Gata Kamsky

Defeated in the 1996 FIDE World Championship match

Highest FIDE Elo Rating: 2763

Ranking: as high as fourth in the world

Tournament Career: winner of four super-tournaments:

                                   Chess World Cup 2007

winner of Tilburg Chess Tournament 1990, Las Palmas 1994, Dos Hermanas 1995

Chess Olympiads: two team bronze medals

Gata Kamsky is perhaps one of the greatest enigmas in chess history, as he had outstanding talent and a promising career at the moment he withdrew and left the chess world for nearly a decade. In the 1990s, he was ranked as high as fourth in the world, won three strong super-tournaments, and qualified for the 1996 FIDE World Championship final by defeating Anand and Salov. The future Indian world champion often struggled against Kamsky during this period. In the final, Kamsky was unable to overcome Karpov, and that was all from him in chess for a long eight years. Gata focused on other things, graduated from university, and seemed to be an unfulfilled talent of the royal game. Eventually, he returned to top-level chess, starting to play tournaments again from 2004.

An eight-year hiatus is, of course, a huge step back in the career of any professional athlete, where the train leaves without them, and in most cases, a return would not be possible. Before Kamsky stopped playing chess, it was still true that humans were stronger than engines – Kasparov lost his first match to Deep Blue only in 1997. When Kamsky resumed his career, he returned to a very different chess world. It was already heavily influenced by increasingly powerful engines, and players had a head start in using them. This makes it incredible what successes Kamsky achieved in this “second career” of his. In 2007, he unexpectedly won the World Cup, which earned him qualification for the 2007 Candidates Tournament, where he lost the second round to Gelfand. He also played in the Candidates Tournament four years later, where after defeating Topalov in the quarterfinals, Boris Gelfand was again too strong for him in the semifinals. During this time, Kamsky even briefly returned to the world’s top ten.

Why not higher:

Where Kamsky would have reached had he not taken that eight-year break is one of the most interesting questions a chess player can ask. We will never know, but I personally think he would be much higher on this ranking.

Best Games:

Vladimir Kramnik vs Gata Kamsky

1994 Candidates Matches, Quarterfinal