1/2006 - Gata started to play chess again in 2004, after an 8-year
retirement. He started playing in the weekly New York Masters, at the
Marshall Chess Club. Gata finished 11th at the 2004 US Championship.
In May of 2005, Gata finished 3rd at the HB Tournament in Minneapolis, MN.
In August of 2005, Gata tied for 2nd thru 7th at the Americas Continental
Championship in Argentina. He scored 8 out of 11 points.
In Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, Gata played well at the FIDE World Cup and
finished in 9th place in the knockout, allowing him to qualify for the FIDE
candidates matches for the next world championship in 2007. He will face
Entienne Bacrot in a six-game candidate match. At the World Cup, Gata ousted Magnus
Carlsen of Norway, Francisco Vallejos Pons of France, Konstantin Sakaev of
Russia, Ilia Smirin of Israel, and Yun Zhao of China. However Gata was
stopped by Alexander Grischuk of Russia.
Gata was a two time under 20 champion of the Soviet Union. In
1989, Gata came to the US. He won the 1991 US Championship at the age of 17.
His career soon took off and he became one of the top players in the world.
Gata Kamsky retired from chess at 21 years of age. Early retirement didn't prevent Gata from making a huge impact on the game. Kamsky was once the
3rd best player in the world, behind Kasparov and Karpov.
In the 1994-1995 PCA World Championship cycle, Gata played three,
tough candidates matches. He would defeat both Vladimir Kramnik (4.5-1.5),
and Nigel Short (5.5-1.5). However, Gata lost the final candidate match to
Vishy Anand (6.5-4.5).
Gata fought is way through a tough FIDE 1994-1996 championship cycle. He
had three, tough, successful candidate matches against P. Van der
Sterren(4.5-2.5) ,Vishy Anand (6-4), and V. Salov (5.5-1.5). This led
to the showdown for the FIDE version of the 1996 World Championship between
Anatoly Karpov and Gata Kamsky. Karpov proved too much for the 21 year old
Kamsky. The match was decided in Karpov's favor by a 10.5 - 7.5 score. After
this loss, Gata decided to go to school to study Law.
Gata made a brief come back in the 1999 FIDE KO in Las Vegas. However, he
would get Kayoed in the first round by Alexander Khalifman.
Gata has a full chess schedule for 2006. In January, he will play
in the a-group at Corus against the likes of Topalov, Leko, and Anand, just
to name a few. Then in March, he will be in San Diego to play in the
US Championship. Then later on in 2006, he has a tough candidate match
against Etienne Bacrot.
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