Garry Kasparow
Do not enfuriate the beast
Can you imagine a tournament in which one player wins and all other players score less than 50%? Is that even possible? Yes, it is. Garry Kasparov pulled that off in Linares 2001, where he won by a three-point margin in only 10 rounds. His opponents weren't exactly patzers: Shirov, Grischuk, Polgar, Karpov and... Interestingly, the new superstar in town, Peter Leko, came last in the tournament losing only one game to Kasparov!
Kramnik had snatched the World Title from Garry less than four months earlier, in one of the greatest upsets in chess history. But one month before Linares, Kasparov dominated the Wijk Aan Zee tournament, where Kramnik ended up sharing third place. These were Kasparov's two first tournament appearances as a former world champion. The 'beast from Baku' absolutely dominated the two strongest tournaments of the year back to back. And after that, he continued winning tournament after tournament in ferocious style. Not bad for an ex-World Champion
Über Kasparow versus Deep Blue:
https://twitter.com/Ruhichess/status/1672278201458991105
https://twitter.com/Ruhichess/status/1672635309010350080
The untold story: Kasparov vs Deep Blue (Part 1)
Everybody has heard of how in 1997 the IBM chess-playing computer, Deep Blue, constituted a landmark in artificial intelligence by defeating the World Champion at the time, Garry Kasparov. What if I told you that this story is more marketing than reality? In the 1990s, computational power was making giant strides. Computer programs were starting to defeat grandmasters at chess. AI researchers figured, if we can back up these programs with sufficiently powerful hardware, engines could potentially defeat the World Champion. IBM set out to prove this theory under the pretext of a scientific pursuit. Garry Kasparov agreed to put his reputation on the line.
In 1996, a match to six games was organized. Deep Blue beat Kasparov in game 1, hitting headlines all over the world. But that was the beginning and the end of the excitement for IBM. Garry manhandled the machine in the remaining of the match. Interestingly, this outcome didn't generate much excitement. Garry Kasparov had just defeated a supercomputer that could calculate more than a hundred million moves per second! He had single-handedly defeated the whole of the IBM team, including several researchers and chess grandmasters. The best efforts of a multinational corporation could not take down this man.
IBM researchers probably realized that their brute force approach wasn't going to work. But they had invested so much in this project, something had to be done. They came up with another brute force approach. Deep Blue was consistently outplayed by Kasparov, but it did not make human blunders. All IBM had to do is to play short matches, keep adjusting their machine to Kasparov's play, and hope that Garry would make some mistakes.
The untold story: Kasparov vs Deep Blue (Part 2)
The rematch between Kasparov and Deep Blue took place in New York in 1997. In the first game, Garry dominated, winning in brilliant style. The second game was dramatic: Garry resigned in a position where he could have kept fighting. Garry would probably have found the hidden resource within a couple of minutes, had he tried, but surprisingly he gave up prematurely. The next 3 games were drawn. Garry wasn't even trying very hard. He wasn't using his main opening weapons, one of his big strengths in chess. He used this approach throughout the two matches, maybe due to his "anti-computer strategy", but more likely because he did not want to give away his preparation for important competitions.
It all came down to the last game. Garry had the black pieces. He had defeated the machine with black in the previous match, but the most likely outcome was a draw. The match would be tied, and another rematch would take place. However, something incredible happened: Garry blundered as early as move 7 and was completely lost from the opening, eventually resigning on move 19. This was an unprecedented event in Garry's career, since he had always been known for his deep and accurate opening knowledge. Deep Blue had won the match exactly in the way IBM was hoping for.
Garry showed a strong desire for a rematch, but IBM refused; their job was done. Deep Blue, this great milestone in artificial intelligence, was dismantled and never used again. IBM stock price, which had been stuck for more than a decade, soared by several folds in the next couple of years. IBM had what they wanted, and the supposed contributions of Deep Blue to science and technology were buried for the rest of time. And this is how Garry Kasparov literally dismantled the biggest, chunkiest, and most powerful chess machine ever invented.
The overall score of the two matches was 6.5–5.5 in favor of Kasparov. Deep Blue was surprisingly good, close in strength to the best human chess player. But contrary to popular belief, computers did not surpass humans at chess in 1997. Deep Blue was adjusted by humans between games and had a human-made opening book, thanks to which Deep Blue won the last decisive game of the second match. And in the end, its overall score against Garry Kasparov was a net negative.
Kasparov's Biggest Blunder
In this newsletter, I take a look at an iconic blunder. We often see the above GIF being shared online when someone blunders. But do you know the story behind it?
