Chess player Gata Kamsky: biography, career

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

Gata Kamsky is a living legend of the world chess elite. Although he failed to win the coveted FIDE crown, Kamsky earned a number of honorary titles and achievements along the way, most of them at a young age. The Elo rating will also not give an opportunity to underestimate his merits. Kamsky's talent was recognized in all the republics of the USSR and, after some time, in the United States of America.

Gata Kamsky: biography

On June 2, 1974, one of the most brilliant chess players of our time was born into a Tatar family. Now he is known to everyone under the name Kamsky, and the place of his birth is the city of Novokuznetsk. Then no one guessed that the boy would glorify his family so much. At birth, the child was given the name Gataulla Rustemovich Sabirov. It is worth noting that his high mental abilities were manifested from an early age - already at the age of two the boy read freely, and at four he mastered the piano. But his genius really came out the moment he tried to play chess for the first time.

Leaving the city of Novokuznetsk, his family briefly settled in Kazan, where the young genius began to learn chessart. Some time later they moved to Leningrad. Studying at the local school was not easy for Gata, because he studied with the guys two years older. This did not prevent him from gaining the respect and trust of his classmates, because the boy had a good-natured disposition and was very easy to communicate with his peers, despite the fact that at that time he already had a very respectable position for his age. The pseudonym Kamsky Gata Rustemovich Sabirov adopted from his grandfather, who stood at the origins of the Drama Theater of Tatarstan. For the first time he became famous under this name in the city on the Neva.

How did "little grandmaster" Vladimir Zak get started?

The beginning of Gata Kamsky's professional career was training at the Palace of Pioneers with the legendary coach Vladimir Zak. In constant training, he spent hundreds of games with one of the strongest chess players - Vladimir Shishkin. The talent of the young chess player was so obvious that Vladimir Zak called Gata "my little grandmaster" from the very first grade. As it turned out later, he was absolutely right. Gata Kamsky, a junior chess player, gradually and confidently conquered new heights. First, he won the youth championship of Spartak, then won a resounding victory over Mark Taimanov, which gave him the title of champion of the USSR among youths already at the age of 12. This circumstance also significantly influenced the Elo rating in the future.

Career development

Since then, the name of Kamsky has sounded in different parts of the vast country. Newspapers often compared him to Kasparov,he made such a strong impression on the general public. However, this does not mean that there is nowhere to strive further. Some time later, under the auspices of the Soviet Chess Federation, the famous match between Kamsky and Alexei Shirov took place.

The competition was very hot and long, because the wunderkind's opponent was much more experienced, but Gata Kamsky confidently won the confrontation already under the leadership of Gennady Nesis. This victory opened the way for the chess player to the youth world championship, in which he represented the USSR.

Moving to the United States of America

After a resounding victory on the world stage, Kamsky and his family received an offer from millionaire James Cain, which they could not refuse. In 1989, unexpectedly for the Soviet functionaries, they moved to live in the United States. However, this did not affect the genius of the great chess player in any way, on the contrary, once again Gata Kamsky was able to reach the heights of professionalism by winning the US Championship. With the new grandmaster title, he becomes the best of the best and qualify for the interzonal tournament. This was followed by a no less significant triumph: in 1990, Gata Kamsky won the super tournament in Tilburg, which brought him an honorable place among the world chess elite.

After these events, Gata's career continued no less significant. Many experts before the next tournament without a doubt bet on Kamsky. During the split of the chess world in 1993, he won again, playing in the national teamU. S. A. Then at the world team championship there was a meeting of two legends - Kamsky and the strongest Russian chess player Vladimir Kramnik. The next victory in the representative Najdorf memorial paved the way for Kamsky to the Candidates Matches according to FIDE and PCA.

Career Peak: Kamsky smashes Candidates Matches

The PCA qualifying round ended with the defeat of Vladimir Kramnik 4, 5: 1, 5 and Nigel Short 5, 5: 1, 5, who at that time was a recent contender for the award. It is quite logical that after a series of victories in the qualifying round, he decided to concede the match with Kasparov to the chess player Vishy Anand.

Participation in FIDE competitions turned out to be much brighter. Kamsky remained invincible in battles with Van der Sterren (4.5:2.5) and Valeria Salova (4.5:1.5). The same outcome was expected by Anand, who fought the legendary chess player in a tie-break.

Based on the results of Gata at the world championships, in particular the victory in Linares (1994), everyone immediately understood that the grandmaster was striving for the championship title, which at that time belonged to Anatoly Karpov.

Defeat in the legendary fight for the title of chess king

A few years later, in 1996, there was a tournament for the FIDE crown. The place for the fight was the largest city of Kalmykia - Elista. The match for the crown took place with a string of incidents. Given the rapidly developing computerization at that time, Karpov, being in his old age, achieved a game with delays. Between Kamsky's father andthe organizer broke out a serious conflict, which led to a fight with the subsequent knockout of Gata's second. The reason for this behavior of Gata's father was a reasonable suspicion of helping the Karpov camp by transmitting valuable information. The match ended with the defeat of Kamsky with a lag of only 3 points. The disappointed father showed distrust of the judging and said that the young contender was left without a crown completely unfairly. Now, on the instructions of his father, Gata Kamsky had to give up chess and start his studies at the university.

Reclusion and further destiny

For many years there was no news related to the name of Kamsky. For almost 10 years, the chess player did not appear in public. During this period, he managed to graduate from college, having received the speci alty of a chemist, and from the military medical academy, earning a law degree. After that, Kamsky opened his own firm, intending to become a lawyer. In a ten-year period, he managed to get married and find family happiness.

Kamsky's seclusion was interrupted for a short time: only once did he try to take a prize at the start of the 1999 FIDE knockout world championship, where he lost to the winner of the tournament Alexander Khalifman in the early stages. Despite this, Gata's aspirations did not completely fade and resurfaced in 2004 with his triumphant comeback. Having received a higher legal education at the University of Arizona, Kamsky was able to thoroughly prepare for the conquest of the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk (2005), which again opened the way for him to the contenders. Returning with new strength to Elista, he defeats Etienne Bacrot with a devastating score of 3.5: 0.5. But the fight with Boris Galfand, who still managed to stop the talented chess player, becomes an insurmountable obstacle to the title of world champion.

The return of the chess legend

Having gained invaluable experience, Kamsky reaches the peak of his career at the next World Cup. The grandiose return of the American ended in defeat for Adly, Avrukhe, Georkiev, Svidler, Ponomarev, Carles and Shirov. This series of victories brings him an honorary trophy. Then he again faced the strongest person in the world of chess - Veselin Topalov, which led to another defeat and, as a result, the impossibility of the desired duel with Anand.

Grandmaster: chess today

In 2011, he again took part in the Candidates matches, taking revenge on Topalov, but the next match against Gelfand ended in defeat again. At the moment, he is a multiple holder of the US champion title, the winner of a number of open-tournaments of the first magnitude and the repeated bronze medalist of the Olympiads. Behind him is the three-time possession of the Eurocup as part of Linex-Magic, Ural and Socar.

Kamsky recently moved to Russia. Now he runs the Kazan Chess School, which he himself founded. As a competition, he chose participation in club championships for Kazan's Ladya.