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Best Chess Players of All Time: No. 1 Garry Kasparov
Chess is a marvel. People travel the globe to watch the world's greatest players, who have worked hard to develop skills necessary to conquer chess.
There's always more than meets the eye in a game like chess, especially with legendary chess players like Jose Capablanca, Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker and Anatoly Karpov. It may be hard to decide who is most deserving of the title of greatest chess player of all time, but there is simply no other player that has dominated as long or as strong as Russia's Garry Kasparov.
He is the undisputed greatest chess player of all time and to many who know the game, his name is synonymous with chess. The 49-year-old Kasparov began training at Mikhail Botvinnik’s chess school at age 10. In 1985, at the age of 22, he became the youngest ever undisputed World Champion.
He held this title until 1993 when a dispute with the World Chess Federation led him to setup his own organization, the Professional Chess Association. After this, Kasparov lost the world title, though most chess enthusiasts still considered him the unofficial World Champion during this period. This lasted until his loss to Vladimir Kramnik in 2000. He was ranked number one almost continuously from 1986 until his retirement in 2005. During that time, he held the all-time highest Elo rating of 2851 and 15 consecutive tournament victories.
Kasparov challenged for the World Title and lost to Karpov in 1984 in an epic 48-game match, but won the following year and successfully defended his title three times against Karpov in the coming years by very close margins. In 2007, Kasparov admitted that forming a breakaway organization was the worst mistake of his career because the title remained split for 13 years, as Kasparov refused to rejoin FIDE.
He eventually lost the title to Kramnik in 2000, but continued to perform better than his rivals, winning a string of major titles and ranking for the number-one spot. Nevertheless, 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-one spot as the greatest to ever play the game.
What did all these champions have in common?
It's simple! Every great chess player needs a comfortable environment where they can hone their skills and with NYChessKids, they can start at a young age.
About NYChessKids
Dedicated to improving academic excellence, NYChessKids encourages and trains students to become problem solvers, critical thinkers and admirable leaders. Through online chess, on-site practice and tournaments, children can learn better ways of playing the game they've come to love.
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