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Who was Garry Kasparov?
Garry Kasparov is a Russian politician and chess living legend that marked every chess player that is getting into chess. Many people, related or not to chess, will recognize the name of the great master, for his chess or political career.
This man is really a man of surprises and an authentic revolutionary, he is involved in many great changes in the world relating to his country. There is a lot of controversy around this man, and his chess career is something to admire.
Undoubtedly, Garry Kasparov is one of the greatest chess players in history, and he changed chess forever. There is no chess adept who doesn’t know the name of this man, whose life is a great story to tell.
He was studying chess seriously since he was 7 years old when he entered Mikhail Botvinnik’s chess school. Here he met his first master, the renowned chess coach Vladimir Makonogov.
The strength of this chess grandmaster was great, and he was definitely a step forward over every chess player after of his age. He started to play chess when he was 11 years old, his father taught him the basics of the game.
A growing champion
Later on, he developed a growing interest in the game, and everything started because his father showed him a chess tactical problem.
Then, his ascendance in chess was simply amazing, constant and unstoppable, winning, winning, and winning more tournaments.
He won the juvenile world chess tournament celebrated in Dortmund, Germany in 1980. Also, he was part of the soviet chess Olympiad team as a supplant, which gave him a norm for the GM title.
The best tournament for Kasparov following his own opinion was the Sokolski Memorial, a tournament that he won. Winning this tournament gave him the GM title, also, after winning this tournament Kasparov was motivated, and felt he had chances for the world championship.
Garry Kasparov also had some “luck” in his career, the Russian Federation committed a lot of mistakes in that time. He participated in a grandmaster's tournament when he was not a master yet.
Incredibly, he won this powerful tournament winning first place in solitary, how convenient! After this tournament, he emerged with an ELO rating of 2595 which was enough to consider him an elite player being the 3rd of the world.
Kasparov has uncountable ups and downs in his career, but one thing is for sure, he had a natural talent never seen before.
Garry Kasparov in the candidates’ tournament
In 1992 he was able to win the Interzonal Moscow tournament in the first place, which classified him for the candidates’ tournament.
Here is where the story gets a little crazy and unexpected, everyone was impressed by Kasparov’s brilliancy by the time. In his matches in the candidates’ tournament, he defeated Alexander Beliavsky in the first round.
Then, he was to play against Viktor Korchnoi, but he had deserted from the Soviet Union by that time. We need to understand at that moment, Russia was not the most democratic of all countries.
There was difficult to arrange the match for the candidates’, Kasparov tried to arrange the match but he could not. After some time, the match was finally played by both players, resulting in a win for Kasparov.
He had just one more rival to defeat, he was against the ex-world champion Vasily Smyslov, the master of the endgame. However, after a hard match, he won the encounter, classifying for the match with the world champion Anatoly Karpov.
In 1984, the match for the maximum title started, it was the promise of Garry Kasparov versus Anatoly Karpov. The first player who achieved six wins would be the new champion.
Garry Kasparov vs Anatoly Karpov
This is how the greatest rivalry in the history of the entire sport started, and finally, the passion among the board took over the world. It was a fierce battle between Karpov and Kasparov, the level of play here shown was unique.
The world champion Anatoly Karpov, after 9 games he had the advantage against Kasparov 4-0. But then Kasparov got 17 draws in a row, and he lost a game, 5-0 if Kasparov lost a single game more, it’s over! But this was not the end…
15 games that ended up in a draw once again, and all of the sudden, Kasparov won his first game against the world champion. They had already played 46 games; it was the longest match in chess history.
The board was on fire, and both players had a fierce battle over the board, but something happened…
The president of the FIDE canceled the match, both players expressed their unhappiness with the decision. Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov wanted to continue playing but Florencio Campomanes, FIDE president, decided it was enough, and another match would be played later.
The second Match against Karpov
The reason for his decision was unknown, the most logical answer was that he was worried about both players’ mental health. Kasparov, a young man who was in good shape didn’t have any trouble, but Karpov, 12 years older than Kasparov, had been hospitalized several times during the match.
Nevertheless, Garry Kasparov was extremely angry with Campomanes, this was the point where the relationship between Kasparov and FIDE really deteriorated.
It was the first match for the world championship that was never ended with no result.
Another match between Kasparov and Karpov was organized to decide the world champion in Moscow in 1985. But it was a different modality, it was the best out of 24 games, the player who achieved 12,5 points would be the winner. In case of a tie, Karpov would retain his title.
It was again two legends fighting over the board, that was not just chess, it was war. After a pretty disputed match, Kasparov became the new world champion in 1985, winning the match 13-11.
Garry Kasparov, then became the youngest world champion of the world at the age of 22 years, 6 months, and 27 days.
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