Garry Kasparov

No other player has dominated as long or as strong as Garry Kasparov. His name is synonymous with chess. He became the youngest ever undisputed World Champion in 1985 at only 22, which he held until 1993 when a dispute with FIDE led him to set up his own organisation (PCA) and technically lost him the World Title, though most chess enthusiasts still considered him the unofficial World Champion during this period. It lasted until his loss to Kramnik in 2000. He was ranked number one almost continuously from 1986 until his retirement in 2005, which included the all time highest Elo rating of 2851, as well as a record 15 consecutive tournament victories. Kasparov began training at Mikhail Botvinnik’s chess school at age 10. In 1979, he was accidently entered into a professional tournament despite being unrated, which he duly won and by 1983 was ranked 2 in the world, behind World Champion Karpov. He challenged for the World Title and lost to Karpov in 1984 in an epic 48 game match (see entry on Karpov) but won the following year and successfully defended it 3 times against Karpov in the coming years by very tight margins. In 1993, Kasparov had a falling out with governing body FIDE. In 2007, Kasparov admitted that forming a breakaway organisation was the worst mistake of his career. The Title remained split for 13 years as Kasparov refused to rejoin FIDE. He lost the title to Kramnik in 2000. Even after losing the title, Kasparov continued to outperform his rivals winning a string of major titles and remained ranked number 1. He announced his retirement in 2005 after winning the prestigious Linares tournament for the ninth time, citing a lack of personal goals in chess. He is now pursuing a political career in his native Russia. Garry Kasparov completely dominated his peers for 20 years, and retired on top. He has contributed much to the theory of chess and rightly deserves the number 1 spot of greatest ever.

Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov