Gopal Krishna Gokhale (गोपाल कृष्‍ण गोखले) born May 9, 1866, in Kolhat, Maharashtra, India was one of the founding social and political leaders during the Indian Independence Movement against the British Empire in India. Gokhale was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and the Servants of India Society. The latter was committed to only social reform, whereas the Congress Party in Gokhale's time was the main vehicle for Indian political representation.

Early life

Gopal Krishna Gokhale's father Krishna Rao was working as a clerk and His mother Valubai Gokhale, a housewife. Krishna Rao Gokhale had farm land, but was forced to work as a clerk due to poor soil and inadequate irrigational facilities available at that time. Krishna Rao Gokhale was working from Tamhanala, another small village very near to Kothluk Village in Ratnagiri district of Maharastra.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale completed his secondary education from Rajaram High School in Kothapur. After completion of highschool he moved to Bombay for further studies at the Elphinstone College. He completed his graduation in 1888. Gopal Krishna Gokhale was a hardworking and talented student in the last year of his college and was awarded a scholarship of Rs. 20.

After graduation he moved to Pune and joined the New English School as an Assistant Master. During this period he complied a book of arithmetic in collabration with his colleague N.J. Bapat. He actively participated in the acadmeic and educational circles of Pune. He actively particpated in the Deccan Education Society and was the founding member of Fergusson College at Pune in 1885. He worked for more than twenty years in this college. Because of his knowledge of and facility for teaching a broad variety of subjects, he was known as "Professor to Order".

Education and social reform

Gokhale was an early Indian champion for public education. Being one of the first generations of Indians to receive a college education, and a teacher at Fergusson College, Pune,Gokhale was respected widely both in the nascent Indian intellectual community and by the people of India. He was seen by the people as one of the least elitist of the educated community of India. Coming from a background of poverty, Gokhale was seen as a man of the people, and was a hero to young Indians of the early 20th century. He worked among the common people to encourage education and public development. He actively spoke against ignorance, casteism and untouchability in Indian society. He was also reputed for working towards trust and friendship between the Hindu and Muslim communities of India.

Indian National Congress

Along with other contemporary leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Dadabhai Naoroji, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai and Annie Besant, Gokhale fought for decades to obtain greater political representation and power over public affairs for common Indians. He was moderate in his views and attitudes, and sought to petition the British authorities by cultivating a process of dialogue and discussion which would yield greater British respect for Indian rights. Gokhale had visited Ireland and had arranged for an Irish nationalist, Alfred Webb, to serve as President of the Indian National Congress in 1894. In 1906, Gokhale and Tilak were the respective leaders of the moderates and the "extremists" (the latter now known by the more politically correct term, 'aggressive nationalists') in the Congress. Tilak was an advocate of civil agitation and direct revolution to overthrow the British Empire, whereas Gokhale was a moderate reformist. As a result, the Congress Party split into two wings. The two sides would later patch up in 1916.

Political convictions

Gokhale did not support explicit Indian independence, for such an idea was not understood or expressed among Indians until after World War I. Historically, Gokhale is viewed as a teacher and nurturer of a whole new generation of leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi.

Mentor to Gandhi

Gokhale was famously a mentor to Mahatma Gandhi in his formative years. Gandhi as a young barrister returned from his struggles against the Empire in South Africa, and received personal guidance from Gokhale, including a knowledge and understanding of India and the issues confronting common Indians. By 1920, Gandhi would emerge as the leader of the Indian Independence Movement. In his autobiography, Gandhi calls Gokhale his mentor and guide, while Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the future founder of Pakistan, in 1912 aspired to become the "Muslim Gokhale", and an "ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity."

Gerd Müller (IPA—German: [gɛʀt 'mʏlɐ]) (born November 3, 1945 in Nördlingen) is a former West German football player and Germany's most prolific goalscorer of all time.

With national records of 68 goals in 62 international appearances, 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga games and the international record of 66 goals in 74 European Club games, he was by far the most successful striker of his day and perhaps any other. His nicknames are “Bomber der Nation” (the nation's Bomber) and “kleines dickes Müller” (short fat Müller, declension intentionally wrong).

In 1970 Müller was elected European Footballer of the Year after a successful season at Bayern Munich and scoring 10 goals at the 1970 FIFA World Cup.

Biography

Bayern Munich

Born in Nördlingen, Germany, he began his football career at the TSV 1861 Nördlingen. Müller joined FC Bayern Munich in 1964 where he teamed up with future stars Franz Beckenbauer and Sepp Maier. The club, which would go on to become the most successful German club in history was then still in the Regionalliga Süd (Regional League South), which was one level below the Bundesliga at the time. After one season, Bayern Munich advanced to the Bundesliga and started a long string of successes. With his club, Müller amassed titles during the 60s and 70s: He won the German Championship four times, the German Cup four times, the European Champions' Cup three times, the Intercontinental Cup once, and the European Cup Winners’ Cup once. A supremely opportunistic goal-scorer, he also became German top scorer seven times and European top scorer twice. Müller scored 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga matches for Bayern Munich, almost 100 goals more than the second most successful Bundesliga scorer, Klaus Fischer. He holds the single-season Bundesliga record with 40 Goals in season 1971/72 (8 goals more than second ranked player Klaus Fischer). He scored 78 goals in 62 German Cup games. His 66 goals in his 74 appearances at European cups are still a record. He is also one of the very few players of 50 or more caps to score more goals than he has games played. Not even Pelé can claim this distinction.

