A chess rating system is a system used in chess
to calculate an estimate of the strength of the player, based on his or
her performance versus other players. They are used by organizations
such as FIDE, the US Chess Federation (USCF or US Chess), International Correspondence Chess Federation, and the English Chess Federation.
Most of the systems are used to recalculate ratings after a tournament
or match but some are used to recalculate ratings after individual
games. Popular online chess sites such as chess.com and Internet Chess Club
also implement rating systems. In almost all systems a higher number
indicates a stronger player. In general, players' ratings go up if they
perform better than expected and down if they perform worse than
expected. The magnitude of the change depends on the rating of their
opponents. The Elo rating system is currently the most widely used.
The first modern rating system was used by the Correspondence Chess League of America in 1939. Soviet player Andrey Khachaturov proposed a similar system in 1946 (Hooper & Whyld 1992:332).
The first one that made an impact on international chess was the Ingo
system in 1948. The USCF adopted the Harkness system in 1950. Shortly
after, the British Chess Federation started using a system devised by Richard W. B. Clarke. The USCF switched to the Elo rating system in 1960, which was adopted by FIDE in 1970.
Ingo system
The
Ingo system was designed by Anton Hoesslinger and published in 1948. It
was used by the West German Chess Federation from 1948 until 1992 when
it was replaced by an Elo-based system, Deutsche Wertungszahl.
It influenced some other rating systems. This is a simple system where
players' new ratings are the average rating of their competition minus
one point for each percentage point above 50 obtained in the tournament.
Unlike most other systems, lower numbers indicate better performance.
Harkness system
The Harkness System was invented by Kenneth Harkness, who published it in 1956. It was used by the USCF from 1950 to 1960 and by some other organizations.
When players compete in a tournament, the average rating of their
competition is calculated. If a player scores 50%, they receive the
average competition rating as their performance rating. If they score
more than 50%, their new rating is the competition average plus 10
points for each percentage point above 50. If they score less than 50%,
their new rating is the competition average minus 10 points for each
percentage point below 50.
Example
A
player with a rating of 1600 plays in an eleven-round tournament and
scores 2½–8½ (22.7%) against competition with an average rating of 1850.
This is 27.3% below 50%, so their new rating is 1850 – (10 × 27.3) =
1577 (Harkness 1967:187).
English Chess Federation system
The English Chess Federation (formerly British Chess Federation) Grading System was devised by Richard W. B. Clarke
and first published in 1958. Points are scored for every game played in
a registered competition (generally, English congresses, local and
county leagues, and other team events). A player's grade is calculated
by taking the opponent's grade and adding 50 points for a win,
subtracting 50 points for a loss, and taking the opponent's grade as it
stands for a draw. For grading purposes, it is assumed that the
opponent's grade is never more than 40 points above or below one's own.
The ECF grades approximately 200,000 games a year. The grading season
runs from 1 June to 31 May. An ECF grade can be approximated to an Elo
rating by multiplying by 7.5 and adding 700. An ECF grade of 100 is
approximately 1450 Elo, while 200 ECF equals 2200 Elo.
Elo rating system
The Elo system was invented by Arpad Elo and is the most common rating system. It is used by FIDE
and other organizations. Elo once stated that the process of rating
players was in any case rather approximate; he compared it to "the
measurement of the position of a cork bobbing up and down on the surface
of agitated water with a yard stick tied to a rope and which is swaying
in the wind".
Any attempt to consolidate all aspects of a player's strength into a
single number inevitably misses some of the picture, so the Elo system
is the "best" approximation available now.
FIDE classifies tournaments into categories according to the
average rating of the players. Each category is 25 rating points wide.
Category 1 is for an average rating of 2251 to 2275, category 2 is 2276
to 2300, etc. For women's tournaments, the categories are 200 rating
points lower, so a Category 1 is an average rating of 2051 to 2075, etc.
The USCF uses a modification of the Elo system, where the K factor
varies and there are bonus points for superior performance in a
tournament. The USCF classifies players according to their rating. USCF ratings are generally 50 to 100 points higher than the FIDE equivalents.
USCF rating categories
Category
Rating range
Senior master
2400 and up
National master
2200–2399
Expert
2000–2199
Class A
1800–1999
Class B
1600–1799
Class C
1400–1599
Class D
1200–1399
Class E
1000–1199
Class F
800–999
Class G
600–799
Class H
400–599
Class I
200–399
Class J
100–199
Example
Elo gives an example of calculating the rating of Lajos Portisch,
a 2635-rated player who scored 10½ points in an actual tournament of 16
players. First, the difference in rating is calculated for each other
player, subtracting the other player's rating from Portisch's rating.
Then the expected score against each player is determined from a table,
based on this rating difference. For instance, one opponent was Vlastimil Hort,
who was rated at 2600. The rating difference of 35 gave Portisch an
expected score of 0.55. The expected score is summed for each opponent,
giving Portisch a total expected score of 9.66. Then the formula is:
new rating = old rating + K×(W-We), where K=10,
W=actual score, and We=expected score.
Portisch's new rating is 2635+10×(10.5–9.66)=2643.4.
Linear approximation
Elo devised a linear approximation to his full system. With that method, a player's new rating is
where Rnew and Rold are the player's new and old rating respectively, Di is the opponent's rating minus the player's rating, W is the number of wins, L is the number of losses, C = 200 and K = 32.
The example of Portisch with K = 10, with the sum of the rating differences being 1620 is
The USCF used a modification of this system to calculate ratings after individual games of correspondence chess, with a K = 32 and C = 200.
Glicko rating system
The Glicko system was invented by Mark E. Glickman as an improvement
of the Elo system. The Glicko-2 system is a refinement and is used by
the Australian Chess Federation and some online playing sites.
USA ICCF system
The ICCF U.S.A. used its own system in the 1970s. It now uses the Elo system.
Deutsche Wertungszahl
The Deutsche Wertungszahl system replaced the Ingo system in Germany.
Chessmetrics
The Chessmetrics system was invented by Jeff Sonas. It is based on computer analysis of a large database of games and is intended to be more accurate than the Elo system.
1933 – The Correspondence Chess League of America (now ICCF U.S.A.)
is the first national organization to use a numerical rating system. It
chooses the Short system which clubs on the west coast of the US had
used. In 1934 the CCLA switched to the Walt James Percentage System but
in 1940 returned to a point system designed by Kenneth Williams.
1942 – Chess Review uses the Harkness system, an improvement of the Williams system.
1944 – The CCLA changes to an improved version of the Williams
system devised by William Wilcock. A slight change to the system was
made in 1949.
1948 – The Ingo system is published and used by the West German Chess Federation.
1949 – The Harkness system is submitted to the USCF. The British
Chess Federation adopts it later and uses it at least as late as 1967 (Harkness 1967:184).
1950 – The USCF starts using the Harkness system and publishes its first rating list in the November issue of Chess Life. Reuben Fine is first with a rating of 2817 and Sammy Reshevsky is second with 2770 (Lawrence 2009).
1959 – The USCF names Arpad Elo the head of a committee to examine all rating systems and make recommendations.
1961 – Elo develops his system and it is used by the USCF (Harkness 1967:184). It is published in the June 1961 issue of Chess Life (Elo 1978:197).
The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a non-profit
organization that describes itself as promoting and protecting human
rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. HRF organizes the Oslo Freedom Forum. The Human Rights Foundation was founded in 2005 by Thor Halvorssen Mendoza, a Venezuelan film producer and human rights advocate. The current chairman is Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, and Javier El-Hage is the current chief legal officer. The foundation's head office is in New York City.
Organization
HRF's mission is to "unite people in the common cause of defending
human rights and promoting liberal democracy, to ensure that freedom is
both preserved and promoted".
HRF's website states that it adheres to the definition of human rights as put forth in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1976), believing that all individuals are entitled to the right to speak freely, the right to worship in the manner of their choice, the right to freely associate with those of like mind, the right to acquire and dispose of property, the right to leave and enter their country, the right to equal treatment and due process under law, the right to be able to participate in the government of their country, freedom from arbitrary detainment or exile, freedom from slavery and torture, and freedom from interference and coercion in matters of conscience.
According to the New York Times, HRF "has helped smuggle
activists out of repressive countries, provided many with broader
exposure and connected others with prominent financiers and
technologists".
According to financial disclosures on its website, HRF donors include DNC Treasurer Andrew Tobias, actor Kelsey Grammer, human rights campaigner Bill Browder, actress Anne Archer, Harvard Professor Steven Pinker, Blockhain founder Brock Pierce, actor Gary Sinise, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, technology investor Peter Thiel, and fashion designer Zang Toi. HRF has also received funds from numerous foundations including the Arcus Foundation, the Greater New Orleans Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Community Foundation of Wyoming, the Combined Federal Campaign, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, the Foundation for Democracy in Russia, the John Templeton Foundation, the Roger Firestone Foundation, and the Vanguard Charitable Endowment. HRF is also supported by the Brin Wojcicki Foundation, which was created by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and biotechnology analyst Anne Wojcicki.
Oslo Freedom Forum
The Oslo Freedom Forum
is an annual HRF conference in Oslo, Norway, supported by several
grant-giving institutions in Scandinavia and the United States through
HRF. Donors include Fritt Ord, the City of Oslo, the Thiel Foundation,
the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Royal Norwegian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, Amnesty International Norway, Plan Norway, The Brin
Wojcicki Foundation, Human Rights House Foundation, and Ny Tid. The forum is funded in part by the municipality of Oslo, the Norwegian Ministry of affairs, and the Fritt ord Foundation.
HRF advocacy campaigns by country
China
In 2011, HRF announced its membership in the International Committee
to Support Liu Xiaobo. The committee consists of a "coalition composed
of six Nobel Peace Prize winners and 15 non-governmental organizations,"
formed to defend, and advocate for the release of the 2010 Nobel Peace
Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia, both detained in China.
Cuba
In September 2012, HRF founder Thor Halvorssen wrote an open letter
to Ted Marlow, CEO of Urban Outfitters, urging him to reconsider Urban
Outfitters' sale of Che Guevara emblazoned merchandise "for the sake of
the thousands who perished in the Cuban revolution, and for the sake of
the 11 million Cubans who still endure a totalitarian system". It was reported that in October 2012 Urban Outfitters removed the merchandise in response to the outrage.
In May 2013, HRF awarded the Václav Havel Prize for Creative
Dissent to The Ladies in White (Las Damas de Blanco). In 2015, the award
was given to Danilo Maldonado, El Sexto,
a Cuban graffiti artist and activist who was arrested in December 2014
for trying to stage a performance art piece in the center of Havana.
In July 2014, HRF submitted a petition to the UN Special
Rapporteur requesting an appeal to the government of Cuba on the assault
of Roberto de Jesus Guerra Perez, a Cuban journalist and founder of
Centro de Informacion Hablemos Press.
Dominican Republic
The Sugar Babies (2007) is a feature-length documentary film about
exploitation in the sugar plantations of the Dominican Republic. The
film, narrated by Edwidge Danticat, suggests that the descendants of
African slaves, brought over from Haiti, live and work in unfair
conditions akin to "modern day slavery."
HRF produced and provided the funding for the documentary film The Sugar Babies: The Plight of the Children of Agricultural Workers in the Sugar Industry. It was first screened at Florida International University on June 27, 2007. The documentary about human trafficking of Haitians in the Dominican Republic drew protest from the Fanjul brothers, one of the largest beneficiaries of the human trafficking depicted in the film.
Ecuador
In March 2008 HRF wrote to Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa asking for the release of the imprisoned, governor of the province of Orellana, Guadalupe Llori implying that the charges against her were politically motivated. Later in March Amnesty International declared that governor Guadalupe Llori may be a prisoner of conscience and a political prisoner According to HRF Llori was imprisoned on trumped up terrorism charges by the government.
She was sent to El Inca prison where she remained for about ten months.
HRF filed a communication with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention, pleading that it activate its urgent action procedure and
send an appeal to the government of Ecuador for the immediate release of
political prisoner Guadalupe Llori. HRF visited her in prison. She was eventually freed after an intense international campaign and credited HRF with her release.
Equatorial Guinea
In August 2012, HRF called for former US President Bill Clinton,
who according to tax documents is the "honorary chairman" of the Leon H
Sullivan Foundation, to revoke the foundation's decision to allow
Teodoro Obiang to host their Sullivan Summit. Of Clinton, Halvorssen
said "Mr Clinton's wife is US Secretary of State...It seems perplexing
that he would allow himself to be so closely associated with a vile
dictator."
Haiti
Following the 2010 earthquake that took place in Haiti, HRF began a
fundraising campaign for a food program devoted to the children of the
St Clare's community of Port-au-Prince. The program was started in 2000
by American author Margaret Trost and by Gérard Jean-Juste, a former Amnesty Internationalprisoner of conscience who served as the priest of the St. Clare's community. The campaign aimed at providing 160,000 meals for children.
North Korea
In 2015, the Human Rights Foundation has helped to organize and
bankroll a balloon drop of 10,000 copies of an edited version of the
movie The Interview
over North Korea. Previously, the Human Rights Foundation "has financed
balloon drops of pamphlets, TV shows, books and movies over a course of
several years, though nothing as high-profile and crudely belittling to
Kim Jong Un as is The Interview."
According to Wired, HRF's North Korea program is "an initiative that unites activists in Korea with technologists and campaigners in the West."
In 2014, HRF hosted the world's first hackathon for North Korea at Code For America's offices in San Francisco. According to the Wall Street Journal,
"about 100 hackers, coders and engineers gathered in San Francisco to
brainstorm ways to pierce the information divide that separates North
Korea from the rest of the world."
In 2016, the HRF smuggled USB flash drives with US films and television shows to spread pro-Western sentiment there. The flash drives were called "flash drives for freedom".
Swaziland
In 2014 HRF invited Swazi human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko to speak
at the Oslo Freedom Forum. He was later jailed for defaming the King's
justice system.
After a sustained media international campaign, Maseko was eventually freed.
Conferences and events
Hack North Korea
In 2014, HRF hosted Hack North Korea, a gathering of Bay Area
technologists, investors, engineers, designers, activists and North
Korean defectors that aimed to spark new ideas for getting information
into North Korea.
The College Freedom Forum (CFF) is a series of one-day events
designed to educate and enlighten students about individual rights and
democracy around the world. Each CFF features presentations and an
opportunity for students and audience members to interact with the
speakers one-on-one and during a question and answer session.
U.N. Human Rights Council Member Elections
In November 2012 and 2013, HRF co-hosted an event at the United
Nations headquarters in New York with the Geneva-based organization UN
Watch. The events focused on raising awareness of the election of
competitive authoritarian and fully authoritarian regimes to the UN
Human Rights Council. HRF brought human rights activists from different
countries to testify about the abuses committed by their respective
governments.
Oslo Freedom Forum
In May of 2009, with support from the city of Oslo and the John Templeton Foundation, HRF organized the Oslo Freedom Forum.
During the conference, democracy and human rights activist toell their
stories and express their views about human rights in the world. The forum holds an annual event in Oslo, along with satellite events organized across the world.
San Francisco Freedom Forum
In October 2012 the Human Rights Foundation hosted the first San
Francisco Freedom Forum, which was described as "a unique convergence
of-pro freedom voices." The event was supported by Peter Thiel's charitable foundation, Sergey Brin's foundation, and Anne Wojcicki. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, on her first trip to the United States since 1971, was presented with a Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent.
Suu Kyi discussed the motives behind human rights violations and said
that they cannot be addressed unless "we know what can be done to
prevent" people from dehumanizing one another. The Forum brought attention to a number of human rights issues, and other attendees included Manal al-Sharif, a Saudi woman who challenged her country's ban on women driving by coordinating a "Women2Drive" protest via YouTube, and the spokesman of jailed Russian punk band Pussy Riot.
Sime MIA
In November 2014, the Oslo Freedom Forum curated a session at the
Sime MIA conference in Miami. The conference featured HRF president Thor
Halvorssen, Jordanian cartoonist Suleiman Bakhit, and North Korean refugee Yeonmi Park.
Center for Law and Democracy
Honduran Democracy Crisis
Following the 2009 Honduran coup d'état that deposed President Manuel Zelaya, HRF requested all member states of the Organization of American States to adhere to the Inter-American Democratic Charter. HRF also advocated for the suspension of the government that ousted President Zelaya. HRF chairman Armando Valladares resigned on July 2, 2009, in response to the HRF position on the Honduran coup. The new chairman of the organization was poet and former Czech president Václav Havel.
In November 2009, HRF published a report called "The facts and the law behind the democratic crisis in Honduras 2009", in which it concluded that the Organization of American States had acted correctly in activating the Inter-American Democratic Charter,
and incorrectly in its diplomatic actions to revert the military coup.
The report also concludes that the OAS behaved as an agent of Zelaya
prior to the coup d'état and that Zelaya had been eroding Honduran
democracy.
In July 2011, the Honduran Truth and Reconciliation Commission
(CVR-H), led by Eduardo Stein, published its final report on the events.
The CVR-H based its main conclusions on HRF's report: "The
commissioners … agree with the analysis made by the Human Rights
Foundation, in defining what happened in Honduras as a coup d'état,
[namely that] a coup d'état would refer to a scenario with the
following four concurring elements: 'first, that the victim of the coup
is the president or other civil authority with full control of executive
power in that country; second, that the perpetrator of the coup has
used violence or coercion to remove the victim from his post; third,
that the action or actions that constitute the coup are abrupt or sudden
and rapid; and fourth, that this action occurs in clear violation of
the constitutional procedure to remove the president, or chief
executive.' In the case of Honduras, all of the four aforementioned
elements were present."
