Challenger Match

The Challenger Match will be an eight game match between Topalov and Kamsky. It will be played in Sofia, Bulgaria, between 16 and 28 February, 2009. The winner of the Challenger Match will be the challenger for the world championship in a match against Anand in 2009.

After Kamsky won the World Cup, there was ongoing uncertainty about the place of the Challenger match. Topalov prefered his home country of Bulgaria, while Kamsky wanted to play in a neutral country, and his manager has organized a bid from Lviv, Ukraine. FIDE awarded the match Bulgaria in February 2008, to Ukraine in June 2008, then back to Bulgaria in November 2008 because of problems with finances from Ukraine. Kamsky got a new manager, and met with FIDE and Topalov representatives during the Chess Olympiad, and on November 19 2008 FIDE announced that the players had agreed to play in Bulgaria, despite Kamsky's preference to play elsewhere. The match was originally scheduled for November 2008, but the late change to Bulgaria forced the match to be rescheduled for February 2009.

The defender

The defending champion is Viswanathan Anand, who won the World Chess Championship 2007 (a tournament with eight players) and defended the title in the World Chess Championship 2008 (a match against former champion Vladimir Kramnik).

The challenger
Further information: World Chess Championship 2006 and Chess World Cup 2007
The challenger to the title will be determined in a match between former FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov and the winner of the Chess World Cup 2007, Gata Kamsky. Veselin Topalov has been given direct entry to a "Challenger Match" against Kamsky. The reason lies in the complications in reunifying the world title in 2006. The chess world title was split between 1993 and 2006. In early 2006, FIDE had already announced the conditions for the World Chess Championship 2007: an eight-player tournament which included FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov, but not "Classical" World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. FIDE later organized a re-unification match between Kramnik and Topalov (the World Chess Championship 2006), with Kramnik to take Topalov's place in the 2007 tournament if he was to win the match. Kramnik did win the match and the reunified World Chess Championship, and so Topalov was excluded from the 2007 World Championship.In June 2007 FIDE announced that Topalov would be compensated by getting special privileges in the 2009 qualifying cycle: direct entry to a Challenger Match

2008

Playing for the second time in the top group A of the Corus chess tournament, Carlsen showed big improvement over his 2007 performance. His final score was 8 points in 13 rounds, an Elo performance of 2830. Carlsen scored five wins (including beating former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik with the black pieces), two losses and six draws. He shared first place with Levon Aronian, becoming the youngest person ever to win a category 20 tournament. At the 2008 Linares chess tournament, Carlsen had another 2800+ Elo performance, scoring 8 out of 14 (five wins, three losses and six draws). He finished in sole second place, ½ point behind the winner, world champion Viswanathan Anand. In March 2008, Carlsen played for the second time in the Melody Amber blind and rapid chess tournament, which was held in Nice for the first time. In the 11 rounds he achieved four wins, four draws and two losses in the blindfold, and three wins, six draws and two losses in the rapid part. This resulted in a shared fifth place in the blindfold, shared third place in the rapid and a shared second place in the overall tournament.
Carlsen is one of 21 players in the six-tournament FIDE Grand Prix 2008-2009, a qualifier for the World Chess Championship 2011. In the first tournament, in Baku, Azerbaijan, in April-May 2008, he finished in a three-way tie for first place, with another 2800 Elo performance. Carlsen won a rapid match against Peter Leko held at Miskolc, Hungary, scoring 5:3 (two wins, six draws). In June, Carlsen won an annual Aerosvit event.In his strongest tournament performance to date, he finished undefeated with 8 out of 11 (five wins, six draws) in a category 19 field. His Elo performance was 2878. Playing in a category 18 Biel tournament, Carlsen finished third with 6 points out of 10 (three wins, one loss, six draws), with Elo performance of 2741, his first sub-2800 performance of 2008. Playing in Mainz Rapid Chess world championship, Carlsen finished in second place after losing the final to world classic and rapid champion Vishy Anand 3:1 (two losses, two draws). To reach the final Magnus played against Judit Polgar scoring 1.5 point out of two (one win, one draw), against Vishy Anand scording one point out of two (two draws) and against Morozevich scording 1 point out of two (two draws). Playing in the category 21 Bilbao Masters, Carlsen finished in second place with a 2768 performance rating (three wins, three loses, four draws). World Chess Championship 2009 In the World Chess Championship 2009, the current world champion, Viswanathan Anand, will be challenged for the World Chess Championship title by either Veselin Topalov or Gata Kamsky. The match is scheduled for the first half of 2009.

