Gata Kamsky

Full name:
Gata Rustemovich Kamsky
Country :
United States
Born :
June 2, 1974 Novokuznetsk, Russia
Title:
Grandmaster
Rating :
2705(No. 19 on the April 2007 FIDE ratings list)
Peak rating:
2745 (July 1996)

Gata Kamsky is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster.
He was the third highest-rated player in the world in 1996.
He is rated 2705 in the April 2007 FIDE list, ranking him 19th in the world.
Kamsky is a Crimean Tatar, born in Siberia.

He won the Soviet under-20 championship twice before 1989.
In 1989 he moved to the United States with his father Rustam
In 1990, FIDE awarded Kamsky the grandmaster title.
In 1991, he won the U.S. Championship.
He was widely regarded as Judit Polgár's main rival as the most promising chess prodigy.
In 1993-96, Kamsky competed simultaneously in both the PCA and FIDE Candidates matches for the world championship.

In the PCA matches, he 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 March, 1995, Kamsky lost to Viswanathan Anand (+1–3=7) in the finals in Las Palmas.
In 1996, Kamsky played a 20-game match against Anatoly Karpov for the FIDE World Chess Championship title at Elista in Kalmykia. Kamsky lost 7.5-10.5 (+3-6=9), the last two games being mathematically irrelevant to the outcome of the match.

After losing the match to Karpov, Kamsky gave up chess. He graduated from Brooklyn College in 1999. He then attended medical school, but left after one year. He then attended and graduated from law school.

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 two-game match against Alexander Khalifman. Kamsky won the first game, lost the second game, and then lost the rapid play-off games.

Kamsky did not play another game in public until June 15, 2004, when he participated in the 106th New York Masters, 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 be one of five players tied for first place.

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 International Chess Olympiad at Turin. On July 4, 2006, he tied for first place with nine others at the World Open.