Publisher: Chessbase, 2012, DVD
Garry Kasparov is the best player in the history of chess. His rise to the top was meteoric and at his very first attempt he managed to become World Champion – if one does not count the aborted title match of 1984 as a failure. He is the youngest World Champion of all times. From 1985 to 2000 Kasparov kept the title – for 15 years – defending it against Anatoly Karpov, Nigel Short, and Viswanathan Anand, until he finally lost it to Vladimir Kramnik. But even as an ex-champion Kasparov dominated the international chess scene and was first on the FIDE ranking list until he retired from competitive chess in 2005. In October 2012, when this DVD was recorded, his record rating of 2851 is still unsurpassed.
Kasparov divides his career into three phases: his rise to the top (1973 to 1985), the time as World Champion (1985 to 1993), and the time from the break-up with the World Chess Federation until his withdrawal from tournament chess (1993 to 2005). On this DVD Garry Kasparov deals with the first phase. He recounts how he made it to the top in the years 1973 to 1985 and shows the key games which helped him become the world’s best player. His model for selecting the games is Bobby Fischer and his book "My 60 Memorable Games" – like Fischer, Kasparov does not only select games he had won.
This DVD – containing 16 chapters and running for more than six hours – gives you an opportunity to follow the development of the best player in the history of chess, all told and explained by the champion himself. You get a first-hand account of crucial events from recent chess history, while at the same time you can improve your chess understanding and enjoy explanations and comments from a unique and outstanding personality on and off the chess board.
Video running time: 5 hours 43 min. (in English)
Video 1: The "Weinstein"-era Kasparov shows early games, which he played under the name Weinstein. [45 min]
Video 2: Junior tournaments Various successes in junior tournaments, qualifying for the U-16 World Junior Championships. [30 min]
Video 3: Master tournaments First steps and success in non-junior tournaments, e.g. Daugavpils 1978. [39 min]
Video 4: Kasparov’s first USSR-Championship Kasparov plays his first Soviet Championship and afterwards wins the tournament in Banja Luka as unrated player. [26 min]
Video 5: World Junior Championship and the first Chess Olympiad Winning the World Junior Championship in Dortmund 1980 and playing his first Chess Olympiad in Malta. [19 min]
Video 6: First games against Karpov Team tournament in Moscow, in which Kasparov played his first games against Karpov. [16 min]
Video 7: Tilburg 1981 Landing in the middle of the field in his first super tournament in Tilburg 1981. [15 min]
Video 8: USSR-Championship in Frunze 1981 Kasparov finishes second in the USSR-Championship in Frunze 1981. [23 min]
Video 9: Bugojno 1982 Convincing victory at the tournament in Bugojno 1982. [8 min]
Video 10: Interzonal tournament Moscow Winning the Interzonal tournament in Moscow and qualifying for the candidates matches, Chess Olympiad Lucerne. [20 min]
Video 11: Candidates quarter-final against Beliavsky Winning against Beliavsky in the candidates quarter-final in Moscow 1983. [18 min]
Video 12: Chess politics and the tournament in Niksic Kasparov reports how he was eliminated from the candidates without making a single move. [19 min]
Video 13: Candidates semi-final against Korchnoi in London After the candidates semifinal finally came to pass after all Kasparov won after a hard struggle. [13 min]
Video 14: Candidates final against Smyslov The candidates final against Smyslov was not as clear-cut as the result suggests. [11 min]
Video 15: USSR against the Rest of the World, London 1985 In the match USSR against the Rest of the World Kasparov won against Timman. [10 min]
Video 16: The aborted match against Karpov Kasparov briefly talks about the circumstances of the aborted match against Karpov, Moscow 1985, and shows key games. [31 min]
System requirements: Pentium-Processor at 300 Mhz or higher, 64 MB RAM, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, DVD drive, mouse, soundcard
