Garry Kasparov

Birthdate: 13.04.1963

Place of birth. Education. Born in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku. Father - Kim Moiseevich Weinstein - worked as an energy engineer. Mother - Clara Shagenovna Kasparova - was an engineer, a specialist in automation and telecommunication technology.

Graduate of the Azerbaijan Pedagogical Institute for Foreign Languages.

Biographical information. Kasparov learned chess at the age of five when he watched his parents play. His father loved this ancient game as well as music and poetry. When Weinstein noticed his son's unique abilities, he decided that chess should ultimately be preferred over music, and thus the boy's fate was predetermined.

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In 1985, Kasparov defeated the reigning world champion Anatoly Karpov and became the 13th World Chess Champion. He then defended this title five more times.

In the late 1980s, he fought against dogmatic forms of FIDE leadership and sought to attract major international companies as investors in chess. He was the initiator and founder of several chess organizations - the International Association of Grandmasters (1988), the Professional Chess Association (1993), which played an important role in promoting chess and organized a number of major international competitions, including the World Championship in 1995.

In 1996 in Philadelphia and 1997 in New York, Kasparov played against IBM's supercomputer 'Deep Blue'. The enormous popularity of these games worldwide was a unique demonstration of the capabilities of man and machine.

Kasparov still maintains the highest rating in the world, despite a defeat against Vladimir Kramnik in 2000.

In 1984, Kasparov joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and became a member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union. He left the party in 1990. He actively participated in the founding of the Democratic Party of Russia (DPR) in May 1990. In June 1993, he was involved in the creation of the electoral alliance 'Vote for Russia'. In 1996, he supported the candidacy of the first Russian president Boris Yeltsin during the presidential campaign. In 2001, he spoke out for the controversial TV channel NTV.

In March 2005, Kasparov won another super tournament in Linares (Spain) and announced the end of his chess career. The decision to retire from the world of professional chess was connected with his intention to devote a significant part of his time to socio-political activities.

Garry Kasparov is co-chairman of the All-Russian Civil Congress 'Russia for Democracy, Against Dictatorship'. In 2005, at his initiative, the socio-political movement United Civil Front was established, whose activists elected Kasparov as the head of the movement. A long-standing and sharp opponent of the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Advocate of liberal ideas and values.

In recent years, Kasparov has visited more than 30 regions of Russia and met thousands of citizens. In 2006, with his participation, a political and civic alliance called Other Russia was founded.

In 2007, at the congress of the Other Russia alliance, Kasparov was elected as the joint candidate of the opposition in the 2008 presidential elections. The authorities did not allow the initiative group to nominate Kasparov the opportunity to hold a rally in Moscow by refusing to rent seven venues, thus depriving them of the chance to compete for the presidency, which ultimately fell to the pro-Kremlin candidate Dmitry Medvedev.

Since 2008, he has been a member of the office of the United Democratic Movement 'Solidarity'. One of the initiators of the mass signature campaign 'Putin Must Go'.

In 2014, he condemned Russia's annexation of Crimea and the Russian actions related to the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and called on Western leaders to increase pressure on Putin . Garry Kasparov considers Crimea to be Ukrainian territory.

On December 6, 2014, he played in Kyiv simultaneously with volunteers and fighters ATO.

Family. Kasparov has been married three times. In 1989, he married Maria Arapova, a graduate of the Faculty of Philology at Moscow State University, tour guide from Intourist. In 1992, daughter Polina was born, and in 1993, the couple separated. Later, Maria and her daughter moved to the USA.

In 1996, Kasparov married 18-year-old economics student Yulia Vovk. At the end of the same year, their son Vadim was born. The marriage was divorced in 2005.

In 2005, Kasparov married Daria Tarasova from St. Petersburg. In 2006, their daughter Aida was born, and on July 6, 2015 - son Nikolay.

Kasparov owns properties in Moscow, St. Petersburg, New York, and New Jersey.

In February 2014, Kasparov received Croatian citizenship, where he owns a house in the coastal resort of Makarska.

Hobbies. Football, tennis, running, gymnastics, swimming.

12.04.2022