Public perceptions and criticism
Los Angeles Times writer Patrick Goldstein refers to the organization as "respected", while HRF – along with Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, and other rights groups – has been called a CIA front by Jean Guy Allard writing for Granma, the official organ of the Cuban Communist Party.
Writing as president of HRF in the American conservative magazine National Review, Thor Halvorssen participated in NR's symposium on the death of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet,
and was noted as the only one of the six commentators to condemn
Pinochet unequivocally, writing: "Augusto Pinochet took full control of
Chile – by force. He shut down parliament, suffocated political life,
banned trade unions, and made Chile his sultanate. His government
disappeared 3,000 opponents, arrested 30,000 (torturing thousands of
them), and controlled the country until 1990."
After the HRF criticized the Bolivian government and specifically government minister Sacha Sergio Llorenti Soliz for alleged human rights violations in a public letter, the minister referred to HRF as "right wing". In the same month, eighteen Latin America scholars signed an opinion piece in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten
criticizing the Oslo Freedom Forum for focusing criticism only on
Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, three countries with leftist
governments. The scholars praised the group for putting "the spotlight
on key global issues", but also stated that Cuban human rights activist Armando Valladares had defended the 2009 Honduran coup d'état while speaking at the forum.
In 2014, during the inaugural lecture at Francisco Marroquín University,
Thor Halvorssen stated the following regarding public perceptions
associated with the organization: "HRF criticizes equally harshly the Chilean dictatorship of Pinochet as well as the Cuban dictatorship of Fidel Castro,
even though the first one gave more economic freedom to his citizens
than the latter. HRF criticizes equally harshly the Chinese dictatorship
of Deng Xiaoping (and its current successors) as well Mao Tse Dong's
dictatorship, even though the first one gave more economic freedom to
its citizens and allowed for 140 million Chinese to escape poverty in
less than twenty years, while a few years before that millions had
starved to death as a result of Mao's Great Leap Forward… HRF criticizes just as harshly the competitive authoritarianisms in Malaysia and Singapore, as well as the competitive authoritarianisms in Burma and Venezuela,
even though the first two have had success promoting national and
international investment, economic growth, and that, in turn, it has
allowed for the free functioning of the price system, unlike the
latter."
Garry Kimovich Kasparov born Garik Kimovich Weinstein, 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former world chess champion, writer, and political activist, whom many consider to be the greatest chess player of all time. From 1986 until his retirement in 2005, Kasparov was ranked world No. 1 for 225 out of 228 months. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by Magnus Carlsen in 2013. Kasparov also holds records for consecutive professional tournament victories (15) and Chess Oscars (11).
Kasparov became the youngest ever undisputed World Chess Champion in 1985 at age 22 by defeating then-champion Anatoly Karpov. He held the official FIDE world title until 1993, when a dispute with FIDE led him to set up a rival organization, the Professional Chess Association. In 1997 he became the first world champion to lose a match to a computer under standard time controls, when he lost to the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in a highly publicized match. He continued to hold the "Classical" World Chess Championship until his defeat by Vladimir Kramnik
in 2000. In spite of losing the title, he continued winning tournaments
and was the world's highest-rated player when he retired from
professional chess in 2005.
After Kasparov retired, he devoted his time to politics and writing. He formed the United Civil Front movement, and joined as a member of The Other Russia, a coalition opposing the administration and policies of Vladimir Putin. In 2008, he announced an intention to run as a candidate in that year's Russian presidential race,
but failure to find a sufficiently large rental space to assemble the
number of supporters that is legally required to endorse such a
candidacy led him to withdraw. Kasparov blamed "official obstruction"
for the lack of available space. Although he is widely regarded in the West as a symbol of opposition to Putin, he was barred from the presidential ballot, as the political climate in Russia makes it difficult for opposition candidates to organize.
Kasparov is currently chairman for the Human Rights Foundation and chairs its International Council. In 2017, he founded the Renew Democracy Initiative (RDI), an American political organization promoting and defending liberal democracy in the U.S. and abroad. He also serves as chairman of the group.
Early career
Kasparov at age 11, Vilnius, 1974
Kasparov was born Garik Kimovich Weinstein (Russian: Гарик Вайнштейн) in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR (now Azerbaijan), Soviet Union. His father, Kim Moiseyevich Weinstein, was Russian-Jewish, and his mother, Klara Shagenovna Kasparova, was Armenian. Kasparov has described himself as a "self-appointed Christian", although "very indifferent" and identifies as Russian.
Kasparov began the serious study of chess after he came across a chess problem set up by his parents and proposed a solution. His father died of leukemia when Garry was seven years old.
At the age of twelve, Garry, upon request of mother Klara and consent
of the family, adopted Klara's surname Kasparov, which was done to avoid
possible antisemitic tensions, which were common in the USSR at the time.
From age 7, Kasparov attended the Young Pioneer Palace in Baku and, at 10 began training at Mikhail Botvinnik's chess school under noted coach Vladimir Makogonov. Makogonov helped develop Kasparov's positional skills and taught him to play the Caro-Kann Defence and the Tartakower System of the Queen's Gambit Declined. Kasparov won the Soviet Junior Championship in Tbilisi
in 1976, scoring 7 points of 9, at age 13. He repeated the feat the
following year, winning with a score of 8½ of 9. He was being trained by
Alexander Shakarov during this time.
In 1978, Kasparov participated in the Sokolsky Memorial tournament in Minsk. He had been invited as an exception but took first place and became a chess master.
Kasparov has repeatedly said that this event was a turning point in his
life, and that it convinced him to choose chess as his career. "I will
remember the Sokolsky Memorial as long as I live", he wrote. He has also
said that after the victory, he thought he had a very good shot at the
World Championship.
He first qualified for the Soviet Chess Championship at age 15 in 1978, the youngest ever player at that level. He won the 64-player Swiss system tournament at Daugavpils on tiebreak over Igor V. Ivanov to capture the sole qualifying place.
Kasparov rose quickly through the World Chess Federation rankings. Starting with an oversight by the Russian Chess Federation, he participated in a grandmaster tournament in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina (then part of Yugoslavia), in 1979 while still unrated (he was a replacement for the Soviet defectorViktor Korchnoi,
who was originally invited but withdrew due to the threat of a boycott
from the Soviets). Kasparov won this high-class tournament, emerging
with a provisional rating of 2595, enough to catapult him to the top
group of chess players (at the time, number 15 in the world). The next year, 1980, he won the World Junior Chess Championship in Dortmund, West Germany. Later that year, he made his debut as second reserve for the Soviet Union at the Chess Olympiad at Valletta, Malta, and became a Grandmaster.
Towards the top
Kasparov becomes World Junior Champion at Dortmund in 1980
As a teenager, Kasparov tied for first place in the USSR Chess Championship in 1981–82. His first win in a superclass-level international tournament was scored at Bugojno, Yugoslavia in 1982. He earned a place in the 1982 Moscow Interzonal tournament, which he won, to qualify for the Candidates Tournament.
At age 19, he was the youngest Candidate since Bobby Fischer, who was
15 when he qualified in 1958. At this stage, he was already the No.
2-rated player in the world, trailing only World Chess Champion Anatoly
Karpov on the January 1983 list.
Kasparov's first (quarter-final) Candidates match was against Alexander Beliavsky, whom he defeated 6–3 (four wins, one loss). Politics threatened Kasparov's semi-final against Viktor Korchnoi, which was scheduled to be played in Pasadena, California.
Korchnoi had defected from the Soviet Union in 1976, and was at that
time the strongest active non-Soviet player. Various political maneuvers
prevented Kasparov from playing Korchnoi, and Kasparov forfeited the
match. This was resolved by Korchnoi allowing the match to be replayed
in London, along with the previously scheduled match between Vasily Smyslov and Zoltán Ribli. The Kasparov-Korchnoi match was put together on short notice by Raymond Keene. Kasparov lost the first game but won the match 7–4 (four wins, one loss).
In January 1984, Kasparov became the No. 1 ranked player
in the world, with a FIDE rating of 2710. He became the youngest ever
world No. 1, a record that lasted 12 years until being broken by
Vladimir Kramnik in January 1996; the record is currently held by Magnus
Carlsen.
Later in 1984, he won the Candidates' final 8½–4½ (four wins, no
losses) against the resurgent former world champion Vasily Smyslov, at Vilnius, thus qualifying to play Anatoly Karpov for the World Championship. That year he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), as a member of which he was elected to the Central Committee of Komsomol in 1987.
