpov, he achieved an equal position, but made a mistake and lost. In the same tournament, in a session against Viktor Korchnoi, he forced the grandmaster to a draw.

At the beginning of 1976, at the age of twelve, Garry Kasparov won the USSR Youth Chess Championship, most of whose participants were several years older. After that, since Nikitin lived in Moscow, Baku master Alexander Shakarov became Kasparov's permanent coach. In the same year, at the insistence of the sports committee, Kasparov went to the World Championship among cadets (boys under 18), although his coaches objected to this, and shared third place. In early 1977, Kasparov again won the youth championship of the country, this time with a score of 8½ out of 9. At the World Cadet Championship, where the age limit had already been lowered to 17 years old, Kasparov took third place. Three rounds before the end, he shared first place with the future winner Jón Arnason, but due to fatigue, he brought the remaining games to a draw.

In January 1978, Kasparov won the Sokolsky Memorial in Minsk and received the title of Master of Sports in chess. He completed the master's norm five more rounds before the end, and in the last round he defeated Anatoly Lutikov - this was Kasparov's first tournament meeting with a grandmaster. At the age of fifteen, Kasparov became Botvinnik's assistant. In July, he took first place in the qualifying tournament in Daugavpils and received the right to debut in the final of the USSR championship. The final took place at the end of the year, Kasparov scored 50% in 17 games, which allowed him not to qualify next year.

In April 1979, Kasparov took part in a tournament in Banja Luka (Yugoslavia). The sixteen-year-old unrated master was admitted to the tournament, fourteen of the sixteen participants in which were grandmasters, at Botvinnik's urging. As a result, Kasparov sensationally took first place, without losing a single game and securing the overall victory with two rounds to go. Smeikal and Andersson are 2 points behind, Petrosyan is 2½ points behind. In Banja Luka, Kasparov received his first grandmaster score. Having received an international rating for the first time, Kasparov immediately got to fifteenth place in the rating list.

After returning to Baku, Kasparov was received by the influential politician Heydar Aliyev, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan and a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Since that time, Aliyev began to patronize Kasparov. At the end of the year, at the 47th USSR Championship, Kasparov started with three victories. Then a decline followed (six draws and three losses with one win), but a strong finish allowed him to share 3rd-4th places with 10 points out of 17. The veteran Efim Geller won the tournament.

At a tournament in Baku (spring 1980), Kasparov fulfilled the norm of a grandmaster. He took first place, beating Belyavsky by half a point, with whom he went through the tournament without defeat. In the same year, again without losing a single game, he won the World Youth Chess Championship in Dortmund, where Nigel Short became the second winner. Then Kasparov graduated from high school with a gold medal. At the end of the year, he joined the USSR national team at the Chess Olympiad as the second substitute and showed the third result on his board.

At the beginning of 1981, Kasparov played on the first board of the youth team in the quadruple match-tournament of the USSR national teams. He took first place on the board, and both games with world champion Karpov ended in draws. Later that year at the Moscow International Tournament, in which Karpov won, Kasparov shared 2nd-4th places with Smyslov and Polugaevsky. The meeting between Kasparov and Karpov took place in the last round, the rivals quickly agreed to a draw. In December, eighteen-year-old Kasparov shared the title of USSR champion with Lev Psakhis, becoming the youngest USSR chess champion in the history of the country. The championship was held in Frunze. Kasparov already lost to Psakhis in the second round, and then they took turns leading. Before the last round, Psakhis was ahead by half a point, but could not win against Agzamov, while Kasparov outplayed Tukmakov with black.

In September 1982, an interzonal tournament was held in Moscow, from which the first two winners entered the candidates' matches. Kasparov went the distance without defeat (10 out of 13, +7 = 6) and was one and a half points ahead of Belyavsky and two points ahead of Andersson. In November, at the Olympiad in Lucerne, nineteen-year-old Kasparov played on the second board and scored 8½ points in 11 games. At the same time, in the match against Switzerland, he replaced Karpov in a principled game with black against Korchnoi and won in complications. Even then, Kasparov was considered as a favorite for the upcoming Candidates matches. At the beginning of the next year, Kasparov played a quarterfinal match in Moscow against Belyavsky. Kasparov won the second game, using the Tarrasch Defense specially prepared for this Candidates cycle. Belyavsky equalized in the fourth game, but Kasparov took the lead in the fifth, and finished the match ahead of schedule with victories in the eighth and ninth. According to the results of 1982, Kasparov became the owner of the chess Oscar, largely due to the victory over Korchnoi in Lucerne.

Kasparov's rival in the semifinal match, scheduled for August 1983, was Viktor Korchnoi. According to the rules, the opponents had the right to choose the venue for the match from among the cities that provided the necessary conditions and the prize fund, and in disputable cases, the FIDE President had the decisive vote. Korchnoi chose Rotterdam, Kasparov chose Las Palmas, and FIDE President Campomanes chose the third option, Pasadena. The Soviet Chess Federation, on the pretext that the Soviet delegation would not be safe in the United States, decided that Kasparov would not go to Pasadena, and he was given a no-game loss. Three days later, in the second semi-final in Abu Dhabi, the defeat of Smyslov in the match against Ribli was similarly counted. Heydar Aliyev, then First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, helped Kasparov by persuading the country's leadership to give Kasparov the opportunity to play the match. As part of the agreements reached, the Soviet side agreed to pay a large fine and lift the embargo on the performances of Soviet chess players together with Korchnoi. Both matches began in November 1983 in London. Korchnoi won the first game, the next four ended in a draw. In the sixth installment, Kasparov took advantage of his opponent's mistake and leveled the playing field. And starting from the seventh game, Kasparov imposed the Catalan opening for both colors on his opponent, which became a decisive factor. He won the seventh, ninth and eleventh games, again finishing the match ahead of schedule (+4 −1 =6). In the final, Kasparov met Smyslov, who was exactly three times his senior (Kasparov turned 21 on the last day of the match, Smyslov was 63). Kasparov won with a score of 8½:4½ without losing a single game.

In June 1984, Kasparov played on the second board in the "USSR vs. the rest of the world" match. Kasparov won his micromatch against Timman +1 =3.

The first match for the title of world chess champion Garry Kasparov played against world champion Anatoly Karpov. Prior to that, they played three games in various official competitions, which ended in a draw. To win, you had to be the first to win 6 games. Such a regulation was introduced in February 1977, and two matches between Karpov and Korchnoi took place according to it.