National team

Müller scored 68 goals in 62 games for West Germany. His international career started in 1966 and ended on July 7, 1974 with the win of the World Cup at his home stadium in Munich. He scored the winning goal for the 2-1 victory over the Netherlands in the final. His four goals in that tournament and his ten goals at the 1970 FIFA World Cup combined made him the all-time highest FIFA World Cup goalscorer overall at the time with 14 goals; his record stood until the 2006 tournament, coincidentally held in Germany, when it was broken by Brazilian forward Ronaldo on June 27, 2006 playing against Ghana; As of the end of the 2006 tournament, Ronaldo has scored 15 goals in three World Cups. Müller also participated in the 1972 European Championship, becoming top scorer with four goals and winning the Championship with the German team.

Fort Lauderdale Strikers

After his career in the Bundesliga he went to the USA, where he joined the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the North American Soccer League in 1979. He played three seasons with this team, scoring 38 goals, and once reaching, but losing, the league final in 1980. He was a 2nd-team NASL All Star in 1979.

Life after football

After Müller ended his career in 1982, he fell into a slump and developed an alcohol addiction. But his former companions at Bayern Munich convinced him to go through alcohol rehabilitation. When he emerged, they gave him a job as an amateur coach at Bayern Munich, where he still works as of 2007. There is also a collection of apparel released by sporting giants Adidas under the Gerd Müller name. It is part of the adidas originals series.

Playing style

Müller was short (about 5 ft. 6 in.), squat, awkward-looking and not notably fast; he never fit the conventional idea of a great footballer, but he had lethal acceleration over short distances, a remarkable aerial game, and uncanny goalscoring instincts. His short legs gave him a strangely low center of gravity, so he could turn quickly and with perfect balance in spaces and at speeds that would cause other players to fall over. He also had a knack of scoring in unlikely situations.

George Bernard Shaw (born 26 July 1856, Dublin, Ireland died November 2, 1950, Hertfordshire, England) was an Irish writer. Famed as a playwright, he wrote more than sixty plays. He was uniquely honoured by being awarded both a Nobel Prize (1925) for his contribution to literature and an Oscar (1938) for Pygmalion. He was a strong advocate for socialism and women's rights, a vegetarian and teetotaller, and a harsh critic of formal education. Shaw died in 1950 at the age of 94.

Biography

George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) was born in Dublin (Ireland), to George Carr Shaw (1814-1885), an unsuccessful grain merchant and sometime civil servant, and Lucinda Elizabeth Shaw, née Gurly (1830-1913), a professional singer. He had two sisters, Lucinda Frances (1853-1920), a singer of musical comedy and light opera, and Elinor Agnes (1854-1876); both died of tuberculosis.

Shaw briefly attended the Wesleyan Connexional School, a grammar school operated by the Methodist New Connexion, moved to a private school near Dalkey, transferred to Dublin's Central Model School and ended his formal education at the Dublin English Scientific and Commercial Day School. Boy and man, he was always bitterly opposed to schools and teachers, saying

"Schools and schoolmasters, as we have them today, are not popular as places of education and teachers, but rather prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents."

He gave this attitude flesh and blood in the prologue of Cashel Byron's Profession, and underscored it in his Treatise on Parents and Children.

Just before Shaw’s sixteenth birthday (1872), his mother left home and followed her voice teacher, George Vandeleur Lee, to London. The daughters accompanied their mother, but Shaw remained in Dublin with his father while reluctantly completing his formal schooling, then working efficiently, albeit discontentedly, as a clerk in an estate office.

In 1876 Shaw joined his mother’s London household. She, Vandeleur Lee, and his sister Lucy, provided him with a pound a week while he frequented public libraries and the British Museum reading room where he studied earnestly and began writing professionally. (He earned his allowance by ghost-writing Vandeleur Lee’s music column, which appeared in the London Hornet.) Between 1879 and 1883, due to a series of rejected novels, his literary earnings remained negligible. His situation improved after 1885, when he became able to support himself as an art and literary critic.