1984 World Championship
The World Chess Championship 1984
match between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov had many ups and downs,
and a very controversial finish. Karpov started in very good form, and
after nine games Kasparov was down 4–0 in a "first to six wins" match.
Fellow players predicted he would be whitewashed 6–0 within 18 games.
In an unexpected turn of events, there followed a series of 17
successive draws, some relatively short, and others drawn in unsettled
positions. Kasparov lost game 27 (5–0), then fought back with another
series of draws until game 32 (5–1), earning his first-ever win against
the World Champion. Another 14 successive draws followed, through game
46; the previous record length for a world title match had been 34
games, the match of José Raúl Capablanca vs. Alexander Alekhine in 1927.
Kasparov won games 47 and 48 to bring the scores to 5–3 in Karpov's favour. Then the match was ended without result by Florencio Campomanes, the President of Fédération Internationale des Échecs
(FIDE), and a new match was announced to start a few months later. The
termination was controversial, as both players stated that they
preferred the match to continue. Announcing his decision at a press conference, Campomanes cited the health of the players, which had been strained by the length of the match.
The match became the first, and so far only, world championship
match to be abandoned without result. Kasparov's relations with
Campomanes and FIDE were greatly strained, and the feud between them
finally came to a head in 1993 with Kasparov's complete break-away from
FIDE.
World Champion
Kasparov after winning the FIDE World Championship title in 1985
The second Karpov-Kasparov match in 1985 was organized in Moscow as
the best of 24 games where the first player to win 12½ points would
claim the World Champion title. The scores from the terminated match
would not carry over; however, in the event of a 12–12 draw, the title
would remain with Karpov. On 9 November 1985, Kasparov secured the title
by a score of 13–11, winning the 24th game with Black, using a Sicilian defense. He was 22 years old at the time, making him the youngest ever World Champion, and breaking the record held by Mikhail Tal for over 20 years. Kasparov's win as Black in the 16th game has been recognized as one of the all-time masterpieces in chess history.
As part of the arrangements following the aborted 1984 match,
Karpov had been granted (in the event of his defeat) a right to rematch.
Another match took place in 1986, hosted jointly in London and Leningrad,
with each city hosting 12 games. At one point in the match, Kasparov
opened a three-point lead and looked well on his way to a decisive match
victory. But Karpov fought back by winning three consecutive games to
level the score late in the match. At this point, Kasparov dismissed one
of his seconds, grandmaster Evgeny Vladimirov, accusing him of selling his opening preparation to the Karpov team (as described in Kasparov's autobiography Unlimited Challenge, chapter Stab in the Back). Kasparov scored one more win and kept his title by a final score of 12½–11½.
A fourth match for the world title took place in 1987 in Seville,
as Karpov had qualified through the Candidates' Matches to again become
the official challenger. This match was very close, with neither
player holding more than a one-point lead at any time during the
contest. Kasparov was down one full point at the time of the final game,
and needed a win to draw the match and retain his title. A long tense
game ensued in which Karpov blundered away a pawn just before the first time control,
and Kasparov eventually won a long ending. Kasparov retained his title
as the match was drawn by a score of 12–12. (All this meant that
Kasparov had played Karpov four times in the period 1984–87, a statistic
unprecedented in chess. Matches organized by FIDE had taken place every
three years since 1948, and only Botvinnik had a right to a rematch
before Karpov.)
A fifth match between Kasparov and Karpov was held in New York and Lyon
in 1990, with each city hosting 12 games. Again, the result was a close
one with Kasparov winning by a margin of 12½–11½. In their five world
championship matches, Kasparov had 21 wins, 19 losses, and 104 draws in
144 games.
With the World Champion title in hand, Kasparov began opposing FIDE.
Beginning in 1986, he created the Grandmasters Association (GMA), an
organization to represent professional chess players and give them more
say in FIDE's activities. Kasparov assumed a leadership role. GMA's
major achievement was in organizing a series of six World Cup
tournaments for the world's top players. A somewhat uneasy relationship
developed with FIDE, and a sort of truce was brokered by Bessel Kok, a Dutch businessman.
This stand-off lasted until 1993, by which time a new challenger had qualified through the Candidates cycle for Kasparov's next World Championship defense: Nigel Short, a British grandmaster who had defeated Anatoly Karpov in a qualifying match, and then Jan Timman
in the finals held in early 1993. After a confusing and compressed
bidding process produced lower financial estimates than expected,
the world champion and his challenger decided to play outside FIDE's
jurisdiction, under another organization created by Kasparov called the Professional Chess Association
(PCA). At this point, a great fracture occurred in the lineage of the
FIDE World Championship. In an interview in 2007, Kasparov called the
break with FIDE the worst mistake of his career, as it hurt the game in
the long run.
Kasparov and Short were ejected from FIDE, and played their well-sponsored match
in London in 1993. Kasparov won convincingly by a score of 12½–7½. The
match considerably raised the profile of chess in the UK, with an
unprecedented level of coverage on Channel 4. Meanwhile, FIDE organized a World Championship match between Jan Timman (the defeated Candidates finalist) and former World Champion Karpov (a defeated Candidates semi-finalist), which Karpov won.
FIDE removed Kasparov and Short from the FIDE rating lists. Until
this happened, there was a parallel rating list presented by PCA which
featured all world top players, regardless of their relation to FIDE.
There were now two World Champions: PCA champion Kasparov, and FIDE
champion Karpov. The title remained split for 13 years.
Kasparov defended his title in a 1995 match against Viswanathan Anand at the World Trade Center
in New York City. Kasparov won the match by four wins to one, with
thirteen draws. It was the last World Championship to be held under the
auspices of the PCA, which collapsed when Intel, one of its major backers, withdrew its sponsorship.
Kasparov tried to organize another World Championship match, under another organization, the World Chess Association (WCA) with Linares organizer Luis Rentero. Alexei Shirov
and Vladimir Kramnik played a candidates match to decide the
challenger, which Shirov won in a surprising upset. But when Rentero
admitted that the funds required and promised had never materialized,
the WCA collapsed. This left Kasparov stranded, and yet another
organization stepped in: BrainGames.com, headed by Raymond Keene. No match against Shirov was arranged, and talks with Anand collapsed, so a match was instead arranged against Kramnik.
During this period, Kasparov was approached by Oakham School in the United Kingdom, at the time the only school in the country with a full-time chess coach, and developed an interest in the use of chess in education. In 1997, Kasparov supported a scholarship programme at the school. Kasparov also won the Marca Leyenda trophy that year.
Losing the title and aftermath
Kasparov playing against Vladimir Kramnik in the Botvinnik Memorial match in Moscow, 2001
The Kasparov-Kramnik match took place in London during the latter
half of 2000. Kramnik had been a student of Kasparov's at the famous
Botvinnik/Kasparov chess school in Russia, and had served on Kasparov's
team for the 1995 match against Viswanathan Anand.
The better-prepared Kramnik won game 2 against Kasparov's Grünfeld Defence
and achieved winning positions in Games 4 and 6, although Kasparov held
the draw in both games. Kasparov made a critical error in Game 10 with
the Nimzo-Indian Defence, which Kramnik exploited to win in 25 moves. As White, Kasparov could not crack the passive but solid Berlin Defence in the Ruy Lopez,
and Kramnik successfully drew all his games as Black. Kramnik won the
match 8½–6½. Kasparov became the first player to lose a world
championship match without winning a game since Emanuel Lasker's loss to José Raúl Capablanca in 1921.
After losing the title, Kasparov won a series of major
tournaments, and remained the top rated player in the world, ahead of
both Kramnik and the FIDE World Champions. In 2001 he refused an
invitation to the 2002 Dortmund Candidates Tournament for the Classical title, claiming his results had earned him a rematch with Kramnik.
Kasparov and Karpov played a four-game match with rapid time
controls over two days in December 2002 in New York City. Karpov
surprised the experts and emerged victorious, winning two games and
drawing one.
Due to Kasparov's continuing strong results, and status as world
No. 1 in much of the public eye, he was included in the so-called
"Prague Agreement", masterminded by Yasser Seirawan and intended to reunite the two World Championships. Kasparov was to play a match against the FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov
in September 2003. But this match was called off after Ponomariov
refused to sign his contract for it without reservation. In its place,
there were plans for a match against Rustam Kasimdzhanov, winner of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004, to be held in January 2005 in the United Arab Emirates.
These also fell through due to lack of funding. Plans to hold the match
in Turkey instead came too late. Kasparov announced in January 2005
that he was tired of waiting for FIDE to organize a match and so had
decided to stop all efforts to regain the World Championship title.
Retirement from chess
After winning the prestigious Linares tournament
for the ninth time, Kasparov announced on 10 March 2005 that he would
retire from serious competitive chess. He cited as the reason a lack of
personal goals in the chess world (he commented when winning the Russian championship
in 2004 that it had been the last major title he had never won
outright) and expressed frustration at the failure to reunify the world
championship.