The match began on September 10, 1984 in Moscow. Already after the ninth game, Karpov led 4-0, and in subsequent games Kasparov changed tactics: he began to play for a draw in every game and force Karpov to play for a different color against his favorite schemes. A series of seventeen draws followed, but the twenty-seventh game was again won by Karpov, who now had one point left to win the match. Kasparov "soaked" the score in the thirty-second game. In the forty-first game, Karpov was close to winning, but missed it, and Kasparov won the forty-seventh and forty-eighth games. With a score of 5:3 on February 15, 1985, FIDE President Florencio Campomanes at a press conference announced the termination of the match, citing the exhaustion of the physical and mental resources of the participants, and a rematch between the same rivals in 1985. At the same time, both Karpov and Kasparov expressed their readiness to continue the match; Kasparov at the same press conference accused Campomanes of deciding to stop the match only when the challenger had a chance to win. Former head of the USSR Goskomsport Chess Department, grandmaster Nikolai Krogius in his memoir book “Chess. Game and Life" indicates that the match was interrupted at the direction of Heydar Aliyev, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Later, Kasparov called February 15, 1985 "the beginning of his political career."

At the next FIDE congress, new rules were approved: matches for the title of world champion were played for the majority of 24 games, with a score of 12:12 the champion retained the title. In the summer of 1985, Kasparov gave a long interview to the West German magazine Spiegel, in which he accused the USSR Chess Federation of supporting Karpov by any means and anti-Semitism and expressed doubt that a new match would take place. Three weeks before the start of the match, a meeting of the federation was to be held, at which a decision was planned to disqualify Kasparov. Kasparov was saved by the new head of the propaganda department of the CPSU Central Committee, Alexander Yakovlev, who convinced the country's leadership that the match should take place.

A new match between Karpov and Kasparov began on September 1, 1985 in Moscow. Kasparov won the first game with White using a rare continuation in the Nimzowitsch Defense. Karpov took the lead after winning the fourth and fifth games, the next five ended in a draw. A. Suetin described this segment as "walking on a wire": Karpov gained an advantage, but Kasparov nullified it with an inventive defense. In the eleventh game, Kasparov equalized the score thanks to a rough “blunder” by his opponent. The sixteenth game became a turning point, in which Kasparov used a gambit variation in the Sicilian defense with black and won a spectacular victory (the same variation had previously been tested in the twelfth game, but then Karpov did not go for complications and the game quickly ended in a draw). Soon Kasparov won another game. The world champion reduced the gap to a minimum in the twenty-second installment. The penultimate game of the match ended in a draw, and in the last one, in which Karpov, who played White, was satisfied only with a victory that allowed him to equalize the score and retain the title of champion, Kasparov turned out to be stronger in complications. The match ended on November 10, 1985 with a score of 13:11 in favor of the challenger.

At 22 years, 6 months and 27 days old, Kasparov became the youngest world champion in chess history.(previously Mikhail Tal won the world championship match against Mikhail Botvinnik in 1960 at the age of 23). Kasparov continues to hold this record. In 2013, Magnus Carlsen became world champion, also under 23 years old, but he was a few months older than Kasparov.

In April 1986, the “Kasparov-Botvinnik school” was opened in a rest home in Pestovo near Moscow, which was a renewed Botvinnik school. 13 talented schoolchildren were invited to the first session, including Konstantin Sakaev and Vladimir Akopyan. Later, Vladimir Kramnik, Alexei Shirov, Sergei Tiviakov and other future grandmasters studied at the school. In the same year, Kasparov graduated from the Azerbaijan Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages.

In the rematch (London - Leningrad, July - October 1986), Kasparov defended the title of world champion. In this match, Kasparov received a comfortable three-point advantage after victories in the 14th and 16th games. Particularly tense and rich in events was the sixteenth game, in which Karpov countered an attack on his king with an attack on the queenside. In a game full of mistakes and difficult to analyze, Kasparov turned out to be stronger. But after that, the champion lost three games in a row and allowed Karpov to level the score. After the third defeat, Kasparov expelled International Master Yevgeny Vladimirov from the coaching staff, whom he suspected of transferring analyzes to Karpov. The decisive game was the 22nd game, in which Kasparov, recording the move before postponing, found a forced win. The last two meetings ended in a draw, Kasparov won 12½:11½.

At the end of the year, Kasparov, as part of the USSR national team, won the Olympiad in Dubai. The FIDE congress and the election of the president of the organization were also held there. Kasparov, in tandem with Raymond Keane, has supported Campomanes's opponent, the Brazilian Lucena, over the past year. However, Campomanes secured the support of the majority of the delegates, and Lucena withdrew his candidacy before the vote.

On February 15, 1987, at the initiative of Kasparov, the Association of Grandmasters was created, whose task was to protect the interests of leading chess players and create a counterbalance to FIDE, which pursued a policy of supporting small federations. Kasparov became its president. At the end of the year, in Seville, Kasparov again had a match against Karpov, who had previously defeated Andrei Sokolov, the finalist of the Candidates Cycle, in a match. Karpov took the lead twice after the second and fifth games, then Kasparov won two victories, in the sixteenth game Karpov equalized. In the penultimate, twenty-third game, Kasparov made a tactical miscalculation: he sacrificed a rook, but after three moves the sacrifice was refuted. In the last game, Kasparov needed to win, and he coped with this task. Contrary to assumptions, he did not go for aggravations, but accumulated a positional advantage. Karpov did not defend well, and Kasparov won the game, retaining his title (12:12).

In the 1988-1989 season, the Association of Grandmasters held the World Cup for the 25 strongest chess players in the world, which consisted of six round-robin stages. Each chess player could play in four tournaments, and the three best results counted. Kasparov took part in tournaments in Belfort, Reykjavik, Barcelona and Skelleftea. He won the first two tournaments, in the other two he shared the first places with Ljuboevich and Karpov, respectively, and eventually took first place in the overall standings, slightly ahead of Karpov. All the strongest Soviet grandmasters took part in the 1988 USSR Championship. Kasparov and Karpov went the whole distance undefeated and shared first place, overtaking Yusupov and Salov, their closest pursuers, by one and a half points. The regulations provided for a match of four games for first place, but it did not take place.

In the fall of 1989, Kasparov won the two-round grandmaster tournament in Tilburg by a huge margin. He scored 12 points out of 14 and was 3½ ahead of second-place finisher Korchnoi. Thanks to this victory, Kasparov surpassed Fisher's record rating of 1972 (2785 points). At the end of the year, Kasparov won another tournament in Belgrade with a score of 9½ out of 11 (Timman and Ehlvest were three points behind), and his rating reached 2811. When Kasparov won the tournament in Linares 1990 with a score of 8 out of 11 (second place was taken by Boris Gelfand, Boris Gulko inflicted the only defeat on the champion), the points scored were not enough to maintain the rating.

