Chess

Garry Kasparov was born Gary Weinstein Kimovich on April 13, 1963, in Baku, Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union, now Azerbaijan) is a chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer and political activist. It is considered by many the greatest chess player of all time.

Kasparov was the youngest player to become World Chess Champion in 1985, when he was 22 years. Retained the world title of official World Chess Federation until 1993, when a dispute with FIDE led him to create a rival organization, the Professional Chess Association. He went on to win the Classical World Chess Championship until his defeat by Vladimir Kramnik in 2000. Garry is also widely known for being the first world chess champion to lose a match to a computer, when he lost to Deep Blue in 1997.

Kasparov's achievements include being ranked number one in the world according to Elo rating almost continuously from 1986 until his retirement in 2005, and sustain the highest rating of all time, in 2851. He maintains, too, the record of Chess Oscars and received the award eleven times.

Between 1984 and 1990, Kasparov was a member of the Central Committee of Komsomol and Communist Party member of the Soviet Union.He announced his retirement from professional chess on March 10, 2005, to devote his time to politics and writing. He formed the United Civil Front movement, and became a member of The Other Russia, a coalition of opposition to the administration of Vladimir Putin. He was a candidate for president in 2008 elections, but later withdrew. Although highly regarded in the East as a symbol of opposition to Putin, Kasparov's support in Russia was weak.

On April 14, 2007 Kasparov was arrested with nearly 200 others to join a protest against the Kremlin, and was detained for about ten hours, and was fined one thousand rubles. In November of that year, was again arrested in a protest against Vladimir Putin and was detained for five days this time.