Influenced by his reading, he became a dedicated Socialist and an active member of the Fabian Society, a middle class organization, founded in 1884 to promote the gradual spread of socialism by peaceful means. In the course of his political activities he met Charlotte Payne-Townshend, an Irish heiress and fellow Fabian; they married in 1898. In 1906 the Shaws moved into a house in Ayot St Lawrence, a small village in Hertfordshire; it was to be their home for the remainder of their lives, although they also maintained a flat in London. During his final years Shaw enjoyed maintaining the grounds at Shaw's Corner. He died in 1950 at the age of 94 as the result of injuries incurred by falling while he was pruning trees. His ashes, mixed with those of his wife, were scattered in the garden of his home along footpaths and around his statue of Saint Joan.

Shaw's plays were first performed in the 1890s. By the end of the decade he was able to earn a living as a playwright. He wrote more than sixty plays and his output as novelist, critic, pamphleteer, essayist and private correspondent was prodigious. He is known to have written more than 250,000 letters.

He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize (the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925) and an Oscar (Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay in 1939 for Pygmalion).

Criticism

As music, art, and drama critic, he wrote under the pseudonym "Corno di Bassetto" (Basset Horn) for the Wolverhampton Star and, as GBS, for Dramatic Review (1885-86), Our Corner (1885-86), and The Pall Mall Gazette (1885-88). From 1895 to 1898, Shaw was the drama critic for Frank Harris’ Saturday Review. His income as a critic made him self-supporting.

Shaw’s early journalism ranged from book reviews and art criticism to music columns (many of them defending the controversial work of the German composer Richard Wagner). The Perfect Wagnerite, printed in 1898, typifies Shaw’s views on Wagner. As drama critic for the Saturday Review, a post he held from 1895 to 1898, Shaw also championed the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, about whom he had already written his influential The Quintessence of Ibsenism (1891). His music criticism has been collected in Shaw's Music (1981).

Novels

All of the five unsuccessful novels written between 1879 and 1883, at the start of his career eventually were published. They were:

• Cashel Byron's Profession (London, The Modern Press, 1886)
• An Unsocial Socialist (London, Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey & Co., 1887)
• Love Among the Artists (Chicago, Herbert S. Stone and Company, 1900, UK, 1914)
• The Irrational Knot, Being the Second Novel of his Nonage (revised, New York, Brentano’s, 1905)
• Immaturity (London, Constable, 1931) His first novel. Written in 1879, it was the last one to be printed.

The full texts of three of his novels are available online

Plays

Shaw started working on his first play, Widower's Houses, in 1885 in collaboration with critic William Archer, who supplied the structure. Archer decided that Shaw could not write a play (an opinion he apparently never changed), so the project was abandoned. Years later, Shaw tried again and, in 1892, completed the play without collaboration. Widower's Houses, which excoriated slumlords, was first performed at London's Royalty Theatre on December 9, 1892. Shaw would later call it one of his worst works, but he had found his medium.

His first significant financial success as a playwright came from Richard Mansfield's American production of The Devil's Disciple (1897). He went on to write 63 plays, most of them full-length. Often his plays succeeded in America and Germany before they did in London. Although major London productions of many of his earlier pieces were delayed for years, they are still being performed there. Examples include Mrs. Warren's Profession (1893), Arms and the Man (1894), Candida (1894) and You Never Can Tell (1895).

The humor in Shaw's writing was unmatched by any of his contemporaries excepting Oscar Wilde, and he is remembered for his comedy. However, his wittiness should not obscure his important role in revolutionizing British drama: In the Victorian Era, before Shaw's ascendancy, the London stage was regarded as a place for frothy, sentimental entertainment. He made it a forum for considering moral, political and economic issues. In doing this, he acknowledged his indebtedness to Henrik Ibsen, who was the pioneer of modern realistic drama.

As his experience and popularity increased, his plays became increasingly verbose, which did not detract from their success. These works, from what might be called the beginning of his "middle" period, include Caesar and Cleopatra (1898), Man and Superman (1903), Major Barbara (1905) and The Doctor's Dilemma (1906).

From 1904 to 1907, several of his plays had their London premieres in notable productions at the Court Theatre, managed by Harley Granville-Barker and J.E. Vedrenne. The first of his plays to be performed at the Court Theatre, John Bull's Other Island (1904), is not especially popular today, but it made his reputation in London when, during a command performance, King Edward VII laughed so hard he broke his chair.

By the 1910s, Shaw was a well-established playwright. New works such as Fanny's First Play (1911) and Pygmalion (1912)—on which My Fair Lady (1956) is based—had long runs in front of large London audiences. (Even though Oscar Straus's The Chocolate Soldier (1908)--an adaptation of Arms and the Man (1894)--was very popular, Shaw detested it and, for the rest of his life, forbade any musicalization of his work, including a potential Franz Lehar operetta based on Pygmalion. My Fair Lady was producible only after Shaw's demise.)