At the end of 1990, in New York and Lyon, in the fifth match against Karpov, which won the Candidates cycle, Kasparov again defended the title. At the start of the match, there was a scandal: Kasparov did not play under the Soviet flag, but under the white-blue-red Russian one. Karpov's delegation protested, and after four games both flags were removed. In the interval from 16 to 20 games, Kasparov won three games with one defeat, and after draws in the next two games, Kasparov scored the twelfth point, which allowed him to retain the title ahead of schedule. The result of the match is 12½:11½ in favor of the champion. As the winner, Kasparov received a check for $1.7 million and a diamond trophy valued at $600,000 - the largest prize money in the history of world championships. Shortly before this match, Kasparov broke up with his longtime coach A. Nikitin.

1991 began with a tournament in Linares, where Kasparov was ahead of Vasily Ivanchuk, who won the champion and a personal meeting. In Amsterdam, Kasparov shared 3rd-4th places, and Salov won. Kasparov then won the double round-robin tournament in Tilburg with a score of 10 out of 14; second place winner Short was one and a half points behind. At the end of the year, Kasparov shared 2-3 places with Gelfand at the tournament in Reggio Emilia. The first place was taken by Viswanathan Anand, for whom this victory was a breakthrough into the chess elite. Linares in 1992 was a victorious year for Kasparov, he did not lose a single game and scored 10 out of 13, two points more than Ivanchuk and Timman, who took prizes. In the same year, a tournament was held in Dortmund, where Kasparov shared first place with Ivanchuk. He scored 6 out of 9 and lost two games at once - to Kamsky and Huebner. Linares in 1993, Kasparov again won with a score of 10 out of 13, while winning a bright victory over Karpov with black in 27 moves.

In February 1992, the first congress of the Russian Chess Federation took place. Kasparov nominated Arkady Murashov, head of the Moscow police department and Kasparov's ally in the Democratic Party of Russia, for the presidency. Murashov won, and Karpov, because of the conflict with Kasparov around the elections, refused to play for the Russian team at the 1992 Olympiad (the Russian team won it thanks to the very productive game of Kasparov and the young Vladimir Kramnik). A year later, new presidential elections were held, in which Evgeny Bebchuk, supported by Karpov, was elected instead of Murashov.

Disagreeing with the policy pursued by FIDE, on February 27, 1993, Kasparov and Nigel Short, who won the Candidates cycle, announced that they would play their match without the participation of FIDE and under the auspices of a new body - the Professional Chess Association (PCHA). FIDE stripped Garry Kasparov of the World Chess Champion title and excluded him from their rating lists.

Kasparov and Short were reinstated in the rankings only the following year, before the PCA had time to release its own ranking, which was headed by Kasparov. Simultaneously with the Kasparov-Short match, a FIDE World Championship match was held between Karpov and the finalist of the Candidates Cycle Timman. The match between Kasparov and Short was played for most of the 24 games. Kasparov immediately took the lead 3½:½ and ended the match ahead of schedule after the 20th game (+6 −1 =13). Subsequently, Kasparov said that the break with FIDE in 1993 was the biggest mistake in his chess career.

At the 1994 Linares Category XVIII Super Tournament, Kasparov shared second place with Shirov, with Karpov taking first place with 11 out of 13 points and a 2½ point lead. This tournament is considered one of the strongest in the history of chess, and Karpov's performance is one of the most impressive tournament victories of all time. The tournament was also notable for an incident involving Kasparov and seventeen-year-old Judit Polgar. Kasparov made a knight's move, saw a possible response from White and moved the piece to another square. The camera recorded that before that he took his hand off the knight for 1/4 second, so according to the rules, Kasparov could no longer change the move, but the game continued. In August, Kasparov won a two-round tournament in Novgorod, and in September, a tournament in Zurich, and at the finish of the tournament he defeated two direct competitors - Shirov and Yusupov. In April 1995, the first of three stages of the PSHA Super Classic series of tournaments took place - the Tal Memorial in Riga. Decisive for determining the winner was the game between Kasparov and Anand, who were soon to have a match for the world championship. Kasparov played the rarely seen Evans Gambit at the highest level and won on the 25th move. The second tournament of the series was held in Novgorod a month later. Kasparov was one point ahead of Short, Ivanchuk, Elvest and Topalov.

In the fall of 1995, Kasparov won the world championship match against Viswanathan Anand, held at the World Trade Center in New York. The first eight games ended in a draw, the ninth was won by Anand, but in the next five games Kasparov scored four victories. The match ended ahead of schedule again - after the eighteenth game. Kasparov explained the result as follows: “He was prepared very well, personally for me. Anand's coaches took into account all my habits, preferences and peculiarities, the openings that I play, and so on and so forth, but they did not take into account the individual characteristics of Anand himself. They imposed on Vishy an uncharacteristic way of playing.” At the end of the year, in the last Super Classic tournament in Horgen, Kasparov finished fifth with 5 points out of 10 and only one game won. The first and second places were shared by Ivanchuk, who inflicted the only defeat on Kasparov, and Kramnik.

In January 1996, the main sponsor of the PCA, Intel, announced that it would not renew its sponsorship agreement with the PCA. According to Kasparov, the reason for this was Kasparov's desire to play a match against the Deep Blue computer, developed by IBM, a competitor to Intel. Soon the PCA ceased to exist.

In 1996, Kasparov won the first-ever category XXI tournament in Las Palmas, which had a record average rating of participants (2756.6). In this tournament Anand, Ivanchuk, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik and Topalov played in two rounds. Kasparov scored one victory each over Topalov, Karpov and Ivanchuk and drew the rest of the games, ahead of Anand, who took second place, by a point. The first tournament with a higher average rating of participants took place in 2009 (Tal Memorial in Moscow). The following year, Kasparov won in Linares, while winning personal meetings against all participants who took places from second to sixth, and losing to Ivanchuk, and Novgorod, and also shared first place in Tilburg with Kramnik and Svidler.

In 1998, Kasparov and the newly created organization the World Chess Council, led by the organizer of tournaments in Linares, Luis Rentero, scheduled a match for the title. The challenger was supposed to be decided in the match between Anand and Kramnik, but Anand refused, as he was bound by obligations not to play in the candidates' cycles not under the auspices of FIDE, so Shirov replaced him. Shirov unexpectedly won 5½:3½ and qualified for the match against Kasparov, which was scheduled for the fall of that year. However, due to financial problems of the sponsor - Rentero - the match did not take place.

