After his retirement from chess in 2005, Kasparov turned to politics and created the United Civil Front, a social movement whose main goal is to "work to preserve electoral democracy in Russia."[21] He has vowed to "restore democracy" to Russia by toppling the elected Russian president Vladimir Putin, of whom he is an outspoken critic.[22][23][24]

Kasparov was instrumental in setting up The Other Russia, a coalition which oppose Putin's government. The Other Russia has been boycotted by the leaders of Russia's democratic opposition parties, Yabloko and Union of Right Forces as they are concerned about its inclusion of radical nationalist and left-wing groups such as the National Bolshevik Party and former members of the Rodina party including Viktor Gerashchenko, a potential presidential candidate. But regional branches of Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces have opted to take part in the coalition. Kasparov says that leaders of these parties are controlled by the Kremlin,[25] despite the fact they are both strongly opposed to the president's policies.

On April 10, 2005, Kasparov was in Moscow at a promotional event when he was struck over the head with a chessboard he had just signed. The assailant was reported to have said "I admired you as a chess player, but you gave that up for politics" immediately before the attack.[26] Kasparov has been the subject of a number of other episodes since.[27][28]

Kasparov at the third Dissenters March in Saint Petersburg on 9 June 2007.Kasparov helped organize the Saint Petersburg Dissenters' March on March 3, 2007 and The March of the Dissenters on March 24, 2007, both involving several thousand people rallying against Putin and Saint Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko's policies.[29][30] On April 14, he was briefly arrested by the Moscow police while heading for a demonstration, following warnings by the prosecution office on the eve of the march, stating that anyone participating risked being detained. He was held for some 10 hours, and then fined and released.[31]

Due to his connection to ultranationalists and hard-left groups, he was summoned by FSB for questioning as a suspect in violations of Russian anti-extremism laws.[32] This law was previously applied for the conviction of Boris Stomakhin[33][34]

Speaking about Kasparov, former KGB general Oleg Kalugin has remarked: "I do not talk in details—people who knew them are all dead now because they were vocal, they were open. I am quiet. There is only one man who is vocal, and he may be in trouble: [former] world chess champion [Garry] Kasparov. He has been very outspoken in his attacks on Putin, and I believe that he is probably next on the list."[35]

In 1991, Kasparov received the Keeper of the Flame award from the Center for Security Policy (a US think tank) for his contributions in development of democracy [36] [37] [38][39] [40]

On September 30, 2007, Kasparov entered the Russian Presidential race, receiving 379 of 498 votes at a congress held in Moscow by The Other Russia.[41]

In October 2007, Kasparov announced his intention of standing for the Russian presidency as the candidate of the "Other Russia" coalition, and vowed to fight for a "democratic and just Russia". Later that month he traveled to the United States, where he appeared on several popular television programs, which were hosted by Stephen Colbert, Wolf Blitzer, Bill Maher, and Chris Matthews.

On November 24, 2007, Kasparov and other protesters were detained by police at an Other Russia rally in Moscow. This followed an attempt by about 100 protesters to break through police lines and march on the electoral commission, which had barred Other Russia candidates from parliamentary elections.[42] He was subsequently charged with resisting arrest and organising an unauthorized protest, and given a jail sentence of five days. He was released from jail on November 29.[43]

On December 12, 2007, Kasparov announced that he had to withdraw his presidential candidacy due to inability to rent a meeting hall where at least 500 of his supporters could assemble to endorse his candidacy, as is legally required. With the deadline expiring on that date, he claimed it was impossible for him to run. Kasparov's spokeswoman accused the government of using pressure to deter anyone from renting a hall for the gathering and said that the electoral commission had rejected a proposal that separate smaller gatherings be held at the same time instead of one large gathering at a meeting hall.[44]

Bon appetit!