Kannste dir nicht ausdenken. https://t.co/LK7xBmwakX pic.twitter.com/n2mIsVhmX1
— Perlen vom Bodensee (@Bodenseeperlen) December 19, 2023
Of course it's a badge of honor to be charged with treason by the war criminal Putin regime. This time it's for raising funds to support Ukraine, as we did most recently at our Free Russia Forum auction in Vilnius.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) December 19, 2023
Usually Putin and his propagandists just have to remember to change "fatherland" to "motherland" to update Nazi statements about "internal threats" and "extremist elements" that are to blame for anything and everything.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) December 19, 2023
Heute vor 25 Jahren: 2851 Elo!
Am 1. Juli 1999 erreichte @Kasparov63 seine höchste offizielle Elozahl (und hatte 80 Punkte Vorsprung vor der Nummer zwei). pic.twitter.com/yYAqrYrtDj
— Schachkalender (@Schachkalender) July 1, 2024
This is taken from the phenomenal series of interviews with the 13th World Champion, published last year on @LevitovChess.https://t.co/tPvD2F6HXl
— Douglas Griffin (@dgriffinchess) November 22, 2023
https://twitter.com/dgriffinchess/status/1727719430321312158
10. März 2005: Kasparow tritt zurück
https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1899501866435658095
https://en.chessbase.com/post/throwback-thursday-kasparov-linares-2005
Der Abschied des Königs: Kasparows Rücktritt nach Linares 2005
„Ich bin ein Mann der Ziele – was kann ich noch erreichen?“ Mit diesen Worten beendete Garry Kasparow am 10. März 2005 seine beispiellose Karriere als Schachprofi. Nach zwanzig Jahren an der Spitze der Weltrangliste und zahllosen Erfolgen verkündete er seinen Rücktritt unmittelbar nach der letzten Partie des legendären Turniers von Linares. Der Schock in der Schachwelt war gewaltig.
Ein Abgang auf dem Höhepunkt
Kasparow ging in sein letztes Turnier als unangefochtener Spitzenreiter. Der damals 42-Jährige führte das Feld an und stand bereits vor der letzten Runde als Turniersieger fest – trotz einer Niederlage gegen Veselin Topalow. Die entscheidenden Punkte hatte er sich zuvor durch überzeugende Siege gegen Michael Adams, Rustam Kasimdschanow und Francisco Vallejo gesichert. Sein Erfolg wurde letztlich durch die Feinwertung (mehr Siege mit Schwarz) besiegelt.
Doch an jenem Tag stand nicht nur das Turnierergebnis im Mittelpunkt. Als Kasparow nach der Partie vor die Presse trat, sorgte er für eine der größten Überraschungen in der Schachgeschichte. Der Mann, der das Spiel zwei Jahrzehnte lang geprägt hatte, erklärte seinen Rücktritt. Die Reaktionen reichten von ungläubigem Staunen bis hin zu ehrfürchtigem Respekt.
Warum dieser Schritt?
Kasparow war ein Mann, der immer nach neuen Herausforderungen suchte. Nach seinem Weltmeistertitel 1985 gegen Anatoli Karpow hatte er sich unermüdlich weiterentwickelt und blieb selbst nach seiner Niederlage gegen Wladimir Kramnik im Jahr 2000 die unumstrittene Nummer eins. Doch in seinen Augen gab es nichts mehr zu beweisen. „Es gibt kein Match mehr, es wird kein Match mehr geben“, erklärte er und fügte hinzu: „Ich habe für mich bewiesen, dass ich immer noch der Beste bin. Alles andere wäre nur Wiederholung.“
Auch seine politischen Ambitionen spielten eine Rolle. Kasparow wollte sich künftig der Demokratisierung Russlands widmen und begann seine Karriere als Oppositionspolitiker – eine Entscheidung, die ihn in die direkten Konflikte mit dem Regime von Wladimir Putin führte.
Die Bedeutung seines Abschieds
Kasparows Rücktritt war nicht nur das Ende einer Ära, sondern veränderte auch die Schachwelt. Ein 17-jähriger Hikaru Nakamura sagte damals resigniert, dass Schach „tot“ sei. Zeitgleich richtete sich der Blick auf die nächste Generation: Kasparow selbst nannte Magnus Carlsen und Sergej Karjakin als seine potenziellen Nachfolger.
Tatsächlich prägte Carlsen das moderne Schach, wurde Weltmeister und etablierte eine neue Dominanz. Doch Kasparows Einfluss reicht bis heute – sei es in der Welt der Eröffnungsstrategien, der Computeranalyse oder als Mentor der neuen Generation.
Sein letzter großer Auftritt als Turnierspieler in Linares war nicht nur ein Triumph, sondern ein Abgang mit Grandezza. Kasparow verließ das Schach mit dem Gefühl, es auf dem Höhepunkt seiner Kräfte getan zu haben. Sein Name bleibt für immer mit dem Spiel verbunden – als einer der größten Denker, Strategen und Kämpfer, die das königliche Spiel je gesehen hat.