For 18 months in 1999 and 2000, Kasparov won six super tournaments in a row, not lower than the 18th category each. At the beginning of 1999, Kasparov won the annual tournament in Wijk aan Zee (10 out of 13 with one defeat from I. Sokolov; Anand scored 9½, Kramnik - 8). He then won in Linares with a score of +7 −0 =7, with five victories as black. Kramnik and Anand are 2½ points behind. In May, a tournament was held in Sarajevo, in which Anand and Kramnik did not take part. Kasparov scored 7 out of 9 (without defeat), Bareev and Shirov shared 2-3 places (6 each). In the FIDE rating list of July 1999, Kasparov reached a record rating of 2851. The following year, he won another tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Linares and Sarajevo. In Sarajevo, Shirov became Kasparov's main competitor, but he lost in the penultimate round to Movsesyan, whom Kasparov himself defeated in the last round.

In the fall of 2000, Kasparov lost a match to Kramnik and lost the title of world chess champion. Before the match, the rivals had an equal score of personal meetings (three wins and seventeen draws each), but Kasparov was considered the favorite due to his vast match experience and a series of victories in tournaments in 1999-2000. The match, organized by Braingames, was played for most of the 16 games and thus became the shortest world championship match in the post-war period. Kramnik outplayed his opponent in the second and tenth games with White, and the rest of the meetings ended in a draw. This match was also the first since 1921 that the challenger won by a shutout. An important component of Kramnik's success was the regular use of the Berlin variation of the Spanish game for black, with which he neutralized the white color of Kasparov in several games; before that no one used the Berlin Variation systematically in top-level competitions.

During 2001, Kasparov won three tournaments in a row. The first competition in the rank of ex-world champion for him was the tournament in Wijk aan Zee. Kasparov scored 9 out of 13 and beat Anand by half a point, Kramnik shared 3rd-4th places. Kasparov then won the annual Linares tournament (7½ out of 10) and the Astana tournament. In Astana, before the last round, Kasparov was half a point behind Kramnik, but was able to win the decisive match, scoring the first victory over Kramnik since 1997. The following year, Kasparov again won in Linares (8 out of 12, one and a half points ahead of the new FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomarev).

In September 2002, Kasparov, as part of the Russian national team, took part in the match-tournament "Russian Team vs. World Team". He played ten games, winning one and losing three. As a result, the world team won with a score of 52:48, and Kasparov showed his worst result in his life in team competitions. In October-November of the same year, Kasparov played his last Olympiad in Bled, in which Russia again took first place. On the first board, he scored 7½ points out of 9, this result corresponded to a rating of 2933, and according to this indicator, Kasparov's performance was absolutely the best at the Olympiad.

Linares 2003 was unsuccessful, Kasparov shared 3-4 places with Anand. In the second round, Kasparov lost a winning position in a game against fifteen-year-old Teimour Radjabov. When at the closing it was announced that this game was recognized as the most beautiful in the tournament, Kasparov publicly stated that he regards this choice as a public insult and humiliation. In 2004, Kasparov played in the Russian Chess Championship for the first time. In the 57th National Championship, ten of the strongest chess players played, with the exception of Kramnik and Karpov. Kasparov won with a score of +5 −0 =5 and was one and a half points ahead of Grischuk.

Kasparov announced the end of his sports career on March 10, 2005 at a press conference after the end of the super tournament in Linares. In it, Kasparov scored an equal number of points with Topalov, from whom he suffered the only defeat in the last round, but according to additional indicators (the number of victories in black) he was declared the winner. Kasparov explained his decision by a lack of motivation - he achieved everything in chess - and by the fact that he was never given the opportunity to fight for the world title again after losing to Kramnik (in particular, the match against FIDE world champion Ponomarev did not take place). Kasparov also said that he plans to continue playing in blitz tournaments and other demonstration events in the future, and will make work on books and participation in Russian politics his main priorities.

In September 2009, Kasparov and Karpov played a 12-game rapid and blitz match in Valencia. Kasparov won with a score of 9:3. At the same time, it became known that since March of that year, Kasparov had been working as a personal trainer for the Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, who at that time, at the age of 18, was ranked fourth in the world rankings. Kasparov and Carlsen met several times a year for practice sessions. The joint work ended in March 2010, by which time Carlsen topped the rating list. Carlsen later clarified that he had become responsible for his career decisions, but would continue to maintain contact with Kasparov.

In the autumn of the same 2010, Kasparov supported Karpov, who ran for the presidency of FIDE. However, the incumbent President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov won the election. In 2014, Kasparov, running for Croatia, himself became Ilyumzhinov's rival in the next elections. He built the campaign around criticizing FIDE as "a corrupt organization and Ilyumzhinov as an ally of Putin's dictatorial regime." In turn, Ilyumzhinov accused Kasparov of trying to buy the votes of the delegates: as a result of the leak, a draft agreement between Kasparov and a member of his team, FIDE Secretary General Ignatius Leong, was made available to the public, according to which Leong was supposed to ensure that Asian delegates vote for Kasparov for a fee. Ilyumzhinov won the election with a score of 110:61.

Kasparov vs computer:

Of great interest were the matches of Garry Kasparov against chess programs. In 1989, the Deep Thought chess program, which ran on the hardware of the Sun-4 computer, achieved significant success. For the first time in history, the program beat an international grandmaster (Bent Larsen) in an official tournament.

On October 22, 1989, a match of two blitz games between Garry Kasparov and Deep Thought took place in New York. The world champion won them easily. Particularly indicative was the second meeting, in which Kasparov won in a spectacular combinational style. After the match, Kasparov stated: "If a computer can beat the best of the best in chess, this will mean that the computer is able to compose the best music, write the best books. I can't believe it. If a computer is created with a rating of 2800, that is, equal to mine, I myself I consider it my duty to challenge him to a match to protect the human race.".

In 1996, IBM representatives invited Garry Kasparov to play a match against their chess program. "Deep Blue" with a prize fund of $500,000. Deep Blue is a supercomputer based on the RS6000 system, consisting of 32 nodes, each of which consisted of 512 processors, hardware-optimized for a chess program. Deep Blue's performance was 11.38 GFLOPS, and the computer could evaluate up to 200 million positions per second. Kasparov's first match against a chess computer took place in February 1996, and the man won it 4-2, but lost the first game. It was the first time in history that a computer won a game against a world champion.

In the second match, IBM offered a prize pool of $1.1 million, of which $700,000 was to go to the winner. A six-match duel with normal time control (120 minutes for 40 moves) took place in May 1997. As a result, for the first time in history, the world champion lost to the computer with a score of 2½:3½.