2007

In the 2007 Corus chess tournament Carlsen, playing in group A for the first time, had to settle for the last place after nine draws and four losses, scoring 4½ points in 13 rounds. In the prestigious Linares chess tournament Carlsen met the following top-rated players: Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, Peter Svidler, Alexander Morozevich, Levon Aronian, Peter Leko, and Vassily Ivanchuk (replacing Teimour Radjabov). With the significantly lowest Elo rating, he achieved a second place (on tiebreaks)with 7½ points after four wins, seven draws and three losses, and an Elo performance of 2778. In March 2007, Carlsen played for the first time in the Melody Amber blind and rapid chess tournament in Monte Carlo. In the 11 rounds he achieved eight draws and three losses in the blindfold, and three wins, seven draws and one loss in the rapid part. This resulted in a shared ninth place in the blindfold, shared second place in the rapid (beaten only by Anand), and an eighth place in the overall tournament. In May-June 2007, he participated in the Candidates Tournament for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2007. He was paired with the top seed Levon Aronian. The six-game match was drawn (two wins, two draws, and two losses), with Carlsen coming from behind twice. The four-game rapid playoff was drawn as well (one win, two draws, and one loss), with Carlsen winning the last game to stay in the match. Finally, Aronian won both tiebreaker (blitz) games, to eliminate Carlsen from the Championship. In July-August 2007, he won the International Chess Festival Biel Grandmaster Tournament 2007, with a +2 record (an Elo performance of 2753). His score was equalled by Alexander Onischuk and by the tie-breaker rule of the tournament, they played a tie-breaker match to determine the winner. After drawing two rapid and two blitz games, Carlsen won the armageddon game. He became the youngest person ever to win a category 18 tournament. In December 2007, he reached the semi-final round of the World Chess Cup 2007, after defeating Michael Adams in the round of 16, and Ivan Cheparinov in the quarter-finals. In the semi-final, he was eliminated by the eventual winner Gata Kamsky, ½:1½.

2006

In the 2006 Norwegian Chess Championship, Carlsen was close to winning outright, but a last round loss to Berge Østenstad again tied him for first place with Agdestein. The last-round loss deprived Magnus of beating Agdestein's record of becoming the youngest Norwegian champion ever. Nonetheless, in the play-off 19-21 November Carlsen won 3-1. After two draws in the initial full time games, Magnus won both rapid games in round two, securing his first Norwegian championship. Magnus won the 2006 Glitnir Blitz tournament in Iceland. He won 2-0 over Viswanathan Anand (2003 FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion, 2004 Amber Rapid Chess Champion, 2007 FIDE Classical World Champion) in the semi finals. Carlsen also won 2-0 in the finals. Magnus scored 6/8 in the 37th Chess Olympiad in 2006 against opponents averaging 2627 Elo, gaining 18 Elo (a rating performance of 2820 points). One of his notable wins was against top English grandmaster Michael Adams.In the Midnight Sun Chess tournament Carlsen had some misses and came in second, beaten by Sergei Shipov (FIDE-Elo: 2576). In the 2006 Biel/Bienne grandmaster tournament he achieved second place, after having beaten the eventual winner Alexander Morozevich twice (once with each color). In the NH Chess Tournament held in Amsterdam in August 2006, Carlsen participated in an 'Experience' v 'Rising Stars' Scheveningen team match. The 'Rising Stars' won the match 22-28 with Carlsen achieving the best individual score for the youngsters, 6½/10 and a 2700 Elo performance, thus winning the right to participate in the 2007 Melody Amber tournament. In the World Blitz Championship at Rishon LeZion, Israel he was number 8 of 16 participants with 7½/15 points. In the rapid chess tournament Rencontres nationales et internationales d'échecs i Cap d'Agde, France he got to the semifinal, losing to Sergey Karjakin. Carlsen achieved a shared eighth place of 10 participants in the Mikhail Tal Memorial in Moskow with two losses and seven draws. In the associated blitz tournament Tal Blitz Cup he received 17½/34 points and ninth place in a group of 18 participants.