Shaw's outlook was changed by World War I, which he vigorously opposed, despite incurring outrage from the public as well as from many friends. His first full-length piece presented after the War, written mostly during it, was Heartbreak House (1919). A new Shaw was emerging--the wit remained, but his faith in humanity had dwindled. In the preface to Heartbreak House he said

"It is said that every people has the Government it deserves. It is more to the point that every Government has the electorate it deserves; for the orators of the front bench can edify or debauch an ignorant electorate at will. Thus our democracy moves in a vicious circle of reciprocal worthiness and unworthiness."

Shaw had previously supported gradual democratic change toward socialism, but now he arguably saw more hope in government by benign strong men. This would sometimes make him oblivious to the defects of dictators like Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini.

In 1921, Shaw completed Back to Methuselah, his "Metabiological Pentateuch." The massive, five-play work starts in the Garden of Eden and ends thousands of years in the future. Shaw proclaimed it a masterpiece, but many critics did not share that opinion.

His next play, Saint Joan (1923), is generally conceded to be one of his best. Shaw had long thought of writing about Joan of Arc, and her canonization supplied a strong incentive. The play was an international success, and is believed to have led to his Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote plays for the rest of his life, but very few of them are as notable—or as often revived—as his earlier work.

The Apple Cart (1929) was probably his most popular work of this era. Later full-length plays like Too True to Be Good (1931), On the Rocks (1933), The Millionairess (1935), and Geneva (1938) have been seen as marking a decline. His last significant play, In Good King Charles Golden Days has, according to St. John Ervine, passages that are equal to Shaw's major works. His last full-length work was Buoyant Billions (1946–48), written when he was in his nineties.

Shaw's published plays come with lengthy prefaces. These tend to be more about Shaw's opinions on the issues addressed by the plays than about the plays themselves. Often, his prefaces are longer than the play. For example, the Penguin Books edition of his one-act The Shewing-up Of Blanco Posnet (1909) has a 67-page preface for the 29-page playscript.

Political writing

His prime motivation for writing was to further humanitarian and political agendas. To make the ideology more palatable he suffused it, brilliantly, with humor. His plays and lectures were very popular because of their comedic content, but the public often disregarded the polemics and enjoyed his work as nothing more than entertainment. He was acutely aware of that. His preface to Heartbreak House (1919) attributes the rejection to the need of post-World War I audiences for frivolities, after four long years of grim privation, more than to their inborn distaste of instruction.

His crusading nature led him to adopt and tenaciously hold a variety of causes, which he furthered with fierce intensity, heedless of all opposition or ridicule. For example, Commonsense about the War (1914) lays out Shaw's strong objections at the onset of World War I. His thoughts ran counter to public opinion and cost him dearly at the box-office, but he never compromised. He joined in the hysterical public attacks on vaccination against smallpox , a dire disease that might have killed him when he contracted it in 1881.

As well as the plays and prefaces, Shaw wrote long political treatises, such as The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (1912), a 495-page book detailing all aspects of socialistic theory as Shaw interpreted it. Exerpts were republished in 1928 as Socialism and Liberty, and late in life he wrote another guide to political issues, Everbody's Political What's What.

Friends and correspondents

Shaw corresponded with an array of people, many of them well-known. His letters to and from Mrs. Patrick Campbell were adapted for the stage by Jerome Kilty as Dear Liar: A Comedy of Letters; as was his correspondence with the poet Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas (the intimate friend of Oscar Wilde), into the drama Bernard and Bosie: A Most Unlikely Friendship by Anthony Wynn. His letters to the prominent actress, Ellen Terry, to the boxer Gene Tunney,and to H.G. Wells, have also been published. Eventually the volume of his correspondence became insupportable, as can be inferred from apologetic letters written by assistants.

Shaw campaigned against the executions of the rebel leaders of the Easter Rising, and he became a personal friend of the Cork-born IRA leader Michael Collins, whom he invited to his home for dinner while Collins was negotiating the Anglo-Irish Treaty with Lloyd George in London. After Collins's assassination in 1922, Shaw sent a personal message of condolence to one of Collins's sisters.

Shaw had an enduring friendship with G. K. Chesterton, the Roman Catholic-convert British writer. The e-text of their famed debate, Shaw V. Chesterton is available, as is a book, Shaw V. Chesterton, a debate between George Bernard Shaw and G.K. Chesterton (2000 Third Way Publications Ltd. [ISBN 0-9535077-7-7])

Another great friend was the composer Edward Elgar. The latter dedicated one of his late works, Severn Suite, to Shaw; and Shaw exerted himself (eventually with success) to persuade the BBC to commission from Elgar a third symphony, though this piece remained incomplete at Elgar's death.

Shaw's correspondence with the motion picture producer Gabriel Pascal, who was the first to successfully bring Shaw's plays to the screen and who later tried to put into motion a musical adaptation of Pygmalion, but died before he could realize it, is published in a book titled Bernard Shaw and Gabriel Pascal (ISBN 0-8020-3002-5).