The supercomputer was in a separate room, at the board against Kasparov sat a representative of the IBM team Feng Xiong Xu, who stood at the origins of the project. All communication with "Deep Blue" Feng Xiong Xu carried out through a special monitor. Theoretically, a specially invited chess player could be between the monitor in the game room and the supercomputer and influence the course of the game.

In the second game of the 1997 match, Kasparov, having found himself in a difficult situation, sacrificed a pawn, Deep Blue thought about the 37th move for 15 minutes, although he usually spent 3 minutes “thinking over” the move, and rejected the sacrifice by playing Be4. After White's 45th move, Kasparov resigned. Post-match analysis showed that black could force a draw with perpetual check due to inaccurate last move by white. However, Kasparov was mistaken, believing that the electronic opponent, who played the rest of the game almost flawlessly, calculated everything exactly. In the sixth, last, game, Kasparov overlooked or deliberately allowed the well-known theory of a piece sacrifice for the initiative, but when Deep Blue accepted it, he defended poorly and admitted defeat already on the 19th move.

After the match, Kasparov demanded to provide the log file of the game. Details of how the program "thought" were not provided, and Kasparov accused IBM of cheating. According to Kasparov, in several cases a person could help the computer, since the program played with differences, periodically choosing moves that were not typical for computers.

In January 2003, Kasparov played a match against the Deep Junior chess program. The match consisted of 6 games under standard time control. The prize fund of the duel was $ 1 million. The strongest, at that time, program for personal computers worked under the Windows Server 2000 operating system and 8 Intel Xeon 1.6 GHz processors. Kasparov, using an "anti-computer" strategy, won the first game and had a significant advantage in the second, but brought it to a draw. In the third game, he made a gross miscalculation and resigned on move 34. In the remaining games, Kasparov was cautious and brought them to quick draws. Match result - 3:3.

In November 2003, Kasparov played a match against "Fritz X3D" (a version of "Deep Fritz" with a three-dimensional interface). According to the conditions of the match, a person had to play in special 3D glasses. "Deep Fritz" ran on a computer with 4 Intel Xeon processors. The year before, the same program had drawn in a duel with Vladimir Kramnik, which was similar in terms of rules. The meeting took place in New York. In a match of 4 games with one victory, one defeat and two draws, an equal result of 2:2 was achieved. It is interesting to note that in the fourth game "Deep Fritz" unexpectedly offered a queen sacrifice, but the grandmaster rejected the sacrifice and calmly brought the game to a draw. Kasparov received $175,000 and a gold statuette as a result of the fight.

"Deep Junior" and "Deep Fritz" are commercial programs with an evaluation speed of the order of 3-4 million positions per second (2003). Copies of the programs were provided to Kasparov before the match for analysis. The computer with the program was located directly in the playing hall. There were no suspicions of fraud on the part of Kasparov. Summing up the match with Deep Junior, Kasparov shared the idea that in a few years a person will no longer have any chances in confrontation with chess programs.

Political activities of Garry Kasparov:

Kasparov was a member of the Central Committee of the Komsomol and a member of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of the Azerbaijan SSR. At the beginning of 1984, Kasparov was admitted to the CPSU: at the direction of Heydar Aliyev - without passing a year of candidate experience, as evidenced by the head of the Chess Department of the USSR State Sports Committee N. V. Krogius. Later, in an interview, Kasparov said that the Soviet contender for the title of world champion had a choice between joining the party and emigrating.

During the 1990 Armenian pogrom in Baku, Kasparov moved his family to Moscow. Later, he blamed the Soviet leadership - and the KGB of the USSR - for the pogrom. In the same year, Kasparov left the CPSU.

In 1990, Kasparov participated in the creation of the Democratic Party of Russia (DPR). Kasparov was elected as one of Nikolay Travkin's vice-chairmen. Soon after the creation of the DPR, Kasparov, together with Arkady Murashov, founded the Free Democratic Faction, which was the inner-party opposition. In April 1991, a month after the registration of the DPR in the Ministry of Justice of the RSFSR, the Free Democratic faction, including Kasparov, announced its withdrawal from the party. This happened after the II Congress of the DPR adopted not the program developed by Kasparov and Murashov, but an alternative version. In 1991, Kasparov's collaboration with the Wall Street Journal began, which continues to this day; Kasparov regularly publishes articles about Russian politics in this newspaper.

In 1991, Kasparov received the "Keeper of the Flame" award from the US Center for Security Policy, which is awarded to citizens for public activities aimed at spreading democratic values ​​and respect for human rights. Later, in early 2007, political opponents claimed that Kasparov was on the advisory board at the Center for Security Policy, referring to the list of its members published on the organization's website. In response, Kasparov stated that he had never been a member of the council and probably his name was included there by mistake, along with other honorary members of the Center for Security Policy. As early as April 2007, Kasparov's name was missing from the list of members.

In June 1993, Kasparov participated in the creation of the electoral bloc "Russia's Choice".

In the 1996 presidential election, Kasparov supported the incumbent, seeing him as an alternative to the return to power of the communists. Kasparov was his confidant for campaigning. The following year, Kasparov was a financial adviser, with whom he parted ways after the latter's decision to run for governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

After being elected president of Russia, Kasparov at first considered him a “young pragmatic leader” who could contribute to the development of democracy in Russia, but soon became disillusioned with him.

In 2004, Kasparov founded the 2008: Free Choice Committee and became its chairman, and also became co-chairman of the organizing committee of the All-Russian Civil Congress "Russia for Democracy Against Dictatorship" (VGK), along with a member of the human rights movement Lyudmila Alekseeva and Yeltsin's former adviser Georgy Satarov. Announcing his retirement on May 10, 2005, Kasparov, already known as a critic of Vladimir Putin and a potential contender for participation in the 2008 presidential election, announced participation in Russian politics as a new life goal.

In 2005, he headed the United Civil Front, which he created, during the same period, the activities of the 2008 Committee came to naught. In 2006, under the auspices of the Supreme High Command, a conference was held in Moscow, at which the creation of the Other Russia coalition was announced. The coalition was supposed to unite representatives of the opposition of various political persuasions, converging on the need to oppose the policies of Vladimir Putin and United Russia and redistribute power from the president to parliament and the regions.

Since 2006, Kasparov has been one of the organizers of the "March of Dissent" held by The Other Russia.

On September 30, 2007, a campaign began to nominate Kasparov as a candidate for the presidency of Russia in the March 2008 elections of "The Other Russia": the coalition congress elected Kasparov as a single candidate. In November, he was sentenced to five days in jail for participating in an unsanctioned rally. Kasparov's arrest was condemned by the non-governmental organization Amnesty International, which recognized Kasparov as a prisoner of conscience and called for his release. On December 13, Kasparov announced that he was withdrawing his candidacy because he did not hold a meeting of voters necessary to nominate an independent candidate. According to Kasparov's representatives, all landlords approached by Kasparov's representatives refused to provide premises for such a congress. At the same time, polls showed that Kasparov's support in Russia was low and he had no chance of winning in these elections. Some members of the Supreme High Command considered that Kasparov's activities violated the principle of apolitical congress, and proposed to dissociate themselves from Kasparov, which the Supreme High Command did not agree to. In the fall of 2007, Alekseeva and Satarov, who by that time were in opposition to Kasparov, asked him to leave the Supreme High Command, and on January 14, 2008 they asked him to leave again. Since Kasparov did not respond to requests to leave the Supreme Command both times, as a result, on January 17, Satarov, together with Lyudmila Alekseeva, left the Supreme High Command themselves.

In 2008, Kasparov became one of the founders of the opposition united democratic movement Solidarity. In December 2008, at the founding congress of the movement, he was elected a member of the federal political council of Solidarity and became a member of the Bureau of the federal political council of the movement. Kasparov was considered one of the leaders of the opposition to the existing political regime, while in Russia his political activities remained uncovered in the central media and did not enjoy wide support.

In mid-2010, a conflict broke out within Solidarity. First, a member of its political council, S. Zhavoronkov, was expelled from the movement, and then, including because of disagreements with Kasparov, Vladimir Milov announced his withdrawal from the organization.

On March 10, 2010, Kasparov signed the appeal of the Russian opposition "Putin must go." In the process of preparing the appeal, Kasparov was a member of the group of authors and coordinated the text with other signatories. In the spring and summer of 2010, there was an active collection of signatures under the appeal, meetings of the organizers with the signatories took place. In autumn and winter, rallies were held in Moscow for Putin's resignation, at which Kasparov also spoke.

In the fall of 2011, Kasparov called for a boycott of the State Duma elections. In October 2011, at the Last Autumn civil forum, there were debates between representatives of three positions in relation to the elections: Garry Kasparov (boycott), Boris Nemtsov (damage of ballots), (voting for any other party). As a result of the debate, the public preferred Navalny. Kasparov spoke at mass rallies in Moscow in December 2011 and 2012.

On August 17, 2012, Kasparov was detained at the Khamovniki Court on the day of the verdict in the Pussy Riot case. According to law enforcement agencies, during the arrest, Kasparov bit a police ensign. According to Kasparov himself, this statement is false, and the police, on the contrary, beat him during the arrest. On August 24, the world court acquitted Kasparov, who was accused of insubordination to police officers.

On October 22, 2012, in the elections of the Coordinating Council of the Opposition on the general civil list, he took third place, gaining 33 thousand votes, losing to A. Navalny and D. Bykov.

On April 7, 2013, at the fourth congress of Solidarity, it was announced that Kasparov would not run for its political council, although he would remain a member of the movement. He himself explained the decision by his disagreement with the transformation of Solidarity into "an appendage of the RPR-PARNAS party" and participation in "actions working to legitimize the existing government," such as elections.

In June 2013, Kasparov announced that he had no plans to return to Russia from abroad and would continue to fight "Kremlin criminals" in the international arena. According to Kasparov, he was expecting a call to the investigating authorities in connection with his activities in organizing a seminar for opposition activists in Lithuania and promoting the Magnitsky Act, and was afraid of initiating a criminal case and choosing a written undertaking not to leave. A ban on leaving the country would have prevented him from earning money by lecturing and running his funds. Kasparov also said that he chairs the We Choose committee in support of fair elections in Iran. A privately funded committee monitors a parallel election involving 20 suspended candidates. “This is what I have been doing for the last few months together with Leonid Volkov. The improved system of Democracy-2 is involved - this is a virtual platform with the help of which elections were held in the CSR. I am an informal organizer of the process, which began in February. And Volkov is working on it directly with the Iranians.”

In March 2014, the kasparov.ru website became one of four resources that were blocked by Roskomnadzor at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation and without a court decision. According to the position of the prosecutor's office, they contained "calls for illegal activities and participation in mass events held in violation of the established order." On August 6, 2014, the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow confirmed the legality of blocking the site.

In 2014, Kasparov condemned the annexation of Crimea to Russia, Russia's actions in connection with the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, and called on Western leaders to increase pressure on Putin. Kasparov considers Crimea a territory of Ukraine. On December 6, 2014, on the Day of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Kasparov gave a simultaneous game session in Kyiv to the Ukrainian military and volunteers in support of the Ukrainian army.

Personal life of Garry Kasparov:

Kasparov has been married three times and has a child from each marriage.

In 1989, he married Maria Arapova, a graduate of the philological faculty of Moscow State University and an Intourist guide-translator, whom he had met three years earlier. In 1992, the daughter Polina was born, in 1993 the couple separated. Later, Maria and her daughter moved to the USA.

In 1996, Kasparov married 18-year-old economics student Yulia Vovk. At the end of the same year, their son Vadim was born. In 2005, the marriage broke up.

In 2005, Kasparov married Daria Tarasova from St. Petersburg. In 2006, their daughter Aida was born.

In 1984-1986, Kasparov had an affair with an actress. Some sources call Kasparov the father of Neyolova's daughter Nika (born in 1987). In the book "Child of Change" Kasparov denied this statement, later in an interview he did not give a definite answer. Neyolova has never made public comments.

Kasparov has real estate in Moscow, St. Petersburg, New York and New Jersey.

In February 2014, Kasparov received Croatian citizenship, where he has a house in the seaside resort town of Makarska. In 2013, Kasparov applied for Latvian citizenship, but was refused.

The life of the famous chess genius Garry Kasparov is as diverse as the genius of his analytical mind. The victories in chess sport that excited the world, the sudden departure at the peak of fame, literary and political activity - this is only a small part of the achievements of the great grandmaster. Truly, the great representatives of humanity are multifaceted and talented in everything.

Childhood

On April 13, 1963, Baku announced the baby cry of the future chess champion. Parents, Weinstein Kim Moiseevich and Kasparyan Klara Shagenovna, were immensely happy. Both were people of engineering specialties, but they liked to spend their evenings playing chess.

Little Garik Kasparov (a chess player in the future) from an early age showed a remarkable mind and grasped everything on the fly. Unbeknownst to everyone, the curious kid watched the chess battles of mom and dad, absorbing all sorts of tricks and solutions like a sponge. One day, quite unexpectedly, at the age of 5, he suggested a way out of a chess problem over which his parents puzzled. At that moment, Kim Moiseevich saw the future champion in his son.