[edit] Olympiads and other major team events
Kasparov played in a total of eight Chess Olympiads. He represented the Soviet Union four times, and Russia four times, following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. In his 1980 Olympiad debut, he became, at age 17, the youngest player to represent the Soviet Union or Russia at that level, a record which was broken by Vladimir Kramnik in 1992. In 82 games, he has scored (+50 =29 -3), for 78.7%, and won a total of 19 medals, including team gold medals all eight times he competed. For the 1994 Moscow Olympiad, he had a significant organizational role, in helping to put together the event on short notice, after Thessaloniki canceled its offer to host, a few weeks before the scheduled dates. Kasparov's detailed Olympiad record, from,[49] follows.

La Valletta 1980, USSR 2nd reserve, 9.5/12 (+8 =3 -1), team gold, board bronze; Lucerne 1982, USSR 2nd board, 8.5/11 (+6 =5 -0), team gold, board bronze; Dubai 1986, USSR 1st board, 8.5/11 (+7 =3 -1), team gold, board gold, performance gold; Thessaloniki 1988, USSR 1st board, 8.5/10 (+7 =3 -0), team gold, board gold, performance gold; Manila 1992, Russia board 1, 8.5/10 (+7 =3 -0), team gold, board gold, performance silver; Moscow 1994, Russia board 1, 6.5/10 (+4 =5 -1), team gold; Yerevan 1996, Russia board 1, 7/9 (+5 =4 -0), team gold, board gold, performance silver; Bled 2002, Russia board 1, 7.5/9 (+6 =3 -0), team gold, board gold. Kasparov made his international teams debut for the USSR at age 16 in the 1980 European Team Championship, and played for Russia in the 1992 edition of that championship. He won a total of five medals. His detailed Euroteams record, from,[50] follows.

Skara 1980, USSR 2nd reserve, 5.5/6 (+5 =1 -0), team gold, board gold; Debrecen 1992, Russia board 1, 6/8 (+4 =4 -0), team gold, board gold, performance silver. Kasparov also represented the USSR once in Youth Olympiad competition, but the detailed data is incomplete at http://www.olimpbase.org/1981k/1981...; the site http://www.chessmetrics.com, the Garry Kasparov player file, has his individual score from that event.

Frunze 1981, USSR Championship, 12.5/17, 1st=;
Bugojno 1982, 9.5/13, 1st;
Moscow 1982, Interzonal, 10/13, 1st;
Niksic 1983, 11/14, 1st;
Brussels OHRA 1986, 7.5/10, 1st;
Brussels 1987, 8.5/11, 1st=;
Amsterdam Optiebeurs 1988, 9/12, 1st;
Belfort (World Cup) 1988, 11.5/15, 1st;
Moscow 1988, USSR Championship, 11.5/17, 1st=;
Reykjavik (World Cup) 1988, 11/17, 1st;
Barcelona (World Cup) 1989, 11/16, 1st=;
Skelleftea (World Cup) 1989, 9.5/15, 1st=;
Tilburg 1989, 12/14, 1st;
Belgrade (Investbank) 1989, 9.5/11, 1st;
Linares 1990, 8/11, 1st.
Kasparov won the Chess Oscar a record eleven times.

[edit] Books and other writings
Kasparov has written a number of books on chess. He published a somewhat controversial autobiography when still in his early 20s, originally titled Child of Change, which was later retitled Unlimited Challenge. This book was subsequently updated several times after he became World Champion. Its content is mainly literary, with a small chess component of key unannotated games. He published an annotated games collection in the 1980s: Fighting Chess: My Games and Career, and this book has also been updated several times in further editions. He has annotated his own games extensively for the Yugoslav Chess Informant series and for other chess publications. In 1982, he co-authored Batsford Chess Openings with British Grandmaster Raymond Keene, and this book was an enormous seller. It was updated into a second edition in 1989. He also co-authored two opening books with his trainer Alexander Nikitin in the 1980s for British publisher Batsford — on the Classical Variation of the Caro-Kann Defence and on the Scheveningen Variation of the Sicilian Defence. Kasparov has also contributed extensively to the five-volume openings series Encyclopedia of Chess Openings.