Kasparov said he may play in some rapid chess events for fun, but intends to spend more time on his books, including both the My Great Predecessors series (see below) and a work on the links between decision-making in chess and in other areas of life, and will continue to involve himself in Russian politics, which he views as "headed down the wrong path".
Kasparov has been married three times: to Masha, with whom he had
a daughter before divorcing; to Yulia, with whom he had a son before
their 2005 divorce; and to Daria (Dasha), with whom he has two children,
a daughter born in 2006 and a son born in 2015. They live in New York
City. Kasparov's wife manages his business activities worldwide as the founder of Kasparov International Management Inc.
Post-retirement chess
On
22 August 2006, in his first public chess games since his retirement,
Kasparov played in the Lichthof Chess Champions Tournament, a blitz
event played at the time control of 5 minutes per side and 3-second
increments per move. Kasparov tied for first with Anatoly Karpov,
scoring 4½/6.
Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov played a 12-game match from 21–24 September 2009, in Valencia,
Spain. It consisted of four rapid (or semi rapid) games, in which
Kasparov won 3–1, and eight blitz games, in which Kasparov won 6–2,
winning the match with total result 9–3. The event took place exactly 25
years after the two players' legendary encounter at World Chess Championship 1984.
Kasparov actively coached Magnus Carlsen for approximately one
year beginning in February 2009. The collaboration remained secret until
September 2009.
Under Kasparov's tutelage, Carlsen in October 2009 became the youngest
ever to achieve a FIDE rating higher than 2,800, and rose from world
number four to world number one. While the pair initially planned to
work together throughout 2010, in March of that year it was announced that Carlsen had split from Kasparov and would no longer be using him as a trainer. According to an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, Carlsen indicated that he would remain in contact and that he would continue to attend training sessions with Kasparov, but in fact no further training sessions were held and the cooperation gradually fizzled out over the course of the spring.
In May 2010 he played 30 games simultaneously, winning each one, against players at Tel Aviv University in Israel. In the same month it was revealed that Kasparov had aided Viswanathan Anand in preparation for the World Chess Championship 2010 against challenger Veselin Topalov. Anand won the match 6½–5½ to retain the title.
Kasparov delivering a speech in Arizona in October 2017
In January 2011, Kasparov began training the U.S. grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura.
The first of several training sessions was held in New York just prior
to Nakamura's participation in the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk
aan Zee, the Netherlands. In December 2011, it was announced that the cooperation had come to an end.
Kasparov played two blitz exhibition matches in the autumn of 2011. The first was in September against French grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, in Clichy (France),
which Kasparov won 1½–½. The second was a longer match consisting of
eight blitz games played on 9 October, against English grandmaster Nigel Short. Kasparov won again by a score of 4½–3½.
A little after that, in October 2011, Kasparov played and
defeated fourteen opponents in a simultaneous exhibition that took place
in Bratislava.
On 25 and 26 April 2015, Kasparov played a mini-match against
Nigel Short. The match consisted of two rapid games and eight blitz
games. Kasparov won the match decisively with a score of 8½–1½, winning
all five games on the second day.
On Wednesday 19 August 2015 he played and won the 19 games of a simultaneous exhibition in Pula, Croatia.
On Thursday 28 April and Friday 29 April 2016 at the Chess Club
and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, Kasparov played a 6-round
exhibition blitz round-robin tournament with Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, and Hikaru Nakamura in an event called the Ultimate Blitz Challenge.
He finished the tournament third with 9.5/18, behind Hikaru Nakamura
(11/18) and Wesley So (10/18). At the post-tournament interview, he
considered the possibility of playing future top-level blitz exhibition
matches.
On 2 June 2016, Kasparov played against fifteen chess players in a simultaneous exhibition in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Halle of Mönchengladbach. He won all games.
Candidate for FIDE presidency
On
7 October 2013, Kasparov announced his candidacy for World Chess
Federation president during a reception in Tallinn, Estonia, where the
84th FIDE Congress took place. Kasparov's candidacy was supported by his former student, reigning World Chess Champion and FIDE#1 ranked player Magnus Carlsen. At the FIDE General Assembly in August 2014, Kasparov lost the presidential election to incumbent FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, with a vote of 110–61.
A few days before the election took place, the New York Times Magazine
had published a lengthy report on the viciously fought campaign.
Included was information about a leaked contract between Kasparov and
former FIDE Secretary General Ignatius Leong from Singapore, in which the Kasparov campaign reportedly "offered to pay Leong $500,000
and to pay $250,000 a year for four years to the Asean Chess Academy,
an organization Leong helped create to teach the game, specifying that
Leong would be responsible for delivering 11 votes from his region
[...]". In September 2015, the FIDE Ethics Commission found Kasparov and Leong guilty of violating its Code of Ethics and later suspended them for two years from all FIDE functions and meetings.
Return from retirement
In 2017, Kasparov came out of retirement to participate in the inaugural St. Louis Rapid and Blitz
tournament from 14–19 August, scoring 3.5/9 in the rapid and 9/18 in
the blitz, finishing 8th out of 10 participants, which included
Nakamura, Caruana, former world champion Anand, and the eventual winner,
Aronian. Any tournament money that he earned would go towards charities to promote chess in Africa.
Politics
1980s
Kasparov's
grandfather was a staunch communist but Kasparov gradually began to
have doubts about the Soviet Union's political system at age 13 when he
traveled abroad for the first time to Paris for a chess tournament. In
1981, at age 18 he read Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago, a copy of which he bought while abroad.
Kasparov joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1984, and in 1987 was elected to the Central Committee of Komsomol. However, in 1990, he left the party and together with his family fled from Baku to Moscow on a chartered plane when pogroms against Armenians in Baku took place forcing thousands of ethnic Armenians to flee Azerbaijan.
1990s
In May 1990, Kasparov took part in the creation of the Democratic Party of Russia, which at first was a liberal anti-communist party, later shifting to centrism. Kasparov left the party on April 28, 1991, after its conference.
In June 1993, Kasparov was involved with the creation of the
"Choice of Russia" bloc of parties and in 1996 took part in the election
campaign of Boris Yeltsin. In 2001 he voiced his support for the Russian television channel NTV.
In 1991, Kasparov received the Keeper of the Flame award from the Center for Security Policy
for "propagation of democracy and the respect for individual rights
throughout the world". In his acceptance speech Kasparov lauded the
defeat of communism while also urging the United States to give no
financial assistance to central Soviet leaders.
2000s
After his retirement from chess in 2005, Kasparov turned to politics and created the United Civil Front, a social movement whose main goal is to "work to preserve electoral democracy in Russia". He has vowed to "restore democracy" to Russia by restoring the rule of law.
Kasparov was instrumental in setting up The Other Russia,
a coalition which opposes Putin's government. The Other Russia has been
boycotted by the leaders of Russia's mainstream opposition parties, Yabloko and Union of Right Forces
due to its inclusion of nationalist and radical groups. Kasparov has
criticized these groups as being secretly under the auspices of the Kremlin.
On 10 April 2005, Kasparov was in Moscow at a promotional event
when he was struck over the head with a chessboard he had just signed.
The assailant was reported to have said "I admired you as a chess
player, but you gave that up for politics" immediately before the
attack.
Kasparov has been the subject of a number of other episodes since,
including police brutality and alleged harassment from the Russian
secret service.
On 14 April 2007, Kasparov led a pro-democracy demonstration in
Moscow. Soon after the demonstration's start, however, over 9,000 police
descended on the group and seized almost everyone. Kasparov, who was
briefly arrested by the Moscow police, was warned by the prosecution
office on the eve of the march that anyone participating risked being
detained. He was held for some 10 hours and then fined and released. He was later summoned by the FSB for violations of Russian anti-extremism laws.
Speaking about Kasparov, former KGB general Oleg Kalugin
in 2007 remarked, "I do not talk in details—people who knew them are
all dead now because they were vocal, they were open. I am quiet. There
is only one man who is vocal and he may be in trouble: [former] world
chess champion [Garry] Kasparov. He has been very outspoken in his
attacks on Putin and I believe that he is probably next on the list."
In April 2007, it was asserted that Kasparov was a board member of the National Security Advisory Council of Center for Security Policy,
a "non-profit, non-partisan national security [think tank in
Washington, DC], which specializes in identifying policies, actions, and
resource needs that are vital to American security".
Kasparov confirmed this and added that he had his name removed shortly
after he became aware of it. He noted that he did not know about his
"membership", suggesting that he was included on the board by accident,
due to having received the 1991 Keeper of the Flame award from this
organization. However, Kasparov maintained his association with the leadership by giving speeches at think tanks such as the Hoover Institution.