In 1970, after the death of his father, a little chess lover begins to visit the section of the local Palace of Pioneers. In the first year of study he receives the 3rd category and the road to international competitions is opened for him.

From that moment on, constant travel begins. Kasparov (chess player), whose nationality was Jewish from birth, at that time had the sonorous surname Weinstein. His mother understood that it would be quite difficult for him to achieve success in chess. And in 1974, the surname was changed to Kasparov. Now little Garik is an Armenian. Now this position may seem strange, but at that time it was the only right decision. Anti-Semitic persecution would hardly allow a Jew to win and gain glory in chess.

The first victories of the young chess player

The beginning of a career for a little chess player was quite easy. Success accompanied a talented child. In 1973, in Vilnius, at the All-Union Youth Games, Kasparov the chess player finds a mentor in the person of the master of sports Alexander Nikitin. Conquered by young talent, Nikitin gives him a recommendation to enter the school of deep study of chess art under the supervision of Without thinking twice, in the same year, Garik and his mother went to Dubna, where he entered training without any problems. After some time, Botvinnik himself notices the boy and takes him under his wing, providing all kinds of support.

A year later, Kasparov - a chess player with a capital letter - for the first time becomes a participant in the youth championship of the USSR. This time he takes only 7th place, which delights the observers, because the age of the other participants is at least 6 years ahead of the age of the little chess player. The next year, the stubborn kid returns to the tournament and wins a resounding victory. At this moment, the young talent is noticed by the highest circles in the game of chess and since then they have not taken their gaze off, following the achievements of young Garik.

Already at the age of 15, having received a master of sports in playing chess, a brilliant child participates in the selection for the country's top league. And again he wins. In 1980, in Baku, at the next tournament, chess player Garry Kasparov received the title of grandmaster, defeating Igor Zaitsev, the coach of his future opponent Anatoly Karpov.

Fight of two "K" for the title of "World Champion"

In 1984, Kasparov (chess player) entered into a confrontation with the acting Anatoly Karpov. The fight and the desire to become the best absorbs both and drags on for 10 years. All this time, the world has been watching with tension the battle between the two greatest chess players.

The first duel begins in the fall of 1984. With what attention the whole world is watching the game. The duel has no time limit and the final should be 6 victories of one of the participants. Difficult games, incredible tension do not allow anyone to relax. The fight drags on for 159 days and, perhaps, could last longer, but the president of the International Chess Federation decides to interrupt the chess battle. The result is a draw and the title, according to the rules, remains with Karpov. It is the epoch-making duel of two that is included as the first and only unfinished chess battle.

Six months later, Kasparov and Karpov meet again for a showdown. This time the duel has a limit of 24 games. On November 9, with a score of 13:11, Garry Kasparov, a chess player whose biography is interesting to his fans, wins a well-deserved victory and becomes the youngest World Champion. At this point he is only 22 years old.

Over the next 10 years, two chess geniuses face off in three more fights. But each of them ends with Kasparov's victory.

The life of a champion

Since receiving the title of world chess champion, Kasparov has repeatedly confirmed his unique talent. Wins tournaments, defeats brilliant chess players.

At the same time, Kasparov advocated the opening of the Professional Chess Organization (PCHA), which holds a number of matches and tournaments.

In 1993, the chess genius leaves FIDE (International Chess Organization) and almost loses all titles, titles and places in the world rankings. But some time later, justice triumphs, and the title returns to its rightful owner.

At this time, Garry Kimovich was actively involved in social activities. Opens schools for young talents, supports the development of chess in various countries in every way. Photos of Kasparov the chess player will be recognized all over the world.

Combat between man and computer

In 1996, the creators of computer technology challenge the champion, and he, without hesitation, accepts it. Based on curiosity and interest, the genius chess player takes on the machine. The first match leaves the man to win, although Kasparov loses one game. And in May 1997, during the second match, Kasparov was defeated and the computer became the winner of the duel.

After losing 2 more times, the grandmaster enters into a chess battle with the machine. Both times the result is a draw.

Years later, Kasparov's interest in computer technology does not fade away, and several interesting chess programs are released on his behalf.

Political career

Despite the colossal employment in the development of a sports career, constant training, traveling, Kasparov is insanely attracted to politics.

After the devastating actions in Baku in 1990, the champion moved with his family to Moscow and became involved in the political activities of the country. The chess player advocates the introduction of democracy and promotes the Democratic Party.

At the moment, the political career of the famous chess player is in full swing. A participant in election campaigns, an activist in the creation of parties - a brilliant chess player can no longer imagine life without politics, the main direction of which is still democracy.

Retirement from a sports career

The autumn of 2000 becomes, to some extent, a milestone in the grandmaster's life.
As part of the next tournament to identify the leader in the ancient game, he turns out to be more successful and defeats the great chess player. Kasparov ceases to be world champion, but only officially.

After the loss, Garry Kimovich, being a multifaceted personality, is not particularly sad and continues to take part in all kinds of chess tournaments and championships for another 5 years. Naturally, gaining numerous victories.

And in 2005, he suddenly announces his intention to end his career as a chess player. It was from this moment that politics became the main direction of his activity, into which Kasparov plunged headlong.

Literary activity

At the beginning of the movement to the chess Olympus, Kasparov quite often wrote articles that were published in various publications.
In addition, he wrote several books on the conduct of chess games and their ending.

In 1987, the book-autobiography "Child of Change" was published. The book was published in English and was not written by hand, but by dictation to a local journalist. After that, Kasparov releases several more books, dedicating them to his beloved ancient game.

Personal life

The heart life of the famous chess player is as diverse as the directions of his activity in the outside world.

In 1986, an acquaintance with Maria Arapova takes place. Young and lovers enter into an official union two years later, and after another three, the family replenishes. And a wonderful daughter is born - Polina. But everyday problems, conflicts between a beloved wife and an equally dear mother lead to the collapse of the family, and in 1993 the couple filed for divorce. After some time, the ex-wife and daughter Polina leave the country and currently live in the United States.

Three years later, chess player Garry Kasparov, whose biography is described in the article, begins to have feelings for a young student and enters into an official marriage with her. Kasparov has a son. But this marriage does not bring happiness and ends in divorce in 2005. After that, Kasparov marries a Petersburger Daria Tarasova. Two children are born in marriage - son Nikolai and daughter Aida.

At the moment, the name of the chess player Kasparov is known all over the world. Garry Kimovich remains an unsurpassed master of chess art, who went down in history. Winner of several chess Oscars and numerous awards. A man who, with the unshakable tenacity inherent in his strong character, defends his opinion in the world. A person about whom, even after the end of his life, they will talk and make legends.

