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Gata Kamsky

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Gata Kamsky
Full nameGataulla Rustemovich Kamsky
CountryUnited States
Born (1974-06-02) June 2, 1974 (age 50)
Novokuznetsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
TitleGrandmaster
FIDE rating2609 (December 2024)
(No. 13 in the September 2012 FIDE World Rankings)
Peak rating2756 (September 2011)

Gata Kamsky (Template:Lang-tt; Гата Камский, Гатаулла Рөстәм улы Сабиров; [Гатаулла Рустемович Сабиров, Гата Камский] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) (born June 2, 1974) is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster, and the current World Rapid Chess Champion.[1] As of May 2012, he was rated No. 2 in the United States and No. 14 in the world.[2]

Kamsky was a prodigy who reached the final of the FIDE World Chess Championship 1996 at the age of 22, and reached a ranking of fourth in the world rankings in 1996.[3] He played almost no FIDE-rated games between 1997 and late 2004.

Kamsky won the Chess World Cup 2007. This earned him a match against Veselin Topalov for the right to challenge for the World Chess Championship 2010, which he lost.[4] Kamsky played in the Candidates Tournament to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2012, where he advanced to the semifinals before losing to Boris Gelfand.

Early career

Kamsky was born in Novokuznetsk in Russia, in a Tatar family. Gata's last name, Kamsky, is derived from the stage nickname of his grandparents who were members of the Tatar traveling theater group. [citation needed] The family's "real" name is Sabirov.[citation needed]

He won the Soviet under-20 championship twice before 1989,[5][6] and at age 12, defeated veteran Grandmaster Mark Taimanov in a tournament game. At that time, he was possibly the youngest person to defeat a grandmaster. He also earned his National Master title in that year. In 1989 he moved to the United States with his father Röstäm (also spelled Rustam).

In 1990, while aged 16 and still untitled, he played in the 64-player Interzonal tournament, the first step towards the World Chess Championship. He finished with 5½ / 13.[7]

In 1990, FIDE awarded Kamsky the grandmaster title. In 1991, he won the U.S. Championship. Kamsky also did well at other prestigious chess tournaments, winning the Las Palmas tournament in 1994.

World Championship Candidate (1993-96)

In 1993, the rival organisations FIDE and PCA each held Interzonal tournaments. Kamsky played in both, and in both cases qualified for the respective Candidates Tournaments. The Candidates tournaments were largely dominated by Kamsky and Viswanathan Anand.

In the first round of the 1994-95 FIDE Candidates matches, Kamsky beat Paul van der Sterren (+3=3−1). Kamsky's quarter-final match against Anand, held in July and August 1994 in Sanghi Nagar, India, was more dramatic. After draws in the first two games, Anand won the next two games to take an imposing 3–1 lead. Game 5 was drawn. Kamsky then scored 2½–½ in the remaining three games to tie the match 4–4 (+2=4−2), then won the two rapid chess playoff games to win the match. In the semi-final, held in Sanghi Nagar in February 1995, Kamsky routed Valery Salov 5½–1½ (+4=3−0).

In the 1994-95 PCA Candidates matches, Kamsky beat Vladimir Kramnik in the quarter-finals in New York in June, 1994. In September, 1994 Kamsky beat Nigel Short in the semi-finals in Linares, Spain. In the March 1995 final against Anand in Las Palmas, the FIDE result was reversed, with Kamsky losing (+1=7−3).

In the September 1994 match against Short, there was a highly publicized confrontation between Kamsky's father, Rustam Kamsky, and Short.[8][9]

In 1996, Kamsky played a 20-game match against Anatoly Karpov for the FIDE World Chess Championship 1996 title at Elista in Kalmykia, losing 7½–10½ (+3=9−6).

Inactivity (1996–2004)

After losing the match to Karpov, Kamsky gave up chess. He graduated from Brooklyn College in 1999. Later he attended medical school for a year.[10] He then attended and graduated from law school at Touro Law Center in New York.

Kamsky's next rated games after his loss to Karpov were in 1999, when he returned to play in the FIDE Knockout World Championship event in Las Vegas, where he played a first-round, two-game match against the eventual tournament winner, Alexander Khalifman. Kamsky won the first game, lost the second game, and then lost the rapid play-off games.

