Background

Ethnicity: Kasparov is half-Armenian, half-Jewish, but considers himself Russian because Russian is his native tongue, and he grew up with Russian culture.

Garry Kasparov was born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on April 13, 1963, in Baku, Azerbaijan to the family of an energetic engineer Kim Moiseyevich Weinstein and an automation and telemechanics specialist Klara Aida Shagenovna Gasparian. He was introduced to chess as a little boy and started playing the game in earnest when he was six. He lost his father when he was seven. At the age of 12, he adopted his mother's Armenian surname, Gasparian, and modified it to a more Russified version, Kasparov.

Education

Garry Kasparov received his training at Mikhail Botvinnik's Chess School under noted coach Vladimir Makogonov who helped him develop his game. He blossomed into a formidable player under his mentor's guidance. He then went on to train under Alexander Shakarov and Mikhail Botvinnik. He graduated from high school in 1980 being awarded with gold medal. In 1981-1986 Kasparov studied at the Azerbaijan Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages (now Azerbaijan University of Languages).

Career

Garry Kasparov began playing chess at age 6, by age 13 was the Soviet youth champion, and won his first international tournament at age 16 in 1979. Kasparov became an international grandmaster in 1980. From 1973 to 1978 he studied under former world champion Mikhail Botvinnik.

Kasparov first challenged the reigning world champion Anatoly Karpov in a 1984-1985 match, after he survived the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE; the international chess federation) series of elimination matches. Kasparov lost four out of the first nine games but then adopted a careful defensive stance, taking an extraordinarily long series of drawn games with the champion. With Kasparov finally having won three games from the exhausted Karpov, FIDE halted the series after 48 games, a decision protested by Kasparov. In the two players’ rematch in 1985, Kasparov narrowly defeated Karpov in a 24-game series and thereby became the youngest official champion in the history of the game.

In 1993 Kasparov and the English grandmaster Nigel Short left FIDE and formed a rival organization, the Professional Chess Association (PCA). In response, FIDE stripped the title of world champion from Kasparov, who defeated Short that same year to become the PCA world champion. In 1995 he successfully defended his PCA title against Viswanathan Anand of India; the PCA disbanded in 1996.

In 1996 Kasparov defeated a powerful IBM custom-built chess computer known as Deep Blue in a match that attracted worldwide attention. Kasparov and the team of Deep Blue programmers agreed to have a rematch in 1997. Deep Blue’s intelligence was upgraded, and the machine prevailed. Kasparov resigned in the last game of the six-game match after 19 moves, granting the win to Deep Blue. In 2000 Kasparov lost a 16-game championship match to Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.

Kasparov retired from competitive chess in 2005, though not from involvement in chess. In particular, he produced an acclaimed series of books, Kasparov on My Great Predecessors (2003-2006), that covered all the world chess champions from Wilhelm Steinitz through Karpov, as well as many other great players. In Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins (2017), Kasparov offered details of his 1997 match with Deep Blue while praising technological progress. Following his retirement, Kasparov continued to participate in exhibition matches and to coach other players still active in competitive chess.

Kasparov also served as a contributing editor for The Wall Street Journal from 1991. In 1997, Kasparov was awarded honorary citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina for his support of the Bosnian people during the war in the former Yugoslavia. He became a Croatian citizen in 2014.

Achievements

• Garry Kasparov became the under-18 chess champion of the Soviet Union at the age of 12 and the world under-20 champion at 17. He came to international fame as the youngest world chess champion in history in 1985 at the age of 22. He defended his title five times, including a legendary series of matches against arch-rival Anatoly Karpov. Kasparov broke Bobby Fischer’s rating record in 1990 and his own peak rating record remained unbroken until 2013. His famous matches against the IBM super-computer Deep Blue in 1996-1997 were key to bringing artificial intelligence, and chess, into the mainstream.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Kasparov Against the World

    (In 1999, world chess champion Garry Kasparov challenged t...)

    2000
  • Garry Kasparov's Chess Challenge

    (In this stimulating book for players of all ages, Garry K...)

    1996
  • Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped

    (The ascension of Vladimir Putin-a former lieutenant colon...)

    2015
  • Kasparov on the King's Indian

    (The King's Indian Defence is one of Black's most dynamic ...)

    1993
  • Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins

    (Garry Kasparov's 1997 chess match against the IBM superco...)

    2017
  • Kasparov Teaches Chess

    (A series of 24 chess lessons, first published in "Sport i...)

    1986
  • Checkmate!: My First Chess Book

    (Discover all the various pieces - the king, the queen, th...)

    2004
  • Child of Change: The Autobiography of the World Chess Champion 1987
  • Queen's Indian Defence: Kasparov System 1991
  • How Life Imitates Chess 2007

Religion

Kasparov calls himself a "self-appointed Christian" but at the same expresses indifference to the religious practice.

Politics

After retirement from chess, Kasparov also remained in the public eye with his decision in 2005 to start a political organization, the United Civil Front, to oppose Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 2006 Kasparov was one of the prime movers behind a broad coalition of political parties that formed the Other Russia, a group held together by only one goal: ousting Putin from power. In 2007, following several protest marches organized by the coalition in which Kasparov and other participants were arrested, the Other Russia chose Kasparov as its candidate for the 2008 presidential election but was unable to nominate him by the deadline. He continued to be an outspoken critic of Putin, and in 2015 he published Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped.

Views

Kasparov has been serving as the chairman of the Human Rights Foundation since 2011 and chairs its International Council. Kasparov is enthusiastic about the oncoming possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI). Countering concerns that AI could increase job losses, Kasparov says that new technologies have always caused upheaval in job markets, but this does not mean their utility should be ignored.

Membership

Garry Kasparov used to be a member of the Komsomol (All-Union Leninist Young Communist League).

• 

  All-Union Leninist Young Communist League , Soviet Union

Personality

Noted for his phenomenal memory, Kasparov memorized thousands of chess games and matches. He is fluent in both English and German.

Interests

• jogging, swimming

• Sport & Clubs

  soccer, tennis, gymnastics

Connections

Garry Kasparov’s first marriage was to an interpreter Maria Arapova with whom he has a daughter, Polina. This marriage ended in divorce and Maria and Polina moved to the United States. He tied the knot for the second time with an economist Yulia Vovk. They had a son, Vadim, before divorcing in 2005. He is currently married to Daria Tarasova with whom he has a daughter Aida and a son Nikolay.

Father:

Kim Moiseyevich Weinstein

Mother:

Klara Aida Shagenovna Gasparian

ex-wife:

Maria Arapova

Daughter:

Polina Kasparova

ex-wife:

Yulia Vovk

Son:

Vadim Kasparov

Wife:

Daria Tarasova

Daughter:

Aida Kasparova

Son:

Nikolay Kasparov

Acquaintance:

Joe Biden

References

• Garry Kasparov | Official Website
• Mortal Games: The Turbulent Genius of Garry Kasparov
  2017
• Play Like a World Champion: Garry Kasparov
  2019