A stage play based on a book by Hugh Whitemore, The Best of Friends, provides a window on the friendships of Dame Laurentia McLachlan, OSB (late Abbess of Stanbrook) with Sir Sydney Cockerell and Shaw through adaptations from their letters and writings.

Socialism and political beliefs

In a letter to Henry James dated 17 January, 1909 Shaw said:

“I, as a Socialist, have had to preach, as much as anyone, the enormous power of the environment. We can change it; we must change it; there is absolutely no other sense in life than the task of changing it. What is the use of writing plays, what is the use of writing anything, if there is not a will which finally moulds chaos itself into a race of gods.”

Shaw maintained that each social class worked to serve its own ends, and that those in the upper echelons had won the struggle. He believed the working class had failed to promote its interests effectively, which made him highly critical of the democratic system of his time. Shaw's writing, as evinced in plays like Major Barbara and Pygmalion, has class struggle as an underlying theme. Notwithstanding that, Shaw was not a Marxist in the traditional sense, and abhorred the aggressiveness of Trade Unionism.

In 1882 Henry George's views on land nationalization gave depth and direction to Shaw’s political convictions. Shortly thereafter he applied to join the Social Democratic Federation led by H. M. Hyndman who introduced him to the works of Karl Marx. Instead, in 1884, he helped found the Fabian Society, which conformed more closely to his views. He was an active Fabian, writing a number of their pamphlets, and supplying money to set up the independent socialist journal The New Age. He argued that owning property was a form of theft and campaigned for an equitable distribution of land and capital. He was involved with the formation of the Labour Party.A clear statement of his position can be found in The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism. After visiting the USSR in 1930s and meeting Stalin, Shaw became an ardent supporter of the Stalinist USSR. In a letter to the Manchester Guardian he dismissed stories of a famine as slander and reports of exploited workers as falsehoods. Asked why he didn't want to stay permanently in the Soviet 'earthly paradise', Shaw jokingly explained that England was a hell and he was a small devil. He wrote a somewhat ironic defense of Stalin's espousal of Lysenkoism, in a letter to the 1946 Labour Monthly. He also "simply did not believe" that the Holocaust had happened.

Vegetarianism

G.B. Shaw became a vegetarian while he was twenty-five, after hearing a lecture by H. F. Lester

In 1901, remembering the experience, he said "I was a cannibal for twenty-five years. For the rest I have been a vegetarian." As a staunch vegetarian, he was firmly anti-vivisectionist and antagonistic to cruel sports for the balance of his life. The belief in the immorality of killing animals for food was one of the Fabian causes near his heart and is frequently a topic in his plays and prefaces. His position, succinctly stated, was "A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat corpses."

The following was taken from the archives of The Vegetarian Society UK:

...the big story of the July issue of The Vegetarian Messenger was the tribute to George Bernard Shaw, celebrating his 90th birthday on the 26th of that month. He had, at that time, been a vegetarian for 66 years and was commended as one of the great thinkers and dramatists of his era. "No writer since Shakespearean times has produced such a wealth of dramatic literature, so superb in expression, so deep in thought and with such dramatic possibilities as Shaw."

Shaw's legacy

When his life ended, Shaw was a world figure and a household name in Great Britain. His ironic wit endowed English with the adjective "Shavian" to describe to such clever observations as "[Dancing is] a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire."

Concerned about the vagaries of English spelling, he willed a portion of his wealth (probated at £367,233 13s ) to fund the creation of a new phonemic alphabet for the English language. When he died he did not leave much money, so no effort was made to start the project. However, his estate began to earn significant royalties from the rights to Pygmalion when My Fair Lady, a musical adapted from the play by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, became a hit. It then became clear that the will was badly worded and the Public Trusteefound grounds to challenge it. In the end an out-of-court settlement granted only a small portion of the money (£8600) for promoting the new alphabet, which is now called the Shavian alphabet. The National Gallery of Ireland, RADA and the British Museum all received substantial bequests.

His home, now called Shaw's Corner, in the small village of Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire is now a National Trust property, open to the public.

The Shaw Theatre, Euston Road, London, opened in 1971, was named in his honour.

The Shaw Festival, an annual theater festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, began as an eight week run of Don Juan in Hell (as the long third act dream sequence of Man And Superman is called when staged alone) and Candida in 1962 and has grown into an annual festival with over 800 performances a year, dedicated to producing the works of Shaw and his contemporaries.

Geet Sethi (born April 17, 1961) is an Indian billiards player who dominated the sport of billiards throughout much of the 1990s.

Born in New Delhi, India, he rose to prominence by winning the World Amateur Billiards Championships in 1985 and 1987. In the National Snooker Championships in 1989 held at Guntur, Andhra Pradesh he compiled a 147 break in snooker, the first amateur to complete an official maximum. An interesting thing about this break is the fact the Doordarshan camera crew covering the event had stepped out for a tea break while he was completing this feat, thus ensuring that there is no footage of this grand achievement.