Comeback (2004 onwards)

Kamsky disappeared from the world of chess for eight years, except for a two game match in 1999. The first sighting of Kamsky after that came in March 2004 when ChessBase reported that Sam Sloan had spoken to him.[11]

Kamsky did not play another game in public until June 15, 2004, when he participated in the 106th New York Masters,[12] playing four games in a day with a time control of 30 minutes for all his moves. His two wins and two draws were enough for him to tie for first place with four others. He subsequently played in several other editions of the weekly event with mixed success, before returning to regular chess in the 2005 U.S. Championship held in November–December 2004 where he scored a respectable but unspectacular 5½-3½. He was rated number 19 in the world on the April 2005 FIDE Elo rating list, at 2700. He retained this rating on the July 2005 list, but moved up to number 18, after a good unbeaten result at the 2005 HB Global Challenge tournament, held in Minneapolis in May, 2005.

He has since returned to international chess, most notably finishing second behind Veselin Topalov at the M-Tel Masters event. Soon after, Kamsky led the US team to the bronze medal at the 2006 Chess Olympiad in Turin. On July 4, 2006, he tied for first place with nine others at the Philadelphia World Open, then won the play-off, winning about $7,000. A number of successes in 2007 marked his return to the playing level he had before his retirement, hinting at the possibility of becoming again a challenger for the very top of the world's chess hierarchy.

Kamsky played in the FIDE Chess World Cup 2005, and qualified for the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2007, in May–June 2007. He won his first round match against Étienne Bacrot (+3-0=1), but was eliminated when he lost his second round match to Boris Gelfand +0-2=3.

In November–December 2007, Kamsky participated in the Chess World Cup 2007. Seeded 11th, he won his first three rounds and then defeated Peter Svidler, former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov and future world-number one Magnus Carlsen to reach the finals. In the final he defeated Alexei Shirov (+1-0=3) to win the title, shocking many in the chess world.

Kamsky's victory earned him a match against world number-one Veselin Topalov in 2009 for the right to challenge for the World Chess Championship 2010 against world champion Viswanathan Anand. The match was held in Sofia, Bulgaria, in February 2009. Although Kamsky won game four to level the match 2-2, Topalov scored +2 in the final 3 games (including an exciting last round victory on the White side of the French Defense) to win the match 4½ - 2½.

Kamsky played board one for the United States in the 2008 Chess Olympiad, held in Dresden, Germany in November. The U.S. team captured the bronze medals.

Kamsky participated in the Chess World Cup 2009 but was upset in the third round by Wesley So.

In January 2010 Kamsky won the 52nd Reggio Emilia chess tournament (he came equal first with Zoltán Almási, defeating him in the last round, but had a better Buchholz tiebreak).[13] In May 2010 he tied for 1st-3rd with Vladimir Kramnik and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the President's Cup in Baku.[14]

In May 2010, Kamsky participated in the 2010 U.S. Championship, where he was seeded second behind defending champion Hikaru Nakamura. He scored 5/7 to qualify for the round-robin stage against Nakamura, 2006 champion Alexander Onischuk, and 2008 champion Yuri Shulman. In the round-robin stage, he drew Nakamura with black and then defeated Onischuk on the White side of the Ruy Lopez. He became U.S. Champion on May 25, 2010, after winning a rapid playoff game with second place finisher Yury Shulman. This championship, Kamsky's second, came 19 years after he won his first U.S. championship.

In August 2010, Kamsky won clear first at the World Rapid Chess Championship (Mainz Chess Classic), a Rapid Chess tournament with 10/11, defeating world No. 5 and defending champion Levon Aronian, 2004 FIDE champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov, and Sergey Karjakin en route to the title ahead of Grischuk, Shirov and several other strong Grandmasters.[1]

From August 23 through August 31, Kamsky participated in the Baku Open in Azerbaijan, where he was the top seed. He won his final three games to clinch clear first with 7½/9.[15]

From April 13 through April 18, 2011, Kamsky participated in the United States Championship, where he was the top seed. He won the tournament for the second consecutive year, becoming the first player since Lev Alburt in 1985 to win consecutive U.S. Championships; the title was his third career United States Championship.

