RUSSIAN CHESS CHAMPION GARRY KASPAROV’S FIRST BOOK, SIGNED BY HIM

KASPAROV, Garry. ?????????? ??????? [The Test of Time]. Baku: ????????, 1985. Octavo, original brown leatherette, photographic endpapers. $450.

First edition of the Russian chess champion’s first book, a combination of game analysis and autobiography, signed by Kasparov in Cyrillic on the half title and dated 12/03/2006.

Chess prodigy Kasparov was tapped by the Soviet Union at an early age: “At the age of 12, much the youngest competitor, Kasparov won the USSR junior (under 18) championship, undefeated, and repeated the success the following year, this time conceding only a single draw” (Hooper & Whyld, 193). “When Kasparov was six, he shocked his family by solving a difficult endgame puzzle from the newspaper. ‘Since Garry knows how the game ends,’ his father remarked, ‘we ought to teach him how it begins.’ Sixteen years and many thousands of training hours later, Kasparov became the youngest-ever world chess champion at 22. His greatness was also enduring. Kasparov held the world championship from 1985 to 2000, and even after losing the title he retained the highest ranking in the world. Perhaps more significantly, as he neared middle age at the dawn of the 21st century, Kasparov was one of the few human beings left who could effectively compete with the top chess computers” (Shenk, 205). Kasparov’s achievements in the field of chess are many: “In 1976, he was the strongest player in the world under age 13. He became a grandmaster at 17, the youngest Soviet champion at 18 and the youngest world champion at 22 years, 210 days. In his first international tournament, Baku 1979, he exceeded the Grandmaster norm and took first place as an unrated player… He became the World Junior Champion in 1980 and co-champion of the USSR in 1981… In May, 1997 he lost a match with the chess computer DEEP BLUE. In 1993 he broke away from FIDE and defeated Nigel Short for the PCA World Championship. In 2000 he lost his title to Vladimir Kramnik in the Braingames World Chess Championship, but continues to be the highest rated chess player in the world. He has been the world’s #1 rated player since 1984. From 1981 to 1991 he did not lose a single chess event. He successfully defended his world chess championship title more times than any champion. From 1981 to 1990, Kasparov won 15 straight tournaments in a row. After winning Linares (but losing his last game to Topalov) in 2005, he announced his retirement from chess on March 10, 2005” (Bill Wall, Off the Wall). This, his first book, offers analysis of 21 of Kasparov’s matches. With chess diagrams and black-and-white photographs. In Russian.

Light damp staining to top edge of text block. Very good condition.