On 30 September 2007, Kasparov entered the Russian Presidential race, receiving 379 of 498 votes at a congress held in Moscow by The Other Russia. In October 2007, Kasparov announced his intention of standing for the Russian presidency as the candidate of the "Other Russia"
coalition and vowed to fight for a "democratic and just Russia". Later
that month he traveled to the United States, where he appeared on
several popular television programs, which were hosted by Stephen Colbert, Wolf Blitzer, Bill Maher, and Chris Matthews.
On 24 November 2007, Kasparov and other protesters were detained
by police at an Other Russia rally in Moscow. 3,000 demonstrators
arrived to allege the rigging of upcoming elections. Following an
attempt by about 100 protesters to march through police lines to the
electoral commission, which had barred Other Russia candidates from
parliamentary elections, arrests were made. The Russian authorities
stated a rally had been approved but not any marches, resulting in
several detained demonstrators. He was subsequently charged with resisting arrest
and organizing an unauthorized protest and given a jail sentence of
five days. Kasparov appealed the charges, citing that he had been
following orders given by the police, although it was denied. He was
released from jail on 29 November. Putin criticized Kasparov at the rally for his use of English when speaking rather than Russian.
On 12 December 2007, Kasparov announced that he had to withdraw
his presidential candidacy due to inability to rent a meeting hall where
at least 500 of his supporters could assemble. With the deadline
expiring on that date, he explained it was impossible for him to run.
Russian election laws required sufficient meeting hall space for
assembling supporters. Kasparov's spokeswoman accused the government of
using pressure to deter anyone from renting a hall for the gathering and
said that the electoral commission had rejected a proposal that would
have allowed for smaller gathering sizes rather than one large gathering
at a meeting hall.
2010s
Kasparov was among the 34 first signatories and a key organizer of the online anti-Putin campaign "Putin must go",
started on 10 March 2010. The campaign was begun by a coalition of
opposition to Putin who regard his rule as lacking any rule of law.
Within the text is a call to Russian law enforcement to ignore Putin's
orders. By June 2011, there were 90,000 signatures. While the identity
of the petition author remained anonymous, there was wide speculation
that it was indeed Kasparov.
On 17 August 2012, Kasparov was arrested and beaten outside of
the Moscow court while attending the verdict reading in the case
involving the all-female punk band Pussy Riot.
On 24 August, he was cleared of charges that he took part in an
unauthorized protest against the conviction of three members of Pussy
Riot. Judge Yekaterina Veklich said there were "no grounds to believe
the testimony of the police". He could still face criminal charges over a
police officer's claims that the opposition leader bit his finger while
he was being detained. He later thanked all the bloggers and reporters who provided video evidence that contradicted the testimony of the police.
Kasparov wrote in February 2013 that "fascism has come to
Russia. ... Project Putin, just like the old Project Hitler, is but the
fruit of a conspiracy by the ruling elite. Fascist rule was never the
result of the free will of the people. It was always the fruit of a
conspiracy by the ruling elites!"
In April 2013, Kasparov joined in an HRF condemnation of Kanye West
for having performed for the leader of Kazakhstan in exchange for a
$3 million paycheck, saying that West "has entertained a brutal killer
and his entourage" and that his fee "came from the loot stolen from the
Kazakhstan treasury".
Kasparov denied rumors in April 2013 that he planned to leave
Russia for good. "I found these rumors to be deeply saddening and,
moreover, surprising," he wrote. "I was unable to respond immediately
because I was in such a state of shock that such an incredibly
inaccurate statement, the likes of which is constantly distributed by
the Kremlin's propagandists, came this time from Ilya Yashin, a fellow
member of the Opposition Coordination Council (KSO) and my former
colleague from the Solidarity movement."
In an April 2013 op-ed piece, Kasparov accused prominent Russian journalist Vladimir Posner of failing to stand up to Putin and to earlier Russian and Soviet leaders.
Kasparov was presented with the Morris B. Abram Human Rights Award, UN Watch's
annual human-rights prize, in 2013. The organization praised him as
"not only one of the world's smartest men" but "also among its bravest".
At the 2013 Women in the World conference, Kasparov told The Daily Beast's Michael Moynihan that democracy no longer existed in what he called Russia's "dictatorship".
Kasparov said at a press conference in June 2013 that if he
returned to Russia he doubted he would be allowed to leave again, given
Putin's ongoing crackdown against dissenters. "So for the time being,"
he said, "I refrain from returning to Russia." He explained shortly
thereafter in an article for The Daily Beast that this had not
been intended as "a declaration of leaving my home country, permanently
or otherwise", but merely an expression of "the dark reality of the
situation in Russia today, where nearly half the members of the
opposition's Coordinating Council are under criminal investigation on
concocted charges". He noted that the Moscow prosecutor's office was
"opening an investigation that would limit my ability to travel", making
it impossible for him to fulfill "professional speaking engagements"
and hindering his "work for the nonprofit Kasparov Chess Foundation,
which has centers in New York City, Brussels, and Johannesburg to
promote chess in education".
Kasparov further wrote in his June 2013 Daily Beast
article that the mass protests in Moscow 18 months earlier against
fraudulent Russian elections had been "a proud moment for me". He
recalled that after joining the opposition movement in March 2005, he
had been criticized for seeking to unite "every anti-Putin element in
the country to march together regardless of ideology". Therefore, the
sight of "hundreds of flags representing every group from liberals to
nationalists all marching together for 'Russia Without Putin' was the
fulfillment of a dream." Yet most Russians, he lamented, had continued
to "slumber" even as Putin had "taken off the flimsy mask of democracy
to reveal himself in full as the would-be KGB dictator he has always
been".
Kasparov responded with several sardonic Twitter postings to a September 2013 The New York Timesop-ed
by Putin. "I hope Putin has taken adequate protections," he tweeted.
"Now that he is a Russian journalist his life may be in grave danger!"
Also: "Now we can expect NY Times op-eds by Mugabe on fair elections, Castro on free speech, & Kim Jong-un on prison reform. The Axis of Hypocrisy."
In a 12 May 2013 op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Kasparov questioned reports that the Russian security agency, the FSB, had fully cooperated with the FBI in the matter of the Boston bombers. He noted that the elder bomber, Tamerlan Tsarnaev,
had reportedly met in Russia with two known jihadists who "were killed
in Dagestan by the Russian military just days before Tamerlan left
Russia for the U.S." Kasparov argued, "If no intelligence was sent from
Moscow to Washington" about this meeting, "all this talk of FSB
cooperation cannot be taken seriously." He further observed, "This would
not be the first time Russian security forces seemed strangely impotent
in the face of an impending terror attack," pointing out that in both
the 2002 Moscow theater siege and the 2004 Beslan school attack,
"there were FSB informants in both terror groups—yet the attacks went
ahead unimpeded." Given this history, he wrote, "it is impossible to
overlook that the Boston bombing took place just days after the U.S. Magnitsky List
was published, creating the first serious external threat to the Putin
power structure by penalizing Russian officials complicit in
human-rights crimes." In sum, Putin's "dubious record on
counterterrorism and its continued support of terror sponsors Iran and
Syria mean only one thing: common ground zero".
Kasparov wrote in July 2013 about the trial in Kirov of fellow opposition leader Alexei Navalny,
who had been convicted "on concocted embezzlement charges", only to see
the prosecutor, surprisingly, ask for his release the next day pending
appeal. "The judicial process and the democratic process in Russia,"
wrote Kasparov, "are both elaborate mockeries created to distract the
citizenry at home and to help Western leaders avoid confronting the
awkward fact that Russia has returned to a police state". Still,
Kasparov felt that whatever had caused the Kirov prosecutor's
about-face, "my optimism tells me it was a positive sign. After more
than 13 years of predictable repression under Putin, anything different
is good."
Kasparov maintains a summer home in the Croatian city of Makarska.
In early February 2014, Kasparov applied for citizenship by
naturalisation in Croatia, adding that he was finding it increasingly
difficult to live in Russia. According to an article in The Guardian,
Kasparov is "widely perceived" as having been a vocal supporter of
Croatian independence during the early 1990s. On 28 February 2014, his
application for naturalisation was approved, and he is now a Croatian
passport holder.
Views
Kasparov wrote in Time
on 18 September 2013 that he considered the "chess metaphors thrown
around during the world's response to the civil war in Syria" to be
"trite" and rejected what he called "all the nonsense about 'Putin is
playing chess and Obama is playing checkers,' or tic-tac-toe or
whatever." Putin, argued Kasparov, "did not have to outplay or outthink
anyone. He and Bashar Assad won by forfeit when President Obama, Prime
Minister Cameron and the rest of the so-called leaders of the free world
walked away from the table." There is, he lamented, "a new game at the
negotiating table where Putin and Assad set the rules and will run the
show under the protection of the U.N." Kasparov said in September 2013 that Russia was now a dictatorship.
