It wasn’t until 2020, that the two would meet again on the board in competition. In the second game, Kasparov overwhelmed the boy when he took control of white. In the first game, with Carlsen on white, Kasparov was lucky to escape with a draw – Carlsen was floundering for time but had a far superior position. The first time was during a rapid chess tournament in Iceland. This is because Kasparov retired in 2005 and Carlsen was just 14 when he left the game. In fact, as far as we are aware it’s only happened twice. Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov have rarely played against each other. How Do They Do When Playing Head-To-Head? Some think that Carlsen will break the 2900 threshold which, at one point, was believed to be an impossible achievement. This is the highest rating in history and exceeds the rating of Kasparov by 31. His peak ELO rating is the rating that he holds today of 2882. He has held the title ever since and is, in fact, also the World Rapid Chess Champion and the World Blitz Chess Champion too. However, it’s worth noting that Magnus Carlsen was also 22 when he beat Vishy Anand, the then world champion, to claim the World Chess Championship for the first time. In short, he got to all these milestones faster than Kasparov did. He broke the ELO rating level of 2800 at just 18! He slipped into the world number one position at the age of 19. He grabbed his Grandmaster laurels at the tender age of 13. Kasparov retired in 2005 and was still considered to be the best player in the world, even though he was no longer world champion, by everyone in the game.Ĭarlsen is the product of his own chess machine and it’s an impressive one. His peak ELO rating was 2851 which is the second highest rating in history. Kasparov lost two games as black, the only two losses of the match and that was enough to see him dethroned. Then from 1985-2000 Kasparov remained world champion against every contender until he finally found himself deposed by Vladimir Kramnik. However, he didn’t win the World Championship until the next year when, after qualifying in the candidate’s matches, he beat Anatoly Karpov (who had been champion since the day that Bobby Fischer had failed to show up for their world championship play off).
He was a product of the Russian chess machine, its last and probably greatest product too, and he would become the best ranked player in the world at the age of 21 after performing superbly in an array of tournaments. So, to cut a very long and interesting story short – Kasparov qualified as a grandmaster back in 1980, he was just 17 at the time.
Carlsen: Who is the best chess player ever? –