2005

In Smartfish Chess Masters at the Drammen chess festival 2004-05 (Norway) Carlsen defeated Alexei Shirov, ranked number 13 in the world. In June 2005 in the Ciudad de Leon rapid chess tournament Carlsen played a four-game semi-final against Viswanathan Anand, who was ranked 2nd in the world at the time. Magnus lost 3-1. Carlsen was invited to the tournament as the most promising young chess player in 2005. In the 2005 Norwegian Chess Championship, Carlsen again finished in a shared first place, this time with his mentor Simen Agdestein. A playoff between them was arranged between 7 November and 10 November. This time Carlsen had the better tiebreaks, but the rule giving the player with better tiebreaks scores the title in the event of a 1-1 draw had been revoked previously. The match was closely fought, Agdestein won the first game, Carlsen won the second, so the match went into a phase of two and two rapid games until there was a winner. Carlsen won the first rapid game, Agdestein the second. Then followed a series of three draws until Agdestein won the championship title with a victory in the sixth rapid game. At the end of 2005 he participated at the World Chess Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. In the knock-out tournament, Carlsen upset the 44th-ranked Georgian Zurab Azmaiparashvili in round one, winning 2–0 at rapid chess after a 1–1 tie in the normal length games, and proceeded to beat Tajik Farrukh Amonatov and Bulgarian Ivan Cheparinov (also after rapid chess) to reach the round of 16. There he lost 1½-2½ to Evgeny Bareev, which prevented him from finishing in the top eight. He then won against Joel Lautier 1½-½ and Vladimir Malakhov 3½-2½ securing him at least a tenth place and therefore a spot in the Candidate Matches. Carlsen became the youngest player to be an official World Championship Candidate. In October 2005 he took first place at the Arnold Eikrem Memorial in Gausdal with 8 out of 9 points and a performance rating of 2792 at the age of 14.

Chess career 2004

The result that brought him to the attention of the international chess world, however, was his victory in the C group at the Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee with 10.5/13, losing just one game (against the highest rated player of the C group, Dusko Pavasovic), taking his first Grandmaster norm, and achieving an Elo tournament performance rating of 2702. Particularly notable was his win in the penultimate round over Sipke Ernst in which Carlsen sacrificed material to mate Ernst in just 29 moves. This game won Carlsen the Audience Prize for best game of the round (including all the games played in the B and A groups), though the first 23 moves had already been seen in the game Almagro Llanas-Gustafsson, Madrid 2003 (which, however, was a draw). Carlsen's tournament victory in the C group qualified him to play in the B group in 2005, and led to Lubomir Kavalek, writing in the Washington Post, to describe him as the "Mozart of chess". According to an interview with mentor Agdestein, himself once a young GM at 18, Carlsen is a significantly better player than he was himself at the same age. Carlsen is said to have an excellent memory and plays an unusually wide range of different openings Carlsen obtained his second GM norm in the Moscow Aeroflot Open in February 2004. In a blitz chess tournament (where players have much less time for their moves than in normal chess) in Reykjavík, Iceland, on 17 March 2004, Magnus Carlsen defeated former world champion Anatoly Karpov. The blitz tournament was a preliminary event leading up to a rapid chess knock out tournament beginning the next day, where Carlsen achieved one draw against Garry Kasparov, who was then the top-rated player in the world, before losing to Kasparov after 32 moves of the second game, thus being knocked out of the tournament. In the sixth Dubai Open Chess Championship, held 18 April to 28, 2004, Carlsen obtained his third Grandmaster norm (enough for getting the GM title), after getting four wins and four draws before the last game was to be played. Resulting from this he was at the time world's youngest GM and the second youngest person ever to hold GM status, after Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine who attained the feat at 12 years and 7 months of age in 2002. Carlsen was the youngest player to participate in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004, but was knocked out in the first round on tie breaks by Levon Aronian. In July 2004, Carlsen finished second place behind Berge Østenstad in the Norwegian Chess Championship. Since the scores of these two players were equal (each got 7 points out of 9 but Østenstad had better tiebreaks) a two-game play-off match between the two players was arranged. Due to Østenstad's superior tiebreak score he would win the title should this match end with a 1-1 tie. The match did end with a 1-1 tie after two draws, so Østenstad retained his Norwegian championship title.