In the same month he told an interviewer that "Obama going to Russia
now is dead wrong, morally and politically," because Putin's regime "is
behind Assad".
Kasparov spoke out several times about Putin's antigay laws and the proposed Sochi Olympics boycott.
He explained in August 2013 that he had opposed Russia's bid from the
outset, since hosting the Olympics would "allow Vladimir Putin's cronies
to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars" and "lend prestige to
Putin's authoritarian regime". Kasparov added that Putin's anti-gay law
was "only the most recent encroachment on the freedom of speech and
association of Russia's citizens", which the international community had
largely ignored. Instead of supporting a games boycott, which would
"unfairly punish athletes", Kasparov called for athletes and others to
"transform Putin's self-congratulatory pet project into a spotlight that
exposes his authoritarian rule for the entire world to see".
In September, Kasparov expanded on his remarks, saying that "forcing
athletes to play a political role against their will is not fair" and
that politicians should not "hide behind athletes". Instead of
boycotting Sochi, he suggested, politicians should refuse to attend the
games and the public should "put pressure on the sponsors and the
media". Coca-Cola, for example, could put "a rainbow flag on each Coca-Cola can" and NBC
could "do interviews with Russian gay activists or with Russian
political activists". Kasparov also emphasized that although he was
"still a Russian citizen", he had "good reason to be concerned about my
ability to leave Russia if I returned to Moscow".
Kasparov has spoken out against the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and has stated that control of Crimea should be returned to Ukraine after the overthrow of Vladimir Putin without additional conditions.
Kasparov's website was blocked by the Russian federative regulator, Roskomnadzor, at the behest of the public prosecutor, allegedly due to Kasparov's opinions of the Crimean crisis.
Kasparov's block was made in unison with several other notable Russian
sites that were accused of inciting public outrage. Reportedly, several
of the blocked sites received an affidavit noting their violations.
However, Kasparov stated that his site had received no such notice of
violations after its block.
In 2015 a whole note on Kasparov was removed from a Russian language
encyclopedia of greatest Soviet players after an intervention from
"senior leadership".
In October 2015, Kasparov published a book titled Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped.
In the book, Kasparov likens Putin to Hitler, and explains the need for
the west to oppose Putin sooner, rather than appeasing him and
postponing the eventual confrontation. According to his publisher,
"Kasparov wants this book out fast, in a way that has potential to
influence the discussion during the primary season."
In the 2016 United States presidential election, Kasparov described Republican front-runner Donald Trump as "a celebrity showman with racist leanings and authoritarian tendencies", and criticised Trump for calling for closer ties with Vladimir Putin, and responded to Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, calling Putin a strong leader, that Putin is a strong leader "in the same way arsenic is a strong drink". He also criticised the economic policies of Democratic primary candidate Bernie Sanders, but showed respect for Sanders as "a charismatic speaker and a passionate believer in his cause".
In 2017, he condemned the violence unleashed by the Spanish police against the independence referendum in Catalonia on October 1. He criticized the Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy and accused him of "betraying" the European promise of peace. Also, after the Catalan regional election held the same year on December 21, he called on the European Union to intervene in the conflict to find a negotiated solution. He wrote on Twitter:
"Despite unprecedented pressure from Madrid, Catalonian separatists won
a majority. Europe must speak and help find a peaceful path toward
resolution and avoid more violence".
Kasparov's style of play has been compared by many to Alekhine's. Kasparov has described his style as being influenced chiefly by Alekhine, Tal and Fischer.
Kramnik has opined that "[Kasparov's] capacity for study is second to
none", and said "There is nothing in chess he has been unable to deal
with." Magnus Carlsen, whom Kasparov coached from 2009 to 2010, said of Kasparov, "I've never seen someone with such a feel for dynamics in complex positions." Kasparov was known for his extensive opening preparation and aggressive play in the opening.
Olympiads and other major team events
Kasparov at Valletta in 1980
Kasparov played in a total of eight Chess Olympiads.
He represented the Soviet Union four times and Russia four times,
following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. In his 1980 Olympiad
debut, he became, at age 17, the youngest player to represent the Soviet
Union or Russia at that level, a record which was broken by Vladimir
Kramnik in 1992. In 82 games, he has scored (+50−3=29), for 78.7% and
won a total of 19 medals, including team gold medals all eight times he
competed. For the 1994 Moscow Olympiad, he had a significant
organizational role, in helping to put together the event on short
notice, after Thessaloniki canceled its offer to host, a few weeks before the scheduled dates. Kasparov's detailed Olympiad record follows:
Valletta 1980, USSR 2nd reserve, 9½/12 (+8−1=3), team gold, board bronze;
Manila 1992, Russia board 1, 8½/10 (+7−0=3), team gold, board gold, performance silver;
Moscow 1994, Russia board 1, 6½/10 (+4−1=5), team gold;
Yerevan 1996, Russia board 1, 7/9 (+5−0=4), team gold, board gold, performance silver;
Bled 2002, Russia board 1, 7½/9 (+6−0=3), team gold, board gold.
Kasparov made his international teams debut for the USSR at age 16 in
the 1980 European Team Championship and played for Russia in the 1992
edition of that championship. He won a total of five medals. His
detailed Euroteams record, from, follows.
Debrecen 1992, Russia board 1, 6/8 (+4−0=4), team gold, board gold, performance silver.
Kasparov also represented the USSR once in Youth Olympiad
competition, but the detailed data at Olimpbase is incomplete; the
Chessmetrics Garry Kasparov player file has his individual score from
that event.
Graz 1981, USSR board 1, 9/10 (+8−0=2), team gold.
Records and achievements
Chess ratings achievements
Kasparov holds the record for the longest time as the No. 1 rated player in the world—from 1986 to 2005 (Vladimir Kramnik shared the No. 1 ranking with him once, in the January 1996 FIDE rating list).
He was also briefly ejected from the list following his split from FIDE
in 1993, but during that time he headed the rating list of the rival PCA.
At the time of his retirement, he was still ranked No. 1 in the world,
with a rating of 2812. His rating has fallen inactive since the January
2006 rating list.
In January 1990, Kasparov achieved the (then) highest FIDE rating
ever, passing 2800 and breaking Bobby Fischer's old record of 2785. By
the July 1999 and January 2000 FIDE rating lists, Kasparov had reached a
2851 Elo rating, at that time the highest rating ever achieved. He held that record for the highest rating ever achieved until Magnus Carlsen attained a new record high rating of 2861 in January 2013.
Other records
Kasparov
holds the record for most consecutive professional tournament
victories, placing first or equal first in 15 individual tournaments
from 1981 to 1990.[citation needed] The streak was broken by Vasily Ivanchuk at Linares 1991, where Kasparov placed 2nd, half a point behind him. The details of this record winning streak follow:
Frunze 1981, USSR Championship, 12½/17, tie for 1st;
Kasparov won the Chess Oscar a record eleven times.
Chess and computers
In 1983, Acorn Computers acted as one of the sponsors for Kasparov's Candidates semi-final match against Viktor Korchnoi. Kasparov was awarded a BBC Micro which he took back with him to Baku, making it perhaps the first western-made microcomputer to reach Baku at that time. In 1985, computer chess magazine editor Frederic Friedel
invited Kasparov to his house, and the two of them discuss how a chess
database program would be useful for preparation. Two years later,
Friedel founded Chessbase, and gave a copy of the program to Kasparov who started using it in his preparation.
In 1985, Kasparov played against thirty-two different chess computers in Hamburg, winning all games, but with some difficulty.
On October 22, 1989, Kasparov defeated the chess computer Deep Thought in both games of a two-game match.
In December 1992, Kasparov visited Frederic Friedel in his hotel room in Cologne, and played 37 blitz games against Fritz 2 winning 24, drawing 4 and losing 9.
Kasparov cooperated in producing video material for the computer game Kasparov's Gambit released by Electronic Arts in November 1993. In April 1994, Intel acted as a sponsor for the first Professional Chess Association Grand Prix event in Moscow played a time control of 25 minutes per game. In May, Chessbase's Fritz 3 running on an IntelPentium
PC defeated Kasparov in their first in the Intel Express blitz
tournament in Munich, but Kasparov managed to tie it for first, and then
win the playoff with 3 wins and 2 draws. The next day, Kasparov lost
to Fritz 3 again in a game on ZDF TV. In August, Kasparov was knocked out of the London Intel Grand Prix by Richard Lang's ChessGenius 2 program in the first round.
In 1995, during Kasparov's world title match with Viswanathan Anand,
he unveiled an opening novelty that had been checked with a chess
engine, an approach that would become increasingly common in subsequent
years.
