Garry Kimovich Kasparov (surname at birth Weinstein; genus. 1963) - Soviet and Russian chess player, 13th world chess champion, chess writer and politician, often recognized as the greatest chess player in history. International Grandmaster and Honored Master of Sports of the USSR, champion of the USSR (1981, 1988) and champion of Russia (2004).
Eight-time winner of the World Chess Olympiads. Winner of 11 chess "Oscars" (prizes for the best chess player of the year).
In 1999, Garry Kasparov achieved a record rating of 2851 points. The record was held for more than 13 years, until it was broken by Magnus Carlsen.
There are many interesting facts in the biography of Kasparov, which we will talk about in this article.
So, before you is a short biography of Garry Kasparov.
Biography of Kasparov
Garry Kasparov was born on April 13, 1963 in Baku. He grew up and was raised in a family of engineers.
His father, Kim Moiseevich Weinstein, worked as a power engineer, and his mother, Klara Shagenovna, specialized in automation and telemechanics. On the paternal side, the grandmaster is Jewish, and on the maternal side - an Armenian.
Childhood and youth
Kasparov's parents were fond of chess, in connection with which they often solved chess problems that were published in the press. The child loved to watch them, trying to delve into the tasks.
Once, when Harry was barely 5 years old, he suggested to his father a solution to one of the problems, which caused him great surprise. After this incident, the head of the family began to seriously teach his son this game.
A couple of years later, Kasparov was sent to a chess club. During this period of his biography, he experienced the first serious loss - his father died of lymphosarcoma. After that, the mother devoted herself entirely to the boy's chess career.
When Garry was 12 years old, Klara Shagenovna decided to change her son's surname from Weinstein to Kasparov.
This was due to the anti-Semitism that was present in the USSR. The mother did not want the nationality to prevent the child from achieving success in sports. At the age of 14, he became a member of the Komsomol.
Chess
In 1973, Garry Kasparov was admitted to the chess school of Mikhail Botvinnik. Botvinnik immediately saw the talent in the boy, and therefore contributed to the fact that he was taught according to an individual program.
The following year, Harry took part in the children's tournament, where he managed to play with the grandmaster Yuri Averbakh and beat him. When he was about 12 years old he became the USSR junior chess champion. An interesting fact is that most of Kasparov's rivals were several years older than him.
In 1977, the young man again became the winner of the championship. After that, he won another tournament and at the age of 17 he became a master of sports in chess. Then he graduated from school with honors and became a student of the Azerbaijan Pedagogical Institute, choosing the department of foreign languages.
In 1980, at a competition in Baku, Kasparov managed to fulfill the grandmaster's norm. He was declared the champion of the tournament without losing a single game. Then he took 1st place at the junior world championship held in Germany.
In the following years of his sports biography, Garry Kasparov continued to win prizes, gaining more and more popularity in society. In 1985 he became the 13th world champion in the history of chess, beating Anatoly Karpov himself.
An interesting fact is that Kasparov turned out to be the youngest world champion in the history of chess - 22 years 6 months and 27 days. It is worth noting that it was Karpov who was considered Harry's most serious rival. Moreover, their rivalry was called "two Ks".
For 13 years Kasparov remained the leader of the prestigious Elo rating with a coefficient of 2800 points. In the 80s, he won four World Chess Olympiads as part of the Soviet national team.
After the collapse of the USSR, Harry continued to increase his victories in major tournaments. In particular, he won the 1st place at the Olympiads 4 times, playing for the Russian national team.
In 1996, the man founded Kasparov's virtual Chess Club, which was in great demand on the Internet. After that, the computer game Harry was launched against the computer "Deep Blue". The first batch ended with the victory of the athlete, the second - the cars.
Three years later, the chess player won a duel against all Internet users organized by the Microsoft organization. It is interesting that at that time over 3 million people watched Kasparov's game with amateur chess players, which lasted 4 months.
In 2004, Garry became the Russian chess champion, and the next year he publicly announced that he was giving up sports for the sake of politics. He said that in chess he was able to achieve everything he dreamed of.
Politics
When Vladimir Putin was elected president of the Russian Federation, Kasparov sympathized with him. He believed that the new head of state would be able to lift the country from its knees and make it democratic. However, the man soon became disillusioned with the president, becoming one of his oppositionists.
Later, Garry Kimovich headed the opposition movement United Civil Front. Together with his supporters, he criticized the policies of Putin and all the current government.
In 2008 Kasparov founded the oppositional social and political movement Solidarity. He worked on organizing protest actions, demanding an impeachment of the president. However, his ideas did not receive serious support from his compatriots.
In the summer of 2013, the chess player announced that he was not going to return to Russia from abroad, since he wanted to fight the "Kremlin criminals" at the international level.
The following year, Garry Kasparov's website, which posted calls for illegal actions and mass rallies, was blocked by Roskomnadzor. A few years later, the ECHR will recognize the blocking as illegal and will oblige Russia to pay the portal 10,000 euros.
In 2014, Kasparov condemned the annexation of Crimea to Russia. He also called on the international community to increase pressure on Putin. In 2017, he called on Russians to boycott the upcoming presidential elections.
Personal life
Over the years of his personal biography, Kasparov was married three times. His first wife was a guide-translator Maria Arapova. Later, the couple had a girl named Polina. After 4 years of marriage, young people decided to leave.
After that, Harry married a student Yulia Vovk, who bore him a boy, Vadim. This union lasted 9 years.
In 2005, Kasparov went down the aisle for the third time. His beloved was Daria Tarasova, who was 20 years younger than her husband. In this marriage, the couple had a daughter, Aida, and a son, Nikolai.
In the mid-80s, the man met with the actress Marina Neyelova, who allegedly gave birth to his daughter Nika. Harry himself denied this statement, while Neelova did not comment on their relationship at all.
Garry Kasparov today
At the moment, Kasparov continues to participate in the development of chess activities in the Russian Federation. The Chess Foundation, named after him, calls for this game to be one of the subjects at school.
Garry Kimovich continues to urge the public to increase pressure on Putin and his allies. He has official accounts on social networks, where he periodically leaves comments and uploads photographs.
Kasparov Photos
