The child prodigy of Baku
Garry Kimovich Kasparov was born on 13 April 1963 in Baku, in the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan. His father, Kim Weinstein, died when Garry was 7. His mother, Klara Shagenovna, realised her son had an exceptional talent when she discovered that he had solved, all by himself, a chess problem his parents had just set him to test his logic. She devoted all her energy to pushing him towards that destiny.
Kasparov entered the school of Mikhail Botvinnik, a former world champion, who became his decisive mentor. Botvinnik forged in him exceptional analytical rigour, encyclopaedic opening preparation and a relentless fighting mentality. At 16, Kasparov was recognised as the most promising player in the Soviet Union.
The rise and the conflict with Karpov
Between 1984 and 1985, Kasparov played two legendary matches against Anatoly Karpov, the reigning champion. The first match, halted by FIDE after 48 games with no declared winner (Karpov was then leading 5–3), remains one of the most controversial episodes in chess history. Kasparov was staging a spectacular comeback, and many suspect FIDE of stopping the match to save Karpov.
In the second match, in 1985, Kasparov won 13–11, becoming at 22 the youngest world champion in history. He then retained his title three more times against Karpov in resounding matches — victories in 1986 and 1990, and a 12–12 draw in 1987 (title retained) — each time under different conditions, each time at the end of epic struggles.
The eternal rival: Kasparov and Karpov played 5 matches for the world title between 1984 and 1990, totalling 144 official games. It is the greatest rivalry in chess history, pitting two utterly opposed styles against each other: Kasparov’s explosive, combinative play against Karpov’s hyper-precise positional play.
A revolutionary style
What sets Kasparov apart from all his predecessors is the synthesis he achieved between the antagonistic styles that had dominated previous decades. Where Fischer was universal but solitary, and Karpov positional and implacable, Kasparov combined everything: monumental opening preparation, a tactical imagination worthy of Tal, and a positional instinct close to Karpov’s.
His games in the Sicilian Najdorf (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6) are perhaps the pinnacle of human opening preparation. He devoted thousands of hours to analysing these positions, regularly producing novelties that took his opponents out of their theory by move 20 or 25.
Deep Blue: humanity’s battle
In 1996 and 1997, Kasparov faced Deep Blue, IBM’s supercomputer. These two matches marked a turning point for civilisation, not just for chess. In 1996, Kasparov won 4–2, taking three games and conceding a historic defeat (the first by a world champion against a computer under tournament conditions).
- May 1997, game 1: Kasparov wins with White a game of slow manoeuvring, ground on which Deep Blue evaluates the position poorly.
- Game 2: Deep Blue plays a move of strategic depth that Kasparov had not anticipated. Psychologically shaken, he resigns in a position that was probably tenable.
- Game 6: Kasparov, under intense psychological pressure, resigns after only 19 moves, the victim of a well-known opening error in the Caro-Kann (the Nxe6 sacrifice). Final score: Deep Blue 3.5 — Kasparov 2.5.
Controversy flared immediately. Kasparov accused IBM of receiving human assistance, of playing certain moves that were impossible for a 1997 computer. At the time IBM refused to hand over the machine’s logs (published later) and dismantled Deep Blue soon afterwards. The full truth has never been established. For an in-depth look at the role of AI in chess, see our article on artificial intelligence and chess.
“Chess is mental torture.” — Garry Kasparov
After his career: teaching, analysis, politics
In 2005, Kasparov announced his retirement from competitive chess. He had been world number one almost without interruption since 1984, more than 20 years — an absolute record. His rating of 2851, set in 1999, remained the all-time record until Magnus Carlsen surpassed it in 2013.
Kasparov then turned to Russian politics. A founder of the United Civil Front (Obyedinyonny Grazhdansky Front), he campaigned openly against Vladimir Putin and became one of the best-known opposition voices internationally. His stance brought him threats and difficulties in Russia. He obtained Croatian citizenship in 2014 and resettled in the West.
Kasparov as educator and thinker
His books — notably How Life Imitates Chess and Deep Thinking — make him far more than a champion: a thinker who uses chess as a metaphor for strategic decision-making in general. He gives talks to Fortune 500 companies, universities and governments.
His educational contribution is immense. The Kasparov Chess Foundation has introduced many children to chess in the United States, Africa and Latin America, highlighting the benefits of the game for attention span, logical thinking and the emotional management of pressure situations.
Play like Kasparov on a board worthy of the name
Kasparov has always insisted on the material quality of the game. A solid wood chessboard transforms the playing experience. Discover the wooden chess sets from Le Palais des Echecs.
Compare the best chess sets →Honours and records
| Title / Record | Detail |
|---|---|
| World Champion | 1985–2000 (defended the title 5 times) |
| Peak FIDE Elo | 2851 (1999, a record until 2013) |
| World number one | 255 months in total, from 1984 to 2005 (record) |
| Major tournaments | 9 wins at Linares, 3 at Wijk aan Zee |
| Games played | 2,500+ top-level games analysed |
Kasparov remains the reference figure for anyone who takes modern chess seriously. To understand what made him so unique, study the Sicilian Defence that he took to its peak, and find out how artificial intelligence has carried on down the path he opened.