Biography

Born in Tønsberg, Vestfold, Carlsen currently lives in Lommedalen, Bærum, near Norway's capital, Oslo. He played his first tournament at the age of eight and was coached at the Norwegian high school for top athletes led by the country's top player, Grandmaster (GM) Simen Agdestein. Agdestein put his civil worker and master player Torbjørn Ringdahl-Hansen, currently a FIDE master with IM and GM norms, as his coach and they had one training session every week, together with one of Magnus' close friends. The young International Master was given a year off from elementary school to participate in international chess tournaments during the fall season of 2003. In that year, he finished third in the European Under-12 Boys Championship.

Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Øen Carlsen (born Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen on 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess Grandmaster and chess prodigy. On 26 April 2004 Carlsen became a Grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 4 months, and 27 days, the third youngest Grandmaster age in history. In the October 2008 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2786, making him World's number 4.

David Navara

David Navara (born March 27, 1985) is a chess Grandmaster from Czech Republic. On the April 2007 FIDE rating list he was ranked number 14 in the world with an Elo rating of 2720, making him the highest ranked Czech player. His career was progressing very fast under coaches like Luděk Pachman or Vlastimil Jansa, as he won several world medals in youth categories. In 2001, aged 16, he got 7 of 9 in the European Team Championships. One year later, three days before his 17th birthday, he received the Grandmaster title, next year he won open tournament in Polanica Zdrój. Ranked 14th, he finished sixth in the 2004 Fifth European Individual Chess Championship in Antalya with 7.5 points (+5−2=5), including a draw against the eventual champion Vassily Ivanchuk. Navara won the Czech Chess Championship in 2004 and 2005. In 2005, Navara participated in the World Chess Cup, but was eliminated by Predrag Nikolić in the first round. He was very successful in the 37th Chess Olympiad 2006, having 8.5 points from 12 games against world-class competition. Navara played several matches in Prague, drawing with Anatoly Karpov (+0−0=2) in 2005 and Boris Gelfand (+1−1=2) in 2006 and winning against Nigel Short (+3-0=3) in 2007. In 2007 he was invited for the first time into supertournament in Wijk aan Zee, where he replaced Alexander Morozevich. Navara, nicknamed Navara Express by organizers, won 6.5 points of 13 games (+3−3=7) including wins against Ruslan Ponomariov and Magnus Carlsen and defending draws with black pieces against Kramnik and Topalov and finished in 7th place. In August 2007 Navara finished first in the big Ordix Open with a score of 9.5/11 on progressive score tiebreak. In September he played in Karlovy Vary tourney where he finished 3rd half a point behind the winners Ponomariov and Movsesian. He also participated in the European Team Chess Championship where he scored 6 points out of 9 game on the first board for the Czech team. In November 2007 Navara participated in the World Chess Cup. He beat Ivanov of US in the first round but was defeated in the tie-breaks by Rublevsky in the second round. In 2007-2008 Navara played in the Torneo di Capodanno in Italy, scoring 3/8 (+1 -3 =4). He is now playing in the first Baku Grand Prix Tournament in 2008. Navara currently studies Logic at Charles University in Prague.

