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Garry Kasparov, USSR, 1985-2000

Many consider Kasparov to be the next strongest player after Fischer. Born Garry Weinstein in Baku, Armenia in the former USSR, his father was killed in a road accident. The authorities seized the opportunity to give the young Garry a more Soviet-sounding last name that was based upon his mother's maiden name of Kasparyan.

Kasparov had many good teachers in his youth, Botvinnik for a correspondence chess course among them. His chess hero was Alekhine, not Capablanca as Karpov's had been.

At age 12 Kasparov won the under 18 Soviet chess title. He became a grandmaster when he achieved his last grandmaster norm on his 17th birthday.

For awhile before they met, Kasparov was ranked above Karpov on the world rankings list. He beat Smyslov for the right to face the world title holder. In 1985 he defeated Karpov and held the title of world champion officially and unofficially for 15 years.

AN astoundingly tough opponent, Kasparov consistently defeated all competitors in the top world-chess competitions during the period of tome: Linares, Wyk an Zee, etc.

During his reign as world champion, Kasparov has supported chess efforts on many fronts, perhaps most notably in the areas of chess analysis via computer, and chess on the Internet.

Ironically, in all those years, his only outright match loss came at the hands of an IBM computer. Only recently, he lost his world champion title to a former student and protégé, Vladimir Kramnik. One can only imagine that he is preparing especially hard for a rematch.