Kasparov Legend

by Vijay Balaji.V
(Tamil Nadu)

Garry Kasparov

Among all chess players Garry Kasparov is my favorite champion of all times. He was a Russian player born in Baku, Azerbaijan at April 13, 1963. His interest was not only over chess, he was also deeply interested in history, politics, literature and computers.

His record on world title matches is an interesting one. In the year 1984, Kasparov just missed the world title by a very little margin. The match was abandoned due to some unavoidable situations. The next ten years of his career have inspired many chess lovers. He won and retained a series of matches from 1985 to 1995.

Many of the matches between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov gave nail biting finishes. They faced each other five times in seven years. Kasparov’s game technique defeated Karpov in many matches. The matches between them are often referred to as the clash of two K legends. Kasparov claimed his World Championship title by defeating Karpov in the year 1985. After this match Kasparov became the youngest chess player to claim the World title.

In the year 2000, Kasparov lost his title to Kramnik which ended his fifteen years of continuous World Championship titles. In 1988, Kasparov achieved another honor for his excellence. A computer program was created to analyze the greatest chess champions based on their moves. The 25 year old Kasparov stood first in the result and champions like Karpov and Fischer were behind him.

Though he was well known for his chess, he was also known for his character. People who were close to him like his unrestrained contagious laugh. He was considered as a multi-faceted person and also a great humanitarian. Kasparov also appeared in commercials like Pepsi and Coca Cola. He made many contributions for charity. He had 22 years at World #1 lasting right to the end of his chess career in March 2004.