He was born in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. His mother was Armenian, her maiden name was Klara Šagenovna Kasparjanová, his father Kim Mojsejevič Vajnštejn was of Jewish origin.
When Garri was seven years old, his father tragically died. His mother later changed her surname to “Kasparova” (Каспарова), a corrupted form of her maiden name, and Garri also acquired this surname.
He started learning chess at the age of seven at the House of Pioneers in Baku. He was among Mikhail Botvinnik’s students from the age of ten. After a long series of tough matches with Anatoly Karpov in 1984–1985, Kasparov became the youngest holder of the World Chess Champion title and held it until 1993, according to FIDE.
Then, after disagreements with FIDE, he founded his own organization, the Professional Chess Association. In 1997, Kasparov was defeated by IBM’s Deep Blue computer in a controversial match. This year was a historic turning point and Kasparov was the first world chess champion to be defeated by a machine during a chess tournament.
He lost the title of world champion only in 2000, when he was defeated by Vladimir Kramnik. For almost the entire period from 1985 until his retirement in 2005, he had the highest Elo rating of any chess player in the world.
Kasparov had a similar style to Mikhail Tal – aggressive and full of traps and combinations. He also learned excellent technique and patience from Karpov in mutual matches.
Kasparov announced his retirement from professional chess on 10 March 2005, focusing instead on politics and writing.
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