Strategy
Competitiveness
Risk

By this Author

Garry Kasparov was born and raised in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. At the early age of 6, he had already started playing chess and began to demonstrate his skills as a child chess prodigy. Kasparov’s brilliance and intellect captured the attention of Mikhail Botvinnik, former World Champion (1948-1957, 1958-1960, and 1961-1963). Kasparov was invited to attend Botvinnik’s exclusive chess school for gifted children. At the school, Kasparov studied and learned chess with some of the most talented chess teachers and students. Students included Anatoly Karpov, and Artur Yuspov, one of the coaches for Viswanathan Anand.

At 13, Garry Kasparov captured the Soviet Junior Champion title and in 1980, at age 17, he became the world junior champion and an International Grandmaster. His ability to think, analyse, calculate and study chess tactics and the tactics of his opponents was being recognised by the chess community.

In the 1984 World Championship in Moscow, Anatoly Karpov would meet the young man who would offer him the greatest challenge and take away his world title. Throughout the championship, both men demonstrated excellent strategy and intellect. After playing eight games, Karpov had taken 4 wins to Kasparov’s none. It looked like Karpov was on the road to victory; he just needed one more win to clinch the title. But then came a series of 17 consecutive draws. Kasparov wasn’t going to make this championship an easy victory for Karpov. Eventually, after five months, the World Chess Federation cancelled the match, citing exhaustion by both players.

The very next year, Kasparov came back to beat Karpov and made history by becoming the youngest World Champion at age 22. Since then, Kasparov has defended his title against Karpov in 1986, 1987, and 1990. Kasparov also defended his title in 1993 against Nigel Short and in 1995, against Viswanathan Anand on the top floor of the World Trade Center, in New York City.

Besides winning championships and tournaments, Garry Kasparov has taken chess to a whole new level by using his own versatility and experience to become a one-man chess ambassador to the world. In 1997, Kasparov took IBM’s challenge to match wits against Deep Blue, a customized supercomputer. Throughout this event, he demonstrated the power of the human mind and pitted logical thought against the multiple algorithms of a supercomputer.

The entire world watched when Garry Kasparov made a move. This event sparked people’s curiosity and imagination, man vs. machine, and it opened up new opportunities for chess players everywhere.

Garry Kasparov also brought rapid-chess tournaments to the spotlight in 1987, when he played a rapid chess match with Englishman Nigel Short. This attracted new attention from players and spectators and placed speed chess matches on television for all to see. Again, Kasparov managed to open people’s minds and made them rethink the possibilities of playing chess.

Education and technology are important to Kasparov. The Deep Blue match heightened public understanding of computers and their capabilities, and also pointed out some of their limitations. Kasparov himself is a computer scientist, and has written chess software programs that enable users to pit their wits against the finest chess mind in a home environment.

In 1997, the Kasparov International Chess Academy was opened at the Sol and Sissy Mark Center in Tel Aviv, Israel. The goal of the school is to inspire and encourage students to learn chess sciences and theories. This academy gives teachers and coaches the opportunity to share their knowledge and identify future talent among the many chess students.