In the 1992 World Professional Billiards Championship, he constructed a world record break of 1276 under the two-pot rule. He won the title in this year and would go on to win it again in 1993, 1995, 1998 and 2001. Along with this, he has won 3 world amateur billiard titles in 1985, 1987 and 2001

A major sporting hero in India, Geet has recently set up a number of Internet websites such as the portal Kheladi.com. In 2005 he authored a book called 'Success Vs Joy' which received exceptional reviews including one from Amitabh Bachchan.

He is a recipient of India's highest sporting award, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in the year 1992-1993 and the Padmashri award in 1986. He presently stays in Ahmedabad, Gujarat with his wife 'Kiran', son 'Raag' and daughter 'Jazz'.

Geet Sethi has an MBA from the BK School of Management. An alumnus of St. Xavier's School and St. Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad and has since made Ahmedabad his permanent home with managerial job in the Tata Oil Mills.

Currently he is promoting a venture called GoldQuest which is committed to supporting sportspersons with Olympic medal winning potential.

World Professional Billiards Championship Results

• 1992: Won
• 1993: Won
• 1994: S/F (lost to Peter Gilchrist)
• 1995: Won (beat Devendra Joshi 1661-931)
• 1996: Runner-up (lost to Mike Russell 2534-1848)
• 1997: -
• 1998: Won (beat Mike Russell 1400-1015)
• 1999: -
• 2000: Q/F (lost to David Causier)
• 2001: Won (beat Ashok Shandilya 3484-1289)
• 2002: S/F (lost to Peter Gilchrist 1767-851)
• 2003: group stages
• 2004: Q/F - lost to David Causier 971-722)
• 2006: Won (beat England's Lee Lagan)

Sir Garfield St Auburn Sobers (born July 28, 1936 in Barbados), often known as Garry Sobers (though earlier in his life he preferred the spelling Gary), is a former West Indies cricketer. He was born with two extra fingers, one on each hand, which were removed at birth. He also excelled at other sports, and played golf, football, basketball, table tennis and dominoes for Barbados. He is universally regarded as one of the most exceptional players ever to grace the game.

Sobers was a true all-rounder, he both batted and bowled, and was also an outstanding fielder, usually fielding close to the wicket. With the ball, Sobers performed superbly, taking 235 Test wickets at an average of 34.03. He bowled left-arm orthodox spin, left-arm unorthodox spin, and also left-arm fast-medium. Sobers was also exceptionally talented with the bat, with a career Test batting average of 57.78. He scored a then-record 8032 runs in his career. He played his last Test in 1974 against England, in Trinidad.

Sobers played his first Test Match in 1953, aged only 17. Just under five years later, in 1958, Sobers set a Test cricket record by scoring 365 runs in 614 minutes, in a single innings that included 38 fours and, interestingly, not one six against Pakistan. It was his first Test century, and a record which stood for over 36 years. The record has since been surpassed by Brian Lara, also of the West Indies, who scored 375 and 400 not out in 1994 and 2004 respectively, Matthew Hayden of Australia who scored 380 in 2003, and Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka who scored 374 in 2006. However, Sobers' innings still remains the highest maiden Test century ever.

In 1968, Sobers became the first ever batsman to hit six sixes off one over of six consecutive balls in first-class cricket. Sobers was playing as captain of Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan in Swansea; the unfortunate bowler was Malcolm Nash. This tally of 36 runs off an over beat a 57 year-old record of 34 runs, held by Ted Alletson. The feat of six sixes in an over has since been matched twice. Ravi Shastri completed the only other first-class instance, playing for Bombay against Baroda in 1984. In an ODI match during the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies, South African Herschelle Gibbs hit six sixes off an over against the Netherlands.

In 1975, Queen Elizabeth II awarded Sobers a knighthood for his services to the sport.

He is the author of a children's novel about cricket, Bonaventure and the Flashing Blade, in which computer analysis helps a university cricket team become unbeatable.

In 2000, Sobers was named by a 100-member panel of experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century. Sobers received 90 votes out of a possible 100. The other four cricketers selected for the honour were Sir Donald Bradman (100 votes - out of 100 possible), Sir Jack Hobbs (30 votes), Shane Warne (27 votes) and Sir Vivian Richards (25 votes).

He was made A National Hero of Barbados by Prime Minister Owen Arthur in 1999.

He has two sons, Matthew Sobers and Daniel Sobers and a Daughter, Genevieve.

Garry Kimovich Kasparov (Russian: Га́рри Ки́мович Каспа́ров; IPA: [ˈgarʲə ˈkʲɪməvʲə̈ʨ kʌˈsparəf]) (born April 13, 1963, in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR) (now Azerbaijan) is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Chess Champion.

Kasparov became the youngest ever World Chess Champion in 1985. He held the official FIDE world title until 1993. In 1993, a dispute with FIDE led Kasparov to set up a rival organisation, the Professional Chess Association. He continued to hold the "Classical" World Chess Championship until his defeat by Vladimir Kramnik in 2000.