As a finalist of the 2010 world championship cycle, Kamsky was given direct entry to the eight player Candidates Tournament to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2012. The candidates tournament began with best-of-four game match format in May 2011 in Kazan, with Kamsky facing Veselin Topalov in the quarterfinals.[16] With a win on the Black side of the Gruenfeld defense in the second game, Kamsky held on to defeat the top-seeded Topalov 2.5-1.5 to advance to the semifinals.[17][18] In the semifinals, he faced the 2009 Chess World Cup champion Boris Gelfand in a rematch of their 2007 Candidates tournament meeting won by Gelfand. After four games, the match was tied at 2-2, with rapid tiebreaks to decide the winner on May 16. In the rapid tiebreaks, Kamsky won game 3 with black to take a 2-1 lead and needed only a draw with white in the final rapid game to advance to the final. However, Gelfand won with black to force a blitz playoff, which he won 2-0 to eliminate Kamsky and reach the Candidates final.

Notable tournament victories

  • Buffalo Open 1989
  • Tilburg 1990
  • U.S. Championship, 1991
  • Philadelphia 1991
  • Buenos Aires 1993
  • Las Palmas 1994
  • Dos Hermanas 1995
  • New York 2006
  • Philadelphia 2006
  • Mashantucket 2007
  • Khanty-Mansiysk 2007 World Cup
  • Las Vegas 2008 Open
  • Reggio Emilia 2010
  • U.S. Championship, 2010
  • Rapid World Championship, Mainz 2010[19]
  • Baku Open, 2010
  • U.S. Championship, 2011
  • Philadelphia 2011

World championship matches and qualifiers

  • FIDE WCC Candidates Match 1994, Wijk aan Zee, Kamsky-van der Sterren (4½-2½)
  • FIDE WCC Candidates Match 1994, Sanghi Nagar, Kamsky-Anand (6-4)
  • PCA WCC Candidates Match 1994, New York, Kamsky-Kramnik (4½-1½)
  • PCA WCC Candidates Match 1994, Linares, Kamsky-Short (5½-1½)
  • FIDE WCC Candidates Match 1995, Sanghi Nagar, Kamsky-Salov (5½-1½)
  • PCA WCC Candidates Match 1995, Las Palmas, Kamsky-Anand (4½-6½)
  • FIDE World Chess Championship 1996, Elista, Kamsky-Karpov (7½-10½)
  • FIDE WCC Knockout 1999 Second Round, Las Vegas, Kamsky-Khalifman (1½-2½)
  • WCC Candidates Match 2007 Round 1, Elista, Kamsky-Bacrot (3½-½)
  • WCC Candidates Match 2007 Round 2, Elista, Kamsky-Gelfand (1½-3½)
  • Chess World Cup 2007 Quarterfinals, Khanty-Mansiysk, Kamsky-Ponomariov (1½-0½)
  • Chess World Cup 2007 Semifinals, Khanty-Mansiysk, Kamsky-Carlsen (1½-0½)
  • Chess World Cup 2007 Championship Match, Khanty-Mansiysk, Kamsky-Shirov (2½-1½)
  • WCC Candidates Match 2009, Sofia, Kamsky-Topalov (2½-4½)
  • WCC Candidates Match 2011 Quarterfinals, Kazan, Kamsky-Topalov (2½-1½)
  • WCC Candidates Match 2011 Semifinals, Kazan, Kamsky-Gelfand [2-2 (2-4)]

Illustrative game

This section uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

Here Kamsky, as Black, crushes future World Champion Kramnik en route to winning their 1994 Candidates match:

Kramnik-Kamsky, World Championship Quarter-Finals Match, New York 1994

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.g3 O-O 5.Bg2 c5 6.O-O Nc6 7.d4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Qe7 9.Nc2 (White allows Black to ruin his pawn structure, and soon sacrifices one of his weak c-pawns. He hopes that his two bishops will give him sufficient compensation, but will find that he is unable to use them effectively.) Bxc3 10.bxc3 Rd8 11.Ba3 d6 12.Rb1 Qc7 13.Nd4 Nxd4 14.cxd4 Qxc4 15.Qd2 Qa6 16.Rb3 Rb8 17.e4 Bd7 18.Rf3 (trying to get play on the king-side, but Kamsky's pieces now overrun the queen-side) Ba4! (disdaining 18...Nxe4 19.Qf4 f5 20.g4 opening lines for White's pieces) 19.Re1 Rbc8 20.Bf1 Bb5 21.Bh3 Qa4 22.d5 Rc2 23.Qe3? exd5 (White is in deep trouble. If now 24.exd5? Re8 wins) 24.e5 d4! 25.Qg5 Re2! (Exploiting White's weak back rank. Now White sacrifices material for a fearsome-looking attack against g7, but Kamsky has calculated exactly.) 26.exf6 Rxe1+ 27.Bf1 (27.Kg2? Bf1+ 28.Kg1 Bxh3#) Rxf1+ 28.Kg2 Rg1+! 29.Kh3 (29.Kxg1? Qd1+ 30.Kg2 Qf1#) Bd7+ 30.Kh4 g6 31.Qh6 d3+ 32.Rf4 (32.Kg5? Qg4#) Qxf4+! 33.Qxf4 (33.gxf4 Rg4+ 34.Kh3 Rg5+! 35.Kh4 Rh5+ wins the queen) Rh1! 34.g4 h6! (Now White's attack is over and Black's pawns join in attacking White's king, threatening ...g5+.) 35.Kh3 (35.Qxh6? Rxh2+) g5! 36.Qd4 Rg1 37.f3 d2! 38.Qxd2 (38.Qxg1 Ba4 and Black queens) Bb5! 0-1 (39...Bf1+ will win White's queen)

References

  1. ^ a b "Chess Classic Mainz – Kamsky wins with 10/11 points". Chessbase.com. 2010-08-08. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  2. ^ "FIDE Online. FIDE Top players - Top 100 Players May 2012". Ratings.fide.com. Retrieved 2012-5-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  3. ^ "FIDE Rankings 1970-1997". Chess.eusa.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  4. ^ "World Chess Challenge Sofia 2009 - Veselin Topalov vs Gata Kamsky". World Chess Challenge 2009
  5. ^ "36th USSR Junior Chess Championship, Kapsukas, January 5–18, 1987". RusBase. Retrieved 2009-07-31.
  6. ^ "37th USSR Junior Chess Championship, Ivano-Frankovsk, January 5–18, 1988". Retrieved 2009-07-31.
  7. ^ 1990 Interzonal, Mark Weeks' Chess Pages
  8. ^ PCA Candidates Report, The Week in Chess, Issue 3, 1 Oct 1994
  9. ^ Kamsky-Short, 1994/2006, The Daily Dirt Chess Blog, Mig Greengard, 10 Oct 2006. Includes a posted response by Gata Kamsky
  10. ^ Dylan Loeb McClain, A Chess Master Returns Older, and Maybe Wiser A Chess Master Returns Older, and Maybe Wiser, New York Times, January 27, 2008 [1].
  11. ^ "Chess News - Gata Kamsky for President of FIDE?!". ChessBase.com. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  12. ^ [2] 106th New York Masters Crosstable
  13. ^ Crowther, Mark (2010-01-06). "52nd Reggio Emilia 2009-10 The Week in Chess". Chess.co.uk. Retrieved 6 July 2011.
  14. ^ "Kramnik wins President's Cup Baku on tiebreak". ChessBase. 2010-02-05. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
  15. ^ Mark Crowther - Monday 6th September 2010 (2010-09-06). "Baku Open 2010". Chess.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-10-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  16. ^ By mishanp on August 21, 2010 (2010-08-21). "Kamsky on the Candidates Matches". Chessintranslation.com. Retrieved 2011-10-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ "FIDE Candidates: Caruana annotates game two". Chessbase.com. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  18. ^ "FIDE Candidates Rd1: From Topa to bottom". Chessbase.com. 2011-05-27. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  19. ^ "Kamsky Wins In Mainz". Chess.com. 2010-08-08. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
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Achievements
Preceded by World Rapid Chess Champion
2010 		Succeeded by
Preceded by United States Chess Champion
1991 		Succeeded by
Preceded by United States Chess Champion
2010–2011 		Succeeded by

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