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50 free Garry Kasparov trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Garry Kasparov trivia for anyone who followed the most dominant chess player of the late twentieth century. Born Garik Weinstein in Baku, named after Harry Truman, and anointed by Botvinnik at eleven, he lost the first four games of his 1984 title match against Anatoly Karpov, survived a five-month marathon that FIDE abandoned, and a year later became the youngest undisputed world champion at 22. This quiz covers the five Karpov matches and their 144 games, the break with FIDE and the Professional Chess Association, the losses to Deep Blue in 1997 and Vladimir Kramnik's Berlin Defence in 2000, the record 2851 rating and 255 months at number one, the game against 50,000 internet players, the Immortal against Topalov, his 2005 retirement after a ninth Linares, coaching Magnus Carlsen, and the second act as a writer and opponent of Vladimir Putin who now holds Croatian citizenship. Easy questions suit anyone who has heard of Deep Blue; the expert tier is for people who can name his seconds. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Kasparov and his matches, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question.
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Q 01In which city was Garry Kasparov born in 1963?
Baku
Then in the Azerbaijan SSR; his family fled anti-Armenian pogroms there in January 1990.
Q 02What was Kasparov's surname at birth?
Weinstein
At twelve he adopted his Armenian mother's surname, Kasparov, after his Jewish father died of leukaemia.
Q 03According to Kasparov, after which US president was he named?
Harry S. Truman
His father admired Truman's stand against communism; the name was rare in Russia 'until Harry Potter came along'.
Q 04Which former world champion ran the chess school Kasparov joined at ten and hailed him as the future of chess?
Mikhail Botvinnik
Kasparov's coach there, Vladimir Makogonov, taught him the Caro-Kann and the Tartakower Queen's Gambit.
Q 05In which year did Kasparov become world champion?
1985
He beat Anatoly Karpov 13–11 in Moscow on 9 November, winning the final game with the Sicilian Defence.
Q 06How old was Kasparov when he became the youngest undisputed world champion?
22
He broke Mikhail Tal's record of over 20 years' standing and held it himself until 2024.
Q 07Whom did Kasparov defeat for the title, and then face in three further title matches?
Anatoly Karpov
Their five matches produced 144 games: 21 Kasparov wins, 19 losses and 104 draws.
Q 08What was unprecedented about the 1984–85 world championship match?
It was abandoned without a result
FIDE president Florencio Campomanes ended it after 48 games and five months, citing the players' health, with Karpov leading 5–3.
Q 09How many games had been played when the 1984–85 match was called off?
48
The previous record for a title match was 34 games, Capablanca versus Alekhine in 1927.
Q 10What was the score after nine games of the 1984 match, before the long run of draws began?
4–0 to Karpov
The format was first to six wins; seventeen straight draws followed, and Kasparov did not win a game until game 32.
Q 11Who, as head of FIDE, terminated the 1984–85 match?
Florencio Campomanes
Some authors have alleged he was a KGB asset tasked with preventing Karpov's defeat; Kasparov later declared 'war to the death' on him.
Q 12Which game of the 1985 match, won by Kasparov with Black, was voted the best of Chess Informant's first 64 issues?
The 16th
Its 'octopus knight' on d3 dominated all three of White's major pieces.
Q 13The 1986 rematch was split between which two cities?
London and Leningrad
Kasparov sacked his second Evgeny Vladimirov mid-match, accusing him of selling opening preparation to Karpov's team.
Q 21What did Kasparov accuse IBM of after the 1997 match?
Cheating with human intervention in a game
He alleged a grandmaster was behind a certain move; IBM declined a rematch and the machine was later reported (wrongly) to have been dismantled.
Q 22How many positions per second could IBM's 1997 chess machine evaluate?
About 200 million
It began life at Carnegie Mellon in 1985 as ChipTest and was renamed Deep Thought before becoming Deep Blue in 1989.
Q 23What was the title of the documentary about the 1997 IBM rematch?
Q 14Kasparov kept his title in Seville in 1987 by winning the final game to level the match at what score?
12–12
Karpov blundered a pawn just before the time control, and Kasparov ground out the ending; a drawn match kept the title with the champion.
Q 15In 1993 Kasparov broke with FIDE and played Nigel Short under which new organisation?
The Professional Chess Association
He later called the split the worst mistake of his career; the title stayed divided for 13 years.
Q 16Whom did Kasparov defend his PCA title against at the World Trade Center in 1995?
Viswanathan Anand
He won four games to one with thirteen draws; fifteen years later he secretly helped Anand prepare to beat Topalov.
Q 17Which former pupil took Kasparov's classical world title in 2000?
Vladimir Kramnik
Kramnik had studied at the Botvinnik/Kasparov school and served on Kasparov's team against Anand in 1995.
Q 18Which opening did Kramnik use with Black to neutralise Kasparov's White in the 2000 match?
The Berlin Defence in the Ruy Lopez
Kasparov could not crack the passive but solid line and drew all his games with White.
Q 19Which IBM computer beat Kasparov in 1997, the first machine to defeat a reigning champion in a match?
Deep Blue
Kasparov had won the first match in Philadelphia in 1996 by 4–2; the New York rematch went 3½–2½ to the machine.
Q 20What was the score of the first match against the IBM machine, in Philadelphia in 1996?
4–2 to the human
The machine did win the opening game, the first computer win against a reigning champion under regular time controls.
Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine
IBM's winning share of the $700,000 prize went back to the company; Carnegie Mellon added a $100,000 prize.
Q 24On 22 October 1989 Kasparov beat which computer 2–0, eight years before his famous defeat?
Deep Thought
Deep Thought was the direct ancestor of Deep Blue; in 1985 he had beaten 32 computers at once in Hamburg.
Q 25Kasparov drew a 2003 match against which program, using a virtual board and 3D glasses?
X3D Fritz
He won $175,000 and a golden trophy but regretted a blunder in game two.
Q 26In 'Kasparov versus the World' in 1999, roughly how many people voted on the moves against him?
More than 50,000
Hosted by the MSN Gaming Zone, it lasted 62 moves over four months, and Kasparov called it the greatest game in chess history.
Q 27Which teenage US women's champion was among the four young players advising the World team in 1999?
Irina Krush
The others were Étienne Bacrot, Florin Felecan and Elisabeth Paehtz; GM Daniel King moderated.
Q 28Kasparov's 'Immortal' game of 1999 was played against whom?
Veselin Topalov
Played at Wijk aan Zee, it opened with a Pirc Defence, and Chess.com has ranked it the greatest game ever.
Q 29What peak FIDE rating did Kasparov reach in 1999?
2851
It stood as the highest ever until Magnus Carlsen passed it in 2013.
Q 30For how many months in total was Kasparov ranked world number one?
255
He first reached the top in January 1984 at 20, then the youngest ever, a record Kramnik broke in 1996.