Return Of The Prodigy

In what was one of the biggest stories in chess for the year 2006,Grand Master Gata Kamsky returned to the chess fold after a prolonged hibernation in the field of Medicine.

The Russian-American GM, Kamsky, returned to professional chess after almost ten years of absence. Born on the 2 of June,1974,at the cold Siberian town of Novokusnetsk, he grew up with his father Rustam, an ex-boxer who could not support himself on his sport, but now saw the possibility of becoming rich at the cost of the talent of his son. His Violent methods forced his wife to run away, making Kamsky a child without a mother. He was a young prodigy, who by the age of just 2 years knew to read and to write, and later would show to the world his great talent for music and chess, his greatest passion. At the age of 14 he moved with his father to the United States of America and became a US citizen. He rapidly progressed in the field of chess and at the tender age of 15 became a Grand Master.


Making rapid strides he became the best player of the United States and even occupied a place in the select group of the Top Ten Grand Masters of the world. At the age of 20 he already began to play the Candidates tournament to challenge for the world-wide title, and in 1996 he made it to the last round where he lost to the Russian GM and former world championAnatoly Karpov. Then he took the drastic decision to retire from chess to pursue a career in Medicine, when he was just 22. His father obviously wasn't happy with this decision and led to an estrangement between them.

So after 10 years he returned to his passion, Chess. His first comeback tournament was the Wijk aan Zee (corus) tournament where he created quite a few scares, particularly giving a very hard time to Vishy Anand, his old sparring partner. He played a few extra ordinary games showing why he was rated as one of the most promising and frightening players of the 1990's, before finishing the tournament in 13th place.

His most notable performance since his return has been to finish 2nd behind Veselin topalove 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, winning about $7000.



Kramnik-Kamsky, World Championship Quarter-Finals Match, New York 1994 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.g3 O-O 5.Bg2 c5 6.O-O Nc6 7.d4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Qe7 9.Nc2 (White allows Black to ruin his pawn structure, and soon sacrifices one of his weak c-pawns. He hopes that his two bishops will give him sufficient compensation, but will find that he is unable to use them effectively.) Bxc3 10.bxc3 Rd8 11.Ba3 d6 12.Rb1 Qc7 13.Nd4 Nxd4 14.cxd4 Qxc4 15.Qd2 Qa6 16.Rb3 Rb8 17.e4 Bd7 18.Rf3 (trying to get play on the king-side, but Kamsky's pieces now overrun the queen-side) Ba4! (disdaining 18...Nxe4 19.Qf4 f5 20.g4 opening lines for White's pieces) 19.Re1 Rbc8 20.Bf1 Bb5 21.Bh3 Qa4 22.d5 Rc2 23.Qe3? exd5 (White is in deep trouble. If now 24.exd5? Re8 wins) 24.e5 d4! 25.Qg5 Re2! (Exploiting White's weak back rank. Now White sacrifices material for a fearsome-looking attack against g7, but Kamsky has calculated exactly.) 26.exf6 Rxe1+ 27.Bf1 (27.Kg2? Bf1+ 28.Kg1 Bxh3#) Rxf1+ 28.Kg2 Rg1+! 29.Kh3 (29.Kxg1? Qd1+ 30.Kg2 Qf1#) Bd7+ 30.Kh4 g6 31.Qh6 d3+ 32.Rf4 (32.Kg5? Qg4#) Qxf4+! 33.Qxf4 (33.gxf4 Rg4+ 34.Kh3 Rg5+! 35.Kh4 Rh5+ wins the queen) Rh1! 34.g4 h6! (Now White's attack is over and Black's pawns join in attacking White's king, threatening ...g5+.) 35.Kh3 (35.Qxh6? Rxh2+) g5! 36.Qd4 Rg1 37.f3 d2! 38.Qxd2 (38.Qxg1 Ba4 and Black queens) Bb5! 0-1 (39...Bf1+ will win White's queen)

Category: Chess , GrandMasters