Kasparov's ratings achievements include being rated world #1 according to Elo rating almost continuously from 1986 until his retirement in 2005; and holding the all time highest rating of 2851. He also holds records for consecutive tournament victories and Chess Oscars.

Kasparov announced his retirement from professional chess on March 10, 2005, choosing instead to devote his time to politics and writing. He formed the United Civil Front, and joined as a member of The Other Russia, a coalition opposing the elected government of Vladimir Putin.

Garry Kasparov was born Garri Vaynshteyn (Гарри Вайнштейн, the given name analogous to English "Harry" and surname analogous to German "Weinstein") in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR to an Armenian mother and a Jewish father. He first began the serious study of chess after he came across a chess problem set up by his parents and proposed a solution. His father died when he was seven years old; at the age of twelve, he adopted his mother's Armenian surname, Kasparyan, modifying it to a more Russified version, Kasparov.

After leaving Tiffin School at the age of 8, Kasparov trained at Mikhail Botvinnik's chess school under noted coach Vladimir Makogonov. Makogonov helped develop Kasparov's positional skills and taught him to play the Caro-Kann Defence and the Tartakower System of the Queen's Gambit Declined. Kasparov won the Soviet Junior Championship in Tbilisi in 1976, scoring 7 points out of 9, at the age of 13. He repeated the feat the following year, winning with a score of 8.5 out of nine. He was being trained by Alexander Sakharov during this time.

In 1978 Kasparov participated in the Sokolsky Memorial tournament in Minsk. He had been invited as an exception but took first place and became a chess master. Kasparov has repeatedly said that this event was a turning point in his life, and that it convinced him to choose chess as his career. "I will remember the Sokolsky Memorial as long as I live", he wrote. He has also said that after the victory, he thought he had a very good shot at the World Championship.

He first qualified for the Soviet Championship at age 15 in 1978, the youngest ever player at that level. He won the 64-player Swiss system tournament at Daugavpils over tiebreak from Igor V. Ivanov, to capture the sole qualifying place.

Kasparov rose quickly through the FIDE rankings. Starting with an oversight by the Russian Chess Federation, Garry Kasparov participated in a Grandmaster tournament in Banja Luka, Yugoslavia, in 1979 while still unrated (the federation thought it was a junior tournament). He won this high-class tournament, emerging from it with a provisional rating of 2595, enough to catapult him into the top group of chess players. The next year, 1980, he won the World Junior Chess Championship in Dortmund, West Germany. Later that year, he made his debut as second reserve for the Soviet Union at the Chess Olympiad at La Valletta, Malta, and became a Grandmaster.

While still a teenager, Kasparov twice tied for first place in the USSR Chess Championship, in 1980-81, and 1981-82. He earned a place in the 1982 Moscow Interzonal tournament, which he won, to qualify for the Candidates Tournament. At age 19, he was the youngest Candidate since Bobby Fischer, who was 15 when he qualified in 1958.

Kasparov's first (quarter-final) Candidates match was against Alexander Beliavsky, who Kasparov defeated 6-3 (4 wins, 1 loss). Politics threatened Kasparov's semi-final against Viktor Korchnoi, which was scheduled to be played in Pasadena, California. Korchnoi defected from the Soviet Union in 1976, and was at that time the strongest active non-Soviet player. Various political manoeuvres prevented Kasparov from playing Korchnoi, and Kasparov forfeited the match. This was resolved by Korchnoi's allowing the match to be replayed in London. Kasparov lost the first game, but came back to win the match 7-4 (4 wins, 1 loss). The Candidates' final was against the resurgent former world champion Vasily Smyslov. Kasparov won 8.5-5.5 (4 wins, no losses), in a match played at Vilnius, 1984, thus winning the Candidates and qualifying to play Anatoly Karpov for the World Championship.

The 1984 World Championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov had its fair share of ups and downs, as well as the most controversial finish to a competitive match ever. Karpov started off in very good form, and after nine games Kasparov found himself 4-0 down in a "first to six wins" match. Fellow players predicted a 6-0 whitewash of Kasparov within 18 games.

Kasparov dug in, with inspiration from a Russian poet before each game, and battled with Karpov into seventeen successive draws. Karpov duly won the next decisive game before Kasparov fought back with another series of draws until game 32, Kasparov's first win against the World Champion.

At this point Karpov, twelve years older than Kasparov, was close to exhaustion, and not looking like the player who started the match. Kasparov won games 47 and 48 to bring the scores to 5-3 in Karpov's favour. Then the match was ended without result by Florencio Campomanes, the President of FIDE, and a new match was announced to start a few months later.

