1	Garry Kimovich Kasparov "The future of Chess lies in the hands of this young man"
2	The Birth A legend was born on April 13, 1963, in the capital city of the then Russian republic Azerbaijan. His name was Garry Weinstein (later to change his name to Garry Kasparov). Born from an Armenian and Jewish heritage, no one could have guessed that Kim Moiseyevich Weinstein (Garry’s father) and Clara Shagenovna Kasparian (Garry’s mother) were to parent one of the greatest, if not the greatest, chess player in all of history.
3	The Beginning In Kasparov’s own words: “I had been watching my parents trying to solve some chess studies, and I was so amazed at this mysterious game that I tried to understand the rules, and I guessed some moves. Later, my father taught me how to play chess at age six.” His talent of playing chess was recognized early on in life by a man named Mikhail Botvinnik (a former World Champion). In 1973 Botvinnik invited Kasparov to join his very exclusive chess school for gifted children, needless to say Kasparov accepted the invitation.
4	A Tragedy When Garry was 7 years old his father died in a car accident. Subsequently he changed his name to Kasparov, a Russified version of his mother’s maiden name “Kasparian.”
5	The Passing of The Baton Just as Capablanca had proclaimed that Botvinnik would one day be World Champion, Botvinnik said this about Kasparov when Kasparov was only 11 years old: "The future of Chess lies in the hands of this young man"
6	The Rising Star By the age of 12, Kasparov was the youngest player to ever be crowned the U.S.S.R. Junior Champion, by the age of 16 he won the World Junior Championship, and by the age of 17 he achieved the title of “Grandmaster.”
7	Qualifying Having won some high profile tournaments it was more than clear that Garry Kasparov was the number one contender for the World Championship title. After beating Beliavksy, Korchnoi, and Smyslov in the Candidates Tournament, Garry qualified to play against Anatoly Karpov (the World Champion at the time) for the World Championship.
8	A Match That Will Live In Infamy The Karpov vs. Kasparov Championship began in 1984, and within a dozen games Garry found himself down 4-0 in a “first to six wins” match. The world predicted Kasparov was going to get creamed 6-0, but the world was wrong. Kasparov starting fighting back, with the match going into 17 successive draws before Karpov winning his next game against Kasparov. A few more draws later and something amazing happened. In game 36 Kasparov defeated Karpov, and it didn’t stop there. Within several games Kasparov added two points to his score making the overall match score 5-3 in Karpov’s favor.
9	A Controversial Decision But the World Championship was stopped short by none other than the President of FIDE Mr. Campomanes. Citing the poor health of both players due to the length of the match (6 months and 48 games), Campomanes forced the abandonment of the World Championship even though both players wanted to continue. Kasparov was furious, he demanded to know why Campomanes would abandon the match when both players wanted to continue. The controversy of the match began a friction between Kasparov and Campomanes, one that would lead Kasparov to break away from the organization in 1993. Needless to say the match was stopped, but hope was not lost for Kasparov.
10	Rematch The following year (1985) a rematch was ordered between Karpov and Kasparov. The match was played best of 24 games (in the event of a 12-12 draw, the title would go to Karpov as the reigning Champion). It was a match that would be in a dead heat until the last couple of games. Using the Sicilian defense as his weapon, Kasparov was able to defeat Karpov in the final games and secure himself as the new reigning World Champion. At the age of 22, Kasparov was the youngest World Champion in chess history (Mikhail Tal held the preexisting record at age 23).
11	The Breakoff Kasparov went on to defend his title 3 more times against Karpov until 1993, when the growing tensions between him and FIDE culminated in him breaking away from FIDE and starting his own Organization: PCA (Professional Chess Association).
12	Will The Real World Champion Please Stand Up Unfortunately this breakoff between Kasparov and FIDE created a huge problem: Who was the real World Champion? Well after Kasparov left, FIDE named Karpov the World Champion, and seeing that Kasparov defeated English Grandmaster Nigel Short in the PCA Championship it made Kasparov World Champion too. So in fact there were two world champions, Kasparov for PCA, and Karpov for FIDE.
13	The Collapse After successfully defending his title against Indian chess star Viswanathan Anand in 1995, Kasparov’s PCA collapsed when Intel (a major supporter) pulled out. This would be one of two organizations that would collapse under Kasparov’s eyes (the other would be the World Chess Association).
