Gata Kamsky
Gata Kamsky (Tatar: Ğata Kamskiy (born June 2, 1974) is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster. He is rated 2695 on the November 2009 FIDE list, ranking him 41st in the world and third among American players.
Kamsky was a prodigy who reached the final of the FIDE World Chess Championship 1996 at the age of 22, and reached a ranking of fourth in the world rankings in 1996. He played almost no FIDE-rated games between 1997 and late 2004.
Kamsky won the Chess World Cup 2007. This earned him a match against Veselin Topalov for the right to challenge for the World Chess Championship 2010, which he lost. Kamsky will also play in the Candidates Tournament to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2011.
In 1990, FIDE awarded Kamsky the grandmaster title. In 1991, he won the U.S. Championship. Kamsky also did well at other prestigious chess tournaments, winning the Las Palmas tournament in 1994.
In 1993, the rival organisations FIDE and PCA each held Interzonal tournaments. Kamsky played in both, and in both cases qualified for the Candidates Tournaments.
In 1996, Kamsky played a 20-game match against Anatoly Karpov for the FIDE World Chess Championship 1006, losing 7.5–10.5 (+3=9−6).
Kamsky's next rated games after his loss to Karpov were in 1999, when he returned to play in the FIDE Knockout World Championship event in Las Vegas.
Kamsky did not play another game in public until 2004, when he won the 106th New York Masters. He subsequently played in several other editions of the weekly event with mixed success, before returning to regular chess in the 2005 U.S. Championship held in November-December 2004 where he scored a respectable but unspectacular 5.5-3.5. He has since returned to international chess, most notably finishing second behind Veselin Topalov 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 $7,000. A number of successes in 2007 marked his return to the playing level he had before his retirement, hinting at the possibility of becoming again a challenger for the very top of the world's chess hierarchy.
Kamsky played in the FIDE Chess World Cup 2005, and qualified for the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2007.
In November-December 2007, Kamsky won the Chess World Cup 2007. This earned him a match against Topalov in 2009, for the right to challenge for the World Chess Championship 2010. The match was held in Sofia, Bulgaria, in February 2009, and was won by Topalov 4.5 - 2.5.
As a finalist of the previous cycle, Kamsky has been given direct entry to the eight player Candidates Tournament to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2011.
Kamsky played board one for the United States in the 2008 Chess Olympiad, held in Dresden, Germany in November. The U.S. team captured the bronze medals.
