Chess player Gata Kamsky: biography, career

Gata Kamsky is a living legend of the world chess elite. Despite the fact that he could not get the desired FIDE crown, on the way to the heights of the career, Kamsky earned a number of honorary titles and achievements, most of them at an early age. Elo's rating also does not give an opportunity to minimize his services. Talent Kamsky was recognized in all the republics of the USSR and, after some time, in the United States of America.

Gata Kamsky: Biography

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

Leaving the city of Novokuznetsk, his family settled in Kazan for a short while, where the young genius of chess art began to comprehend. After some time they moved to Leningrad. Studying at a local school was given to Gata not easily, as he studied with children two years older. This did not prevent him from winning the respect and trusting attitude of his classmates, for the boy had a good-natured disposition and was very simple in dealing with peers, even though he already had a very respectable position for his age at that time. The pseudonym Kamsky Gata Rustemovich Sabirov took from his grandfather, who stood at the sources of the Drama Theater of Tatarstan. For the first time he became famous under this name in the city on the Neva.

How did the "little grandmaster" Vladimir Zak begin?

The beginning of the professional career of Gata Kamsky was training in the Palace of Pioneers from 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 already from the first rank called Gata "my little grandmaster". As it turned out later, he was absolutely right. Gata Kamsky is a junior chess player, gradually and confidently conquering new heights. First he won in the youth championship of "Spartacus", then won a loud victory over Mark Taymanov, which gave him the title of champion of the USSR among young men at the age of 12. This circumstance also significantly influenced the Elo rating in the future.

Career development

Since then, the name Kamsky 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 by no means meant that there was nowhere else to go on. After some time, under the aegis of the Soviet Chess Federation, the famous match between Kamsky and Alexei Shirov took place.

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

Moving to the United States of America

After a great victory in the world arena, Kamsky and his family received an offer from the millionaire James Kane, whom 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, on the contrary, once again Gata Kamsky was able to reach the heights of professionalism by winning the US championship. With the new title of grandmaster, he becomes the best of the best and passes the selection to the interzonal tournament. Then follows a no less significant triumph: in 1990 Gata Kamsky won a super tournament in Tilburg, which earned 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 no doubt made a bet on Kamsky. During the split of the chess world in 1993, he again won, playing in the United States national team. Then at the team championship of the world there was a meeting of two legends - Kama and the strongest Russian chess player Vladimir Kramnik. The next victory at the Najdorf representative's memorial paved Kamsky with a straight path to the candidate matches according to the version of FIDE and the PCA.

Peak career: Kamsky defeated the Candidates matches

The qualifying stage of the PSU ended in a defeat of Vladimir Kramnik 4.5: 1.5 and Nigel Short 5.5: 1.5, which 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 give the match to Kasparov chess player Vichy Anand.

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

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

Defeat in the legendary battle for the title of chess king

A few years later, in 1996, the tournament for the FIDE crown was held. The largest city of Kalmykia - Elista - became the place for the fight. The match for the crown occurred with a succession of incidents. Given the rapidly developing computerization at that time, Karpov, being in his old age, achieved a game with postponing. Between Kamsky's father and the organizer, a serious conflict broke out, which led to a fight followed by a second knockout of Gata. The reason for this behavior of Father Gata was the unfounded suspicion of helping Karpov's camp by sending valuable information. The match ended with the defeat of Kamsky with a backlog of just 3 points. Frustrated father showed disbelief in refereeing and said that the young challenger was left without a crown is completely unfair. Now, on the instructions of his father, Gata Kamsky had to quit chess and start studying at the university.

Recluse and further destiny

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

The seclusion of Kamsky was interrupted briefly: only once he tried to take the prize at the start of the FIDE knockout championship of 1999, where he already lost to the tournament winner Alexander Khalifman in the early stages. Despite this, Gata's aspirations were not completely extinguished and reappeared in 2004, when his triumphant return took place. After receiving a law degree 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 his way to the contenders. Returning with new strength in Elista, he defeated Etienne Bacrot with a crushing score of 3.5: 0.5. But an insurmountable obstacle to the title of world champion is a fight with Boris Galfand, who still managed to stop the talented chess player.

Return of chess legend

Having received an 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, Avruhe, Georgiev, Svidler, Ponomarev, Carles and Shirov. This series of victories brings him an honorable trophy. Then he again encounters the strongest chess player in the world of chess - Veselin Topalov, which led to another defeat and, as a result, the impossibility of a desired duel with Anand.

Grandmaster: chess these days

In 2011, he again took part in the pretending matches, taking revenge from Topalov, but the next match against Gelfand was once again a defeat. At the moment he is the multiple owner of the title of the champion of the USA, the winner of a number of open-ended tournaments of the first magnitude and the repeated bronze medalist of the Olympiads. Behind him, the three-time possession of the Eurocup in the "Linex-Magic", "Ural" and "Sokar".

Kamsky recently moved to Russia. Now he leads the Kazan Chess School, which he himself founded. As a competition, he chose to participate in club competitions for the Kazan Ladoy.