14	Man vs. Machine The first of three matches between Kasparov and IBM’s computers came in 1996 when Kasparov beat IBM’s Deep Blue with three wins, two draws, and one loss in a six game match. The following year a new and improved Deep Blue took it to Kasparov beating him 3.5-2.5. It was the first time a chess computer had beaten a World Champion, and it ushered in the era of man using the machine not only as an opponent, but as a mentor. The third of these matches came in 2003, where Deep Junior (Deep blue’s “son,” and the reigning computer champion of the time) and Kasparov came out in a dead even tie, 3-3.
15	Taking on The World On October 22, 1999, in an exciting 4 month game, Kasparov did what no other chess player had done before, he defeated the world in chess through the Internet. The world lasted 62 moves against Kasparov before it resigned.
16	The Immortal game Also in 1999, at the Hoogovens Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Kasparov played a game which many chess players hail as Immortal. It was against chess great Veselin Topalov, a Grandmaster from Bulgaria. The game (Kasparov is white): 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Be3 Bg7 5.Qd2 c6 6.f3 b5 7.Nge2 Nbd7 8.Bh6 Bxh6 9.Qxh6 Bb7 10.a3 e5 11.0-0-0 Qe7 12.Kb1 a6 13.Nc1 0-0-0 14.Nb3 exd4 15.Rxd4 c5 16.Rd1 Nb6 17.g3 Kb8 18.Na5 Ba8 19.Bh3 d5 20.Qf4+ Ka7 21.Rhe1 d4 22.Nd5 Nbxd5 23.exd5 Qd6 (Diagram) 24.Rxd4! cxd4 25.Re7+ Kb6 26.Qxd4+ Kxa5 27.b4+ Ka4 28.Qc3 Qxd5 29.Ra7 Bb7 30.Rxb7 Qc4 31.Qxf6 Kxa3 32.Qxa6+ Kxb4 33.c3+! Kxc3 34.Qa1+ Kd2 35.Qb2+ Kd1 36.Bf1! Rd2 37.Rd7! Rxd7 38.Bxc4 bxc4 39.Qxh8 Rd3 40.Qa8 c3 41.Qa4+ Ke1 42.f4 f5 43.Kc1 Rd2 44.Qa7 1-0
17	Out In The Rain With the collapse of both of Kasparov’s organizations (PCA and WCA) it left him no place to go, and no way to defend his title. Luckily Raymond Keene, the head of BrainGames.com, set up a World Championship match for Kasparov against Vladimir Kramnik. The match was in the latter half of 2000 and took place in London and was the best of 16 games. Surprising not only Kasparov, but the world, Kramnik beat Kasparov 8 1\2- 6 1\2 (game 16 was cancelled for obvious reasons). For the first time in 16 years Kasparov had no title, Kramnik had proven that not only was Kasparov mortal, he was beatable.
18	A Failed Unification As part of the so-called "Prague Agreement,” masterminded by Yasser Seirawan to reunite all the World Championships into one, Kasparov was supposed to play the reigning FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov in September 2003. However, this match was called off after Ponomariov refused to sign his contract. As of October 2003, there are plans for Kasparov to play a match against the next FIDE champion (to be determined at the end of 2003 or beginning of 2004). Hopefully the feud between FIDE and Kasparov will soon be settled and all the chess world will be at peace again.
19	Garry Kasparov, The Author Kasparov has published 4 books on chess so far. He has a five volume piece in the works called Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors. Most of his books have received praise from everyone on all walks of life, however, a few critics say his slight historical inaccuracies and supposed plagiarism of analysis’s on games are inexcusable.
20	Garry Kasparov, The Activist As a spokesman for political, educational, and social reforms in Eastern Europe, Kasparov has gained international recognition. Garry is active in several charities, including one that he created himself: The Kasparov Foundation in Moscow (it’s the first private foundation since the Revolution). Garry has also created his own international chess academy and he continues to promote the use of chess in schools.
21	Still Number One All though it seems the “Kasparov era” has come to an end, Garry is still the number one player in the world (as of October 2003, his Elo rating is 2830, higher than that of Kramnik or Anand). His determination, perseverance, courage, and kindness can be seen throughout his life, from World Championship games of chess to organizing charities, he is not only a great chess player, but a great man. Though his time may be drawing closer to its end, he will forever go down in history as one of the truest representations of what chess is actually about.