Kasparov played in a pair of six-game chess matches with an IBM supercomputer called Deep Blue.
The first match was played in Philadelphia in 1996 and won by Kasparov.
The second was played in New York City in 1997 and won by Deep Blue.
The 1997 match was the first defeat of a reigning world chess champion
by a computer under tournament conditions.
In May 1997, an updated version of Deep Blue
defeated Kasparov 3½–2½ in a highly publicized six-game match. The
match was even after five games but Kasparov lost quickly in Game 6.
This was the first time a computer had ever defeated a world champion
in a match. A documentary film was made about this famous match
entitled Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine.
Kasparov said that he was "not well prepared" to face Deep Blue
in 1997. He said that based on his "objective strengths" his play was
stronger than that of Deep Blue.
Kasparov claimed that several factors weighed against him in this
match. In particular, he was denied access to Deep Blue's recent games,
in contrast to the computer's team, which could study hundreds of
Kasparov's.
After the loss, Kasparov said that he sometimes saw deep
intelligence and creativity in the machine's moves, suggesting that
during the second game, human chess players, in contravention of the
rules, intervened. IBM denied that it cheated, saying the only human
intervention occurred between games. The rules provided for the
developers to modify the program between games, an opportunity they said
they used to shore up weaknesses in the computer's play revealed during
the course of the match. Kasparov requested printouts of the machine's
log files but IBM refused, although the company later published the logs
on the Internet. Much later, it was suggested that the behavior Kasparov noted may have resulted from a glitch in the computer program. Although Kasparov wanted another rematch, IBM declined and ended their Deep Blue program.
Kasparov's loss to Deep Blue inspired the creation of the game Arimaa.
Kasparov wore 3D glasses in his match against the program X3D Fritz.
In January 2003, he engaged in a six-game classical time control
match with a $1 million prize fund which was billed as the FIDE "Man vs.
Machine" World Championship, against Deep Junior. The engine evaluated three million positions per second.
After one win each and three draws, it was all up to the final game.
After reaching a decent position Kasparov offered a draw, which was soon
accepted by the Deep Junior team. Asked why he offered the draw,
Kasparov said he feared making a blunder. Originally planned as an annual event, the match was not repeated.
Deep Junior was the first machine to beat Kasparov with black and at a standard time control.
In June 2003, Mindscape released the computer game Kasparov Chessmate with Kasparov himself listed as a co-designer.
In November 2003, he engaged in a four-game match against the computer program X3D Fritz, using a virtual board, 3D glasses and a speech recognition
system. After two draws and one win apiece, the X3D Man–Machine match
ended in a draw. Kasparov received $175,000 for the result and took home
the golden trophy. Kasparov continued to criticize the blunder in the
second game that cost him a crucial point. He felt that he had outplayed
the machine overall and played well. "I only made one mistake but
unfortunately that one mistake lost the game."
Books and other writings
Early writings
Kasparov has written books on chess. He published a controversial autobiography when still in his early 20s, originally titled Child of Change, later retitled Unlimited Challenge.
This book was subsequently updated several times after he became World
Champion. Its content is mainly literary, with a small chess component
of key unannotated games. He published an annotated games collection in
1985: Fighting Chess: My Games and Career and this book has also been updated several times in further editions. He also wrote a book annotating the games from his World Chess Championship 1985 victory, World Chess Championship Match: Moscow, 1985.
He has annotated his own games extensively for the Yugoslav Chess Informant series and for other chess publications. In 1982, he co-authored Batsford Chess Openings with British grandmaster Raymond Keene
and this book was an enormous seller. It was updated into a second
edition in 1989. He also co-authored two opening books with his trainer
Alexander Nikitin in the 1980s for British publisher Batsford—on the Classical Variation of the Caro-Kann Defence and on the Scheveningen Variation of the Sicilian Defence. Kasparov has also contributed extensively to the five-volume openings series Encyclopedia of Chess Openings.
In 2000, Kasparov co-authored Kasparov Against the World: The Story of the Greatest Online Challenge with grandmaster Daniel King. The 202-page book analyzes the 1999 Kasparov versus the World game, and holds the record for the longest analysis devoted to a single chess game.
My Great Predecessors series
In 2003, the first volume of his five-volume work Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors was published. This volume, which deals with the world chess champions Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, and some of their strong contemporaries, has received lavish praise from some reviewers (including Nigel Short),
while attracting criticism from others for historical inaccuracies and
analysis of games directly copied from unattributed sources. Through
suggestions on the book's website, most of these shortcomings were
corrected in following editions and translations. Despite this, the
first volume won the British Chess Federation's Book of the Year award in 2003. Volume two, covering Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov and Mikhail Tal appeared later in 2003. Volume three, covering Tigran Petrosian and Boris Spassky appeared in early 2004. In December 2004, Kasparov released volume four, which covers Samuel Reshevsky, Miguel Najdorf, and Bent Larsen (none of these three were World Champions), but focuses primarily on Bobby Fischer.
The fifth volume, devoted to the chess careers of World Champion
Anatoly Karpov and challenger Viktor Korchnoi, was published in March
2006.
Modern Chess series
His book Revolution in the 70s (published in March 2007)
covers "the openings revolution of the 1970s–1980s" and is the first
book in a new series called "Modern Chess Series", which intends to
cover his matches with Karpov and selected games. The book "Revolution
in the 70s" concerns the revolution in opening theory that was witnessed
in that decade. Such systems as the controversial (at the time) "Hedgehog"
opening plan of passively developing the pieces no further than the
first three ranks are examined in great detail. Kasparov also analyzes
some of the most notable games played in that period. In a section at
the end of the book, top opening theoreticians provide their own "take"
on the progress made in opening theory in the 1980s.
Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov series
Kasparov is publishing three volumes of his games.
Winter Is Coming
In
October 2015, Kasparov published a book titled Winter Is Coming: Why
Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped. The
title is a reference to the HBO television series Game of Thrones. In
the book, Kasparov writes about the need for an organization solely
composed of democratic countries to replace the United Nations. In an
interview, he called the United Nations a "catwalk for dictators".
Historical revision
Kasparov
believes that the conventional history of civilization is radically
incorrect. Specifically, he believes that the history of ancient civilizations is based on misdatings of events and achievements that actually occurred in the medieval period. He has cited several aspects of ancient history that he says are likely to be anachronisms.
Kasparov has written in support of New Chronology (Fomenko), although with some reservations.
In 2001, Kasparov expressed a desire to devote his time to promoting
the New Chronology after his chess career. "New Chronology is a great
area for investing my intellect ... My analytical abilities are well
placed to figure out what was right and what was wrong."
"When I stop playing chess, it may well be that I concentrate on
promoting these ideas... I believe they can improve our lives."
Later, Kasparov renounced his support of Fomenko theories but
reaffirmed his belief that mainstream historical knowledge is highly
inconsistent.
Other post-retirement writing
In 2007, he wrote How Life Imitates Chess, an examination of the parallels between decision-making in chess and in the business world.
In 2008, Kasparov published a sympathetic obituary for Bobby Fischer,
writing: "I am often asked if I ever met or played Bobby Fischer. The
answer is no, I never had that opportunity. But even though he saw me as
a member of the evil chess establishment that he felt had robbed and
cheated him, I am sorry I never had a chance to thank him personally for
what he did for our sport."
He is the chief advisor for the book publisher Everyman Chess.
Kasparov works closely with Mig Greengard and his comments can often be found on Greengard's blog (apparently no longer active).
Kasparov collaborated with Max Levchin and Peter Thiel on The Blueprint,
a book calling for a revival of world innovation, planned to release in
March 2013 from W. W. Norton & Company. The book was never
released, as the authors disagreed on its contents.
Kasparov argued that Chess has become the Drosophila fruit fly of
reasoning, in an editorial comment on Google's AlphaZero chess-playing
system. "I was pleased to see that AlphaZero had a dynamic, open style
like my own," he wrote in late 2018.
Bibliography
Kasparov Teaches Chess (1984–85, Sport in the USSR Magazine; 1986, First Collier Books)
The Test of Time (Russian Chess) (1986, Pergamon Pr)
World Chess Championship Match: Moscow, 1985 (1986, Everyman Chess)
Child of Change: An Autobiography (1987, Hutchinson)
London–Leningrad Championship Games (1987, Everyman Chess)
Unlimited Challenge (1990, Grove Pr)
The Sicilian Scheveningen (1991, B.T. Batsford Ltd)
The Queen's Indian Defence: Kasparov System (1991, B.T. Batsford Ltd)
Kasparov Versus Karpov, 1990 (1991, Everyman Chess)
Kasparov on the King's Indian (1993, B.T. Batsford Ltd)
Kasparov, Garry. Jon Speelman and Bob Wade. 1995. Garry Kasparov's Fighting Chess. Henry Holt. ISBN0805042210
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