Doeberl Cup

The Doeberl Cup is an annual chess tournament held in Canberra, Australia. It has been held every year since 1963 and is the longest running weekend chess event in Australia. Since its inception the event has grown both larger and stronger, and often attracts more players than the Australian Chess Championships. The tournament is held each year over Easter. The tournament runs in 4 sections, with the top section known as the Doeberl Cup Premier. Grandmaster Ian Rogers holds the record for the most number of wins (either outright or on tie-break) with 12. The Doeberl Cup was named after its primary sponsor, Erich Doeberl, and although it is no longer sponsored by his family, the name is still used to describe the tournament.

Chess World Cup 2005

The Chess World Cup 2005 served as a qualification tournament for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2007. It was held as a 128-player tournament, between 27 November and 17 December 2005, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Top ten players qualified for the candidates matches of the World Chess Championship 2007. One of them (Étienne Bacrot) has qualified for the candidates matches via rating, freeing the place for the eleventh player at the World Cup (Vladimir Malakhov).

Prominent non-participants

Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov were ineligible to participate, due to special privileges they already have in the 2008-2009 World Championship cycle. All other leading players, including world champion Viswanathan Anand, were eligible to participate. However Anand, who is already seeded into the 2008-2009 cycle, elected not to play. Three other players who had recently competed in the World Chess Championship 2007 in Mexico - Péter Lékó, Aleksandr Morozevich and Boris Gelfand - elected not to play. Lékó and Morozevich refused to take part as a form of protest against the special privileges given for the inclusion of Kramnik and Topalov in the World Chess Championship Cycle

Background

The 2007 World Cup is part of the cycle for the World Chess Championship 2009. Gata Kamsky, as the winner of this tournament, will play an eight game match against Veselin Topalov in 2008, for the right to be the challenger for the World Chess Championship in 2009. This will be a match against World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who successfully defended his title against former champion Vladimir Kramnik at the World Chess Championship 2008.

Chess World Cup 2007

The Chess World Cup 2007 served as a qualification tournament for the World Chess Championship 2009. It was held as a 128-player single-elimination tournament, between 24 November and 16 December 2007, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.In an event attended by most leading players of the world, American Gata Kamsky emerged as the winner. He was unbeaten in the tournament, going into tie-break only once and defeating Spaniard Alexei Shirov, 2.5–1.5, in the four-game final. Two 17-year-old players, Sergey Karjakin and Magnus Carlsen, reached the semifinals. By winning, Kamsky qualified for the Challenger Match, the final stage in determining the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2009. The final four also received direct entry into the FIDE Grand Prix 2008-2009, a qualifying stage for the World Chess Championship 2010.

Chess World Cup

The Chess World Cup is the name given to a number of a number of different chess tournaments sponsored by FIDE, the world chess federation. The format and significance of the tournaments has changed over the years.In 2000 and 2002 FIDE staged the "First Chess World Cup" and "Second Chess World Cup" respectively. These were major tournaments, but not directly linked to the World Chess Championship. Both the 2000 and 2002 events were won by Viswanathan Anand. Since 2005, a different event of the same name has been part of the World Chess Championship cycle. This event is being held every two years. It is a 128 player knockout tournament, in the same style as the 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2004 FIDE World Championships. The Chess World Cup 2005 qualified ten players for the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2007. The Chess World Cup 2007 qualified one player for the next stage of the World Chess Championship 2009. This event was won by Gata Kamsky.

Chess ratings achievements

Kasparov holds the record for the longest time as the #1 rated player. Kasparov had the highest Elo rating in the world continuously from 1986 to 2005. However, Vladimir Kramnik did equal him in the January 1996 FIDE ratings list.He was also briefly ejected from the list following his split from FIDE in 1993, but during that time he headed the rating list of the rival PCA. At the time of his retirement, he was still ranked #1 in the world, with a rating of 2812. His rating has fallen inactive since the January 2006 rating list. According to the alternative Chessmetrics calculations, Kasparov was the highest rated player in the world continuously from February 1985 until October 2004. He also holds the highest all-time average rating over a 2 (2877) to 20 (2856) year period and is second to only Bobby Fischer's (2881 vs 2879) over a one-year period.
In January 1990 Kasparov achieved the (then) highest FIDE rating ever, passing 2800 and breaking Bobby Fischer's old record of 2785. He has held the record for the highest rating ever achieved, ever since (as of 2008). On the July 1999 FIDE rating list Kasparov reached a 2851 Elo rating, the highest rating ever achieved

