13th World Champion, 1985 - 1993
PCA Champion, 1993 - 2000
Garry Kimovich Kasparov was born Gary Weinstein in Baku,
Azerbaijan, USSR in 1963. Kasparov learned to play chess from his
father who later died in a road accident when he was 7 years old.
He subsequently changed his name to Kasparov, a Russified version
of his mother's maiden name, Kasparyan. Kasparov's chess talent was
apparent at an early age. In 1973 he attended the Botvinnik Chess
School and Kasparov continued to make rapid progress. In 1975 at
the age of 12 he became the youngest ever player to win the USSR
Junior Championship. At 16 he won the World Junior Championship. He
achieved the title of Grandmaster on his 17th birthday
In 1984 he challenged the current reigning World Champion,
Anatoly Karpov for the title. This match was a hard fought battle
and lasted 6 months, the longest in the history of chess. It was
finally stopped by Florencio Campomanes, president of FIDE and a
rematch ordered. In November 1985 Kasparov won the rematch against
Karpov and became the youngest World Champion at the age of 22
years.
Kasparov held the official FIDE world title until 1993, when a
dispute with FIDE led him to set up a rival organization, the
Professional Chess Association. He continued to hold the
"Classical" World Chess Championship until his defeat by Vladimir
Kramnik in 2000.
In 1996 Kasparov competed in a six game match against an IBM
computer called Deep Blue. Kasparov won with a score of 4 games to
2 games. The following year, he competed against an improved
version called Deeper Blue and was defeated 3.5 games to 2.5 games.
It was the first time a Grandmaster had lost a series of games to a
computer. He is currently the highest rated player there has ever
been in the history of chess.
Kasparov's ratings achievements include being rated world #1
according to Elo rating almost continuously from 1986 until his
retirement in 2005 and holding the all-time highest rating of 2851.
He was the world number-one ranked player for 255 months, by far
the most of all-time and nearly three times as long as his closest
rival, Anatoly Karpov. He also holds records for consecutive
tournament victories and Chess Oscars.
Kasparov announced his retirement from professional chess on 10
March 2005, to devote his time to politics and writing. He formed
the United Civil Front movement, and joined as a member of The
Other Russia, a coalition opposing the administration of Vladimir
Putin. He was a candidate for the 2008 Russian presidential race,
but later withdrew. Widely regarded in the West as a symbol of
opposition to Putin, Kasparov's support in Russia is low.
He is the current coach of the world's number-one ranked player,
Magnus Carlsen.
The Puzzle:
Find the other caches in this series. Each cache contains a code
that will unlock the location to this cache. After finding the
other caches, you will know what to do to solve this one.