Garry Kasparov is arguably 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.
