Garry Kasparov

Biography (1963)

Garry Kasparov was widely thought to be a future champion in his teens, and he lived up to these expectations after winning the Interzonal in Moscow (1982) and crushing Beliavsky (+4-1=4), Korchnoi (+4-1=6) and Smyslov (+4-0=9) in the Candidates matches. His unlimited first-to-win-six-games match with Karpov (Moscow, 1984) became the longest in history. It was terminated without result and stirred up much controversy. Next year another match was organized, which Kasparov won 13-11 to become the youngest World Champion. In the following five years, Kasparov defended his title in three matches with Karpov: London-Leningrad, 1986 (12½–11½), Linares, 1987 (12-12) and New York-Lyon, 1990 (12½–11½).In 1993 Kasparov and Short (the winner of the Candidates cycle) played the title match outside of FIDE jurisdiction, which Kasparov won 12½–7½. Two years later, he defended his title in the match against the winner of the PCA candidate cycle Viswanathan Anand by a score of 10½–7½ (New York, 1995). Despite losing the chess crown in 2000, he continued to dominate tournaments and was #1 in the FIDE rating list when he retired from professional chess.

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# 1 / 8

If you wish to succeed, you must brave the risk of failure

The attacker always has the advantage

Sometimes the hardest thing to do in a pressure situation is to allow the tension to persist. The temptation is to make a decision, any decision, even if it is an inferior choice

The biggest problem I see among people who want to excel in chess – and in business and in life in general – does not trust their instincts enough

Losing can persuade you to change what doesn't need to be changed, and winning can convince you everything is fine even if you are on the brink of disaster

The highest art of the chess player lies in not allowing your opponent to show you what he can do

The public must come to see that chess is a violent sport. Chess is mental torture

Nervous energy is the ammunition we take into any mental battle. If you don’t have enough of it, your concentration will fade. If you have a surplus, the results will explode

On Kasparov

After Karpov and Kasparov, there are no longer kings, but only prime ministers…

Kasparov was lucky that computers appeared, and he quickly “joined” them and began to use them. That is, he quickly realized that this was a great help. Now all chess players use this, but then Kasparov was ahead, and this gave him considerable advantages

Kasparov is undoubtedly an outstanding chess player and an outstanding personality in chess. Kasparov is a combination of lucky concourse of circumstances: having a good coach in childhood, good conditions for training, incredible will-power. Perhaps Kasparov can be compared with Botvinnik in his will-power, but he overmatches his teacher in flexibility. Kasparov, though being peremptory, is opened for any changes. He may, perhaps, in half a year, change his chess ideology. He soaks up changes like a sponge; modifies and includes in his armory very fast and successfully everything he sees. I think it`s the main distinction of Kasparov from all the other chess players

Garry Kasparov in my opinion is the greatest player that ever been. Garry is a hard worker, he had a special, very-very special talent for a game at a very early age, and he could found ideas that nobody else could. So I think Gary has as a genius 10 of 10. In terms of influence at a modern generation I would mark 10 of 10. Personally I found him to be very interesting to be around him

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Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov. How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

2010

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