Biography for
Garry Kasparov More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

Birth Name

Trivia

Born at 11:45pm-BAT

Kasparov is pronounced kahs-PAH-rof. His father was named Kim Moiseyevich Wainshtein, but died when Garry was seven, and the boy later adopted the Russian version of his mother's Armenian maiden name, Kasparian.

His parents had thought to teach him music, but one day at the age of 5 he suggested to them the solution to a chess problem they had been baffled by the night before. His mother, Klara, gave up her job to travel and work with him when he qualified for the World Championship. Chess expert Gabriel Schoenfeld once called Kasparov the "Mikhail Baryshnikov" of chess.

Noted for his phenomenal memory, Kasparov memorized thousands of chess games and matches.

Fluent in both English and German.

Is considered by many not only the best chess player in the world, but the best of all time.

After holding the official FIDE World Chess Champion title from 1985 to 1993, he left the organization and founded the Professional Chess Association, whose World Champion he was until 2000.

Retired from professional chess on 10 March 2005 due to his political ambitions.

Founded United Civil Front, a social movement trying to prevent Russia from returning to totalitarianism, which makes him President Vladimir Putin's strongest opponent.

Personal Quotes

"In the hands of this young man lies the future of chess." -- Mikhail Botvinnik, chess world champion in 1948-1957, 1958-1960, and 1961-1963

"I have great energy and I have great tasks ahead of me. I want to serve chess through games, books that are works of art. I would like to bring the game closer to many people all over the world."

It was nothing to do about science. It was one zeal to beat Garry Kasparov. And when a big corporation with unlimited resources would like to do so, there are many ways to achieve the result.

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