Garry Kasparov was elected in January 2004 as the Chairman of the "Committee 2008 - Free Russia". The Committee consists of politicians, journalists and academics who have come together to work for a fully democratic Russia. In 2005, he announced his retirement from active competitive chess. He continues with his business interests, chess simuls, charities, books & speeches. Kasparov was born in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, then part of the USSR. He started playing chess at five and by the age of seven, he was a child chess prodigy. At nine, he had already won a semifinal of a 'blitz' championship for adults in Baku. He became the youngest player in history to win the Soviet Junior Championship (under 18), first when he was 12 years of age and again at age 13. In 1979 he celebrated his 16th birthday and for the first time, entered a foreign adult tournament. Garry finished first ahead of fourteen Grandmasters. Kasparov achieved Grandmaster status at age 17. At 21, he was the youngest player in chess history to compete in a World Championship final match. At 22, he became the youngest ever World Chess Champion when he beat Anatoli Karpov. This made him the 13th World Champion and he had already become the number one ranked player in the world. Kasparov created two milestones in chess history. First, he moved past Bobby Fischer's best ever point rating of 2785 and then in Nov 1989 in Belgrade broke the magical 2800 ELO ratings point sound barrier. He was the first player in Chess history to do so. It was the chess equivalent of breaking the four-minute mile. In Nov 1999, after winning the three major events of that year, he created a new milestone by achieving an ELO rating of 2851, the only player in the history of chess to pass the 2850 level. From December 1981 to February 1991, Kasparov made chess history by not losing a single official event for ten years. This was the period in which he created the reputation of invincibility. Titles All you have to do is find the courage to make up your mind Strategy for Decoding the Complexity of Life Making Use of Strategic Thinking in Business & Politics Logical Thinking Limit of Endurance Achieving Your Potential Leaders vs Managers Success is in the Mind Strategy & Tactics Strategy of the Future Topics Celebrity, Leadership, Management, Motivation, Business, Politics/patriotism, Global Business Click topic above to see more speakers on that topic Speaker's Asking Fee Range Please call us. Click on fee range to see more speakers. This is the starting keynote fee range - other programs may be higher. State RUSSIA Click on state above to see more speakers from that state. Fees The fee range quoted means the speaker's fee starts somewhere within that range. Note that speaker's fees are subject to change and some speakers may have special fee quotes.