Garry Kasparov was born to an Armenian mother and a Jewish father on April 13, 1963 in Baku, Azerbaijan, then part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).  His birth name was actually Gari Weinstein, but he adopted the Russian version of his mother’s surname, Kasparova, after his father died when he was 7.  Garry Kasparov, however, was only able to officially use the surname at the age of 12, which was the age of legality in the former Soviet Union republic.

Garry Kasparov was introduced to the world of chess early by his parents, when the two asked him to provide a solution to a chess problem.  Consequently, Kasparov went to play chess with his father before the latter died.  Kasparov later enrolled at Mikhail Botvinnik’s Chess School, where he received his first formal chess training.

In 1976, Garry Kasparov participated in the USSR Junior Championship in Tbilis, which he would eventually win with the score of 7 points out of 9.  At the age of 13, Garry Kasparov became the youngest player ever to win in the said tournament.  He repeated the same feat two years later, when he again won the Junior Championship with a score of 8.5 points out of 9.

In 1978, Garry Kasparov participated at the Sokolsky Memorial tournament, the first major international tournament Kasparov joined.  But since he was an unrated chess player, not much was expected of him.  Nonetheless, he participated in the event and eventually won in the tournament.  It was Kasparov’s first international win.  More importantly, the said championship was the turning point of the life and career of Kasparov as a chess player.

In 1979, Garry Kasparov again participated in an international chess tournament, this time in Banja Luka, Yugoslavia.  Again unrated for the said tournament, Kasparov played at his prime to win the top prize of the said event.  By his win, he became one of the world’s top chess players.

After the 1979 international tournament, Garry Kasparov went on to play other great chess games and international tournaments, slowly inching his way to a position significant enough to challenge the reigning world champion, Anatoly Karpov. 

Actually, Garry Kasparov already earned the right to challenge the reigning World Champion as early as 1980 by winning the World Junior Chess Championship held in Dortmund, West Germany.  A prerequisite to the challenge, however, requires him to win in the Candidates Tournament, which would usually take a year or more of chess matches. 

In 1983, Garry Kasparov had his first Candidates match against Alexander Beliavsky, a tough component whom Kasparov surprisingly defeated.  The next match, which was against Viktor Korchnoi, was a controversial one, ending first in forfeiture against Kasparov, but eventually ending in a win for the young chess master.  The last Candidates match played by Kasparov was against former World Champion Vassily Smyslov, whom Kasparov easily defeated because of the champion’s diminishing capacity and interest to win games.

Finally, in September 10, 1984, Garry Kasparov faced Anatoly Karpov for the World Championship.  At the beginning of the tournament, Karpov was clearly on the lead against Kasparov.  Gaining a 4 to nothing advantage in just about 12 games, Karpov was clearly winning against his younger opponent.  The next matches, however, did not become easy for both players.  After about five months since the start of the tournament, it was halted without a winner, with Kasparov’s record against Karpov standing at 3 wins, 40 draws, and 5 losses.  FIDE’s reason for stopping the tournament was Karpov’s supposedly ailing health.

In 1985, the World Championship game between Kasparov and Karpov was revived.  In this second meeting, a result finally came out and it was in favor of Garry Kasparov.  After 24 matches, Garry Kasparov edged Anatoly Karpov with a 13 to 11 score.  This result made Garry Kasparov the new World Champion.  And at the age of 22, Kasparov also earned the title of being the youngest World Champion in the history of the games.

Garry Kasparov played a lot of good games after gaining the World Championship title, further strengthening his position on the international rating ladder.  He was also able to defend his title thrice, all against Karpov.  In all those years, however, Kasparov’s disagreement with FIDE grew, until he eventually decided to break ties with the group in 1993.

In 1993, when it was time for Garry Kasparov’s title to be challenged once again, he created the Professional Chess Association (PCA).  Garry Kasparov then defended his title through the said organization; defeating Nigel Short, his challenger, in their World Championship match.  The match was definitely not recognized by FIDE, who held another World Championship tournament that was won by Karpov.

Outside FIDE, Garry Kasparov defended his title until 2000, defeating challengers to the title like Viswanathan Anand and Alexei Shirov.  In 2000, however, Kasparov lost his title to Russian Vladimir Kramnik, who surprisingly came too prepared to counter Kasparov’s advances and break his defenses.  After 16 years of holding on to the title, Kasparov eventually lost it.

Aside from Garry Kasparov’s brilliant achievements in the international chess tournaments, he is also well known for his series of chess matches against computers.  It started with his match against a computer called Deep Blue in 1996—a match clearly won by Kasparov with a record of 3 wins and 2 draws.  But in a highly publicized rematch with an upgraded version of Deep Blue, Kasparov lost. 

Kasparov’s last game with a computer was held in 2003 against chess playing computer program named XD3 Fritz.  The said games ended in a draw, with Kasparov registering a 1 win, 2 draws, 1 loss record.

On March 2005, Kasparov announced his decision to resign from playing in serious and competitive chess tournaments.  An outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, Kasparov must have decided to dedicate his time in politics.  Another reason that Garry Kasparov cited was his books about chess and great chess players.