Post-retirement chess

On August 22, 2006, in his first public chess games since his retirement, Kasparov played in the Lichthof Chess Champions Tournament, a blitz event played at the time control of 5 minutes per side and 3 second increments per move. Kasparov tied for first with Anatoly Karpov, scoring 4.5/6

Politics

Kasparov joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1984, and in 1987 was elected to the Central Committee of Komsomol. But in 1990 he left the party, and in May took part in the creation of the Democratic Party of Russia. In June 1993, he was involved in the creation of the "Choice of Russia" bloc of parties, and in 1996 he took part in the election campaign of Boris Yeltsin. In 2001 he voiced his support for the Russian television channel NTV.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."He has vowed to "restore democracy" to Russia by toppling the elected Russian president Vladimir Putin, of whom he is an outspoken critic. 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 mainstream 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,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.[30] Kasparov has been the subject of a number of other episodes since. 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.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. 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.[This law was previously applied for the conviction of Boris Stomakhin 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." 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 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. 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. 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.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

Retirement from chess

After winning the prestigious Linares tournament for the ninth time, Kasparov announced on March 10, 2005 that he would retire from serious competitive chess. He cited as the reason a lack of personal goals in the chess world (he commented when winning the Russian championship in 2004 that it had been the last major title he had never won outright) and expressed frustration at the failure to reunify the world championship. Kasparov said he may play in some rapid chess events for fun, but intends to spend more time on his books, including both the My Great Predecessors series (see below) and a work on the links between decision-making in chess and in other areas of life, and will continue to involve himself in Russian politics, which he views as "headed down the wrong path."Kasparov has been married three times: to Masha, with whom he had a daughter before divorcing; to Yulia, with whom he had a son before their 2005 divorce; and to Daria, with whom he also has a child.

Losing the title, and aftermath

The Kasparov-Kramnik match took place in London during the latter half of 2000. Kramnik had been a student of Kasparov's at the legendary Botvinnik/Kasparov chess school in Russia, and had served on Kasparov's team for the 1995 match against Viswanathan Anand. The better-prepared Kramnik won Game 2 against Kasparov's Grünfeld Defence and achieved winning positions in Games 4 and 6. Kasparov made a critical error in Game 10 with the Nimzo-Indian Defence, which Kramnik exploited to win in 25 moves. As white, Kasparov could not crack the passive but solid Berlin Defence in the Ruy Lopez, and Kramnik successfully drew all his games as black. Kramnik won the match 8.5–6.5, and for the first time in 15 years Kasparov had no world championship title. He became the first player to lose a world championship match without winning a game since Emanuel Lasker lost to Capablanca in 1921. After losing the title, Kasparov strung together a number of major tournament victories, and remained the top rated player in the world, ahead of both Kramnik and the FIDE World Champions. In 2001 he refused an invitation to the 2002 Dortmund Candidates Tournament for the Classical title, claiming his results had earned him a rematch with Kramnik. Kasparov and Karpov played a four game match with rapid time controls over two days in December 2002 in New York City. Karpov surprised the experts and emerged victoriously, winning two games and drawing one. Due to Kasparov's continuing strong results, and status as world #1 in much of the public eye, he was included in the so-called "Prague Agreement", masterminded by Yasser Seirawan and intended to reunite the two World Championships. Kasparov was to play a match against the FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov in September 2003. But this match was called off after Ponomariov refused to sign his contract for it without reservation. In its place, there were plans for a match against Rustam Kasimdzhanov, winner of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004, to be held in January 2005 in the United Arab Emirates. These also fell through due to lack of funding. Plans to hold the match in Turkey instead came too late. Kasparov announced in January 2005 that he was tired of waiting for FIDE to organize a match and so had decided to stop all efforts to regain the World Championship title.