In 2007 he wrote How Life Imitates Chess, an examination of the parallels between decision-making in chess and in the business world. In 2008 Kasparov published a sympathetic obituary for Bobby Fischer, writing "I am often asked if I ever met or played Bobby Fischer. The answer is no, I never had that opportunity. But even though he saw me as a member of the evil chess establishment that he felt had robbed and cheated him, I am sorry I never had a chance to thank him personally for what he did for our sport."[51]

He is the chief advisor for the book publisher Everyman Chess.

[edit] My Great Predecessors series

My Great Predecessors, part IIn 2003, the first volume of his five-volume work Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors was published. This volume, which deals with the world chess champions Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine, and some of their strong contemporaries, has received lavish praise from some reviewers (including Nigel Short), while attracting criticism from others for historical inaccuracies and analysis of games directly copied from unattributed sources. Through suggestions on the book's website, most of these shortcomings were corrected in following editions and translations. Despite this, the first volume won the British Chess Federation's Book of the Year award in 2003. Volume two, covering Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vassily Smyslov and Mikhail Tal appeared later in 2003. Volume three, covering Tigran Petrosian and Boris Spassky appeared in early 2004. In December 2004, Kasparov released volume four, which covers Samuel Reshevsky, Miguel Najdorf, and Bent Larsen (none of these three were World Champions), but focuses primarily on Bobby Fischer. The fifth volume, devoted to the chess careers of World Champion Anatoly Karpov and challenger Viktor Korchnoi, was published in March 2006.

[edit] Modern Chess series

Modern Chess, part IHis book Revolution in the 70s (published in March 2007) covers "the openings revolution of the 1970s–1980s" and is the first book in a new series called "Modern Chess Series", which intends to cover his matches with Karpov and selected games.

[edit] Deep Thought, 1989
Kasparov easily defeated the chess computer Deep Thought in both games of a two-game match in 1989 (Hsu 2002:105–16).

[edit] Deep Blue, 1996
In February 1996, IBM's chess computer Deep Blue defeated Kasparov in one game using normal time controls, in Deep Blue - Kasparov, 1996, Game 1. But Kasparov recovered well, gaining three wins and two draws and easily winning the match.

[edit] Deep Blue, 1997
Main article: IBM Deep Blue
In May 1997, an updated version of Deep Blue defeated Kasparov 3½–2½ in a highly publicised six-game match. The match was even after five games but Kasparov was crushed in Game 6. This was the first time a computer had ever defeated a world champion in match play. A documentary film was made about this famous match-up entitled Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine.

Kasparov claimed that several factors weighed against him in this match. In particular, he was denied access to Deep Blue's recent games, in contrast to the computer's team that could study hundreds of Kasparov's.

After the loss Kasparov said that he sometimes saw deep intelligence and creativity in the machine's moves, suggesting that during the second game, human chess players, in contravention of the rules, intervened. IBM denied that it cheated, saying the only human intervention occurred between games. The rules provided for the developers to modify the program between games, an opportunity they said they used to shore up weaknesses in the computer's play revealed during the course of the match. Kasparov requested printouts of the machine's log files but IBM refused, although the company later published the logs on the Internet.[52] Kasparov demanded a rematch, but IBM declined and retired Deep Blue.

[edit] Deep Junior, 2003

Kasparov played with 3D glasses in his match against the program X3D Fritz.In January 2003, he engaged in a six game classical time control match with a $1 million prize fund which was billed as the FIDE "Man vs. Machine" World Championship, against Deep Junior.[53] The engine evaluated three million positions per second.[54] After one win each and three draws, it was all up to the final game. The final game of the match was televised on ESPN2 and was watched by an estimated 200–300 million people. After reaching a decent position Kasparov offered a draw, which was soon accepted by the Deep Junior team. Asked why he offered the draw, Kasparov said he feared making a blunder.[55] Originally planned as an annual event, the match was not repeated.

Relax <Mr.Schiller>. He is (very) young and full of energy ;)

Big mistakes, if you do that in school ... don't type so fast!

<artyom2008> I am sleeping!!

Calling you <arty> is a bad habbit grown up people sometimes do without even thinking that it could be disrespectful. Sorry, for that.

Can I answer the forum question later?

I kindly ask for your understanding that beauty sleep is a very fundamental cause!