The Caucasus gave the world many great and respected people. These are real warriors, and famous scientists, and popular artists. And, of course, the world chess champion, grandmaster - Garry Kasparov. This genius deservedly became:

• eleven-time winner of the chess "Oscar";
• eight-time winner of the World Chess Olympiad;
• champion of the USSR;
• Honored Master of Sports of the USSR;
• Russian champion.

Some experts believe that Garry Kimovich Kasparov is generally the best chess player of all time. When the talent of this genius appeared and how the talent of this genius developed, how the personal life of the champion developed, will be described later.

Biography of Garry Kasparov

A boy was born in 1963 in Baku in the family of a Jew Kim Moiseevich Weinstein and an Armenian woman Klara Shagenovna Kasparova. And until the age of 12 he bore his father's surname, but because of the anti-Semitism that flourished in the USSR, his mother, with the consent of all relatives, changed her son's surname. So Garry Kasparov changed his nationality, turning from a Jewish boy into an Armenian.

By that time, the child's father was no longer alive - he died of lymphosarcoma in 1970. But Kim Moiseevich managed to find out about his son's talent - at the age of 5, the kid suggested to his father the correct solution to a chess study published in a newspaper. It was then that dad began to seriously engage with Harry.

At the age of 7, the boy, as expected, became a first grader. At the same time, he began to attend a chess club at the Baku House of Pioneers, where the unique abilities of the child were immediately noted by his first coach, Oleg Privorotsky. Already at the age of 10, the boy participated in serious youth competitions. And one day fate smiled at Harry - the famous master Alexander Nikitin saw his game.

Under the guidance of this coach, the young Kasparov's athletic growth continued. It is at the suggestion of Nikitin that the young chess player ends up in the school of Mikhail Botvinnik, whose name sounded everywhere at that time. The ex-world chess champion accepted the young talent into his penates.

And Harry did not disappoint his mentors. His successes were so significant that Botvinnik personally "knocked out" a scholarship for Kasparov and ensured that the young man studied according to an individual program.

Becoming a future chess player

The efforts of the coaches and the ward exceeded all expectations. Soon the chess player Garry Kasparov became known far beyond the borders of Azerbaijan and the Soviet Union. In 1976 he won the USSR Youth Chess Championship. And this at the age of 12! Two years later, already having the title of candidate master of sports, Kasparov won the Sokolsky Memorial tournament ahead of schedule, in which eminent grandmasters participate. And he gets the title of master.

A year later, Harry visited Europe and became the winner of the international tournament in Banja Luka, simultaneously overfulfilling the norm of the international grandmaster. The overwhelming success was made possible, of course, thanks to:

1. Analytical mind.
2. Hard work.
3. Clear instructions from the coach.

The mentor ensured that the young talent was abroad for the first time. And he undertook to support the talented young man himself, who in those years was the first secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan - guardianship on his part helped Kasparov more than once. After all, the KGB at that time could not be called a loyal organization, and the biography of Garry Kasparov, the one that dates back to childhood, is slightly “confused” by a caring mother.

Achievements

In 1980, Harry graduated from high school, he is a gold medalist. As for his sports career, by this time he already has a very solid track record and the title of an international grandmaster. Having enrolled to study at the Azerbaijan Pedagogical Institute at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, he continues to intensively engage in chess.

It was as if the victories over Viktor Korchnoi and Vasily Smyslov came by themselves. And then a confrontation began, which for 10 years was followed by the entire chess world. Karpov and Kasparov "collided" at the board - two strongest athletes who fought for the title of world champion.

Paying tribute to his coach Mikhail Botvinnik, who was the 6th world chess champion, Harry wanted to prove that their joint efforts were not in vain. And here it is - victory! 1985 announced to the whole world that the chess crown was placed on Kasparov's head. He was thirteenth! He was called the Great and Terrible! And after that, Karpov tried more than once to “throw off” the Armenian from the pedestal, but to no avail.

Sports, politics, charity

A proud man is difficult to humiliate and bring to his knees. So Kasparov, when his opinion was undeservedly "bypassed", defiantly withdrew from the international organization of chess players FIDE. It happened in 1993. Now he played under the auspices of the PCA. For this, Kasparov was stripped of his FIDE world title. But that didn't stop him from playing.

In 2000, the Great and Terrible, alas, lost the match for the world championship and gave the crown to Vladimir Kramnik. But the eminent chess player continued to participate in world tournaments and win. Being not only an excellent athlete, but also a good politician, he openly joins the ranks of the opposition and even leads the movement of the United Civil Duty. And imperceptibly moves away from the world of sports. And in 2005 he officially announces that he is leaving his career as a chess player.

Today, Kasparov appears in one or the other political horizon, which did not prevent him from running for the FIDE President in 2014. True, the attempt was unsuccessful. Since 1987, Garry Kimovich has been engaged in charitable activities. As befits a real man, he does not shout about it, but simply does his duty. Refugees and single pensioners, as well as war veterans - these are the people to whom he has already provided assistance from his personal Fund in excess of $ 1 million.

Family and personal life

Well, what can be the biography of Garry Kasparov without a personal life?

Officially, he was married twice. But while still a student, he met M. Nelova. The woman was 16 years older than the young talent, which did not prevent them from dating for a three-year period. As a result, Marina gave birth to a girl, Nika, but Harry did not acknowledge paternity.

But the acquaintance in 1986 with a guide-interpreter was fateful. They dated for 2 years, and then formalized their relationship. After another 3 years, Harry became the father of a beautiful girl, Polina. But the marriage was short-lived. They say that Kasparov's mother played an important role here, who categorically did not want the young family to live separately. As a result, the son, to whom Klara Shagenovna devoted her whole life, remained in Russia, and for his ex-wife and daughter he had to buy an apartment in the USA - so the court decided.

But life went on, and in 1996 Kasparov married again. His companion was the young Yulia Vovk, who was 15 years younger than the chess king. This marriage lasted 9 years, and a son, Vadim, was immediately born. Today Garry Kimovich is in excellent shape, he loves football, swimming, gymnastics, but he never forgets his favorite chess.

Remember how in 1998 he created the Kasparov Club website, and how this Internet resource gained unprecedented popularity. And a year later, Microsoft offered to play the world community against the Great and Terrible. The success of the site was amazing - 3 million visits in 4 months! And this is chess. Let's be honest, that both today and in 100 years, for everyone, he will be, first of all, a world-famous chess player, and then a politician, husband, father, etc.