The termination of the match was a matter of some controversy. At the press conference at which he announced his decision, Campomanes cited the health of the two players, which had been put under strain by the length of the match, despite the fact that both Karpov and Kasparov stated that they would prefer the match to continue. Karpov had lost 10 kg (22 lb) over the course of the match and had been hospitalized several times. Kasparov, however, was in excellent health and extremely resentful of Campomanes' decision, asking him why he was abandoning the match if both players wanted to continue. It would appear that Kasparov, who had won the last two games before the suspension, felt the same way as some commentators — that he was now the favourite to win the match despite his 5-3 deficit. He appeared to be physically stronger than his opponent, and in the later games seemed to have been playing the better chess.

The match became the first, and so far only, world championship match to be abandoned without result. Kasparov's relations with Campomanes and FIDE were greatly strained, and the feud between the two would eventually come to a head in 1993 with Kasparov's complete break-away from FIDE.

The second Karpov-Kasparov match in 1985 was organized as the best of 24 games, where first player to 12.5 points would claim the title. However, in the event of a 12-12 draw, the title would go to Karpov as the reigning champion. Kasparov secured the title at the age of 22 by a score of 13-11. This broke the existing record of youngest World Champion, held for over twenty years by Mikhail Tal, who was 23 when he defeated Mikhail Botvinnik in 1960.

At the time, the FIDE rules granted a defeated champion an automatic right of rematch. Another match between Kasparov and Karpov duly took place in 1986, hosted jointly in the cities of London and Leningrad. At one point, Kasparov opened a three-point lead in the match, and looked to be well on his way to a decisive win. However, Karpov battled back by winning three consecutive games to level the score late in the match. At this point, Kasparov dismissed one of his seconds, Evgeny Vladimirov, accusing him of selling his opening preparation to the Karpov team. Kasparov scored one further win in the match and kept his title by a final score of 12.5-11.5.

A fourth match for the world title took place between Kasparov and Karpov 1987 in Seville, as Karpov qualified through the Candidates' Matches to once again become the official challenger. This match was very close, with neither player holding more than a one-point lead at any point in the match. Kasparov was down one point in the final game, needing a win to hold his title. A long tense game ensued in which Karpov blundered away a pawn just before the first time-control and Kasparov eventually won a long ending. Kasparov retained his title as the match was drawn by a score of 12-12.

A fifth match between Kasparov and Karpov was held in Lyon and New York in 1990. Once again, the result was a close one with Kasparov winning by a margin of 12.5-11.5.

With the World Champion title in his grasp, Kasparov switched to battling against FIDE — as Bobby Fischer had done twenty years earlier — but this time from within FIDE. He created an organisation to represent chess players, the Grandmasters Association (GMA) to give players more of a say in FIDE's activities.

This stand-off lasted until 1993, by which time a new challenger had qualified through the Candidates cycle for Kasparov's next World Championship defense. The new challenger was Nigel Short, a British Grandmaster who had defeated Karpov in a qualifying match. The world champion and his challenger decided to play their match outside of FIDE's jurisdiction, under another organization created by Garry Kasparov called the Professional Chess Association (PCA). This is where the great fracture in the lineage of World Champions began.

Kasparov and Short were ejected from FIDE, and they played their well-sponsored match in London. Kasparov won convincingly by a score of 12.5-7.5. The match considerably raised the profile of chess in the UK, with an unprecedented level of coverage on Channel 4. FIDE organized a World Championship match between the loser of the Candidates final, Jan Timman, and previous World Champion Karpov, which Karpov won. So Kasparov held the PCA World Chess Championship, and Karpov held the FIDE World Chess Championship.

Kasparov defended his title in 1995 against the Indian superstar Viswanathan Anand, which was held at the World Trade Center in New York City, before the PCA collapsed when Intel, one of the major backers, withdrew its sponsorship. Kasparov won the match by 4 wins to 1 with 13 draws.

Kasparov tried to organise another World Championship match, under yet another organisation, the World Chess Association (WCA) with Linares organiser Luis Rentero. Alexei Shirov and Vladimir Kramnik played a candidates match to decide the challenger, which Shirov won in a surprising upset. The WCA collapsed, however, when Rentero admitted that the funds required and promised had never materialised.

This left Kasparov stranded, and yet another organisation stepped in — BrainGames.com, headed by Raymond Keene. No match against Shirov was arranged, and talks with Anand collapsed, so a match was instead arranged against Kramnik.

This match, Kasparov-Kramnik, took place in London during the latter half of 2000. Kramnik had been on Kasparov's team for the 1995 Anand match, and no doubt learned much there. A well-prepared Kramnik surprised Kasparov and won a crucial game 2 against Kasparov's Grünfeld Defence after the champion missed several drawing chances in an opposite-colour bishop ending. Kasparov made a critical error in game 10 with the Nimzo-Indian Defence, which Kramnik exploited to win in 25 moves. As white, Kasparov could not crack the passive but solid Berlin Defence in the Ruy Lopez, and Kramnik successfully drew all his games as black. Kramnik won the match 8.5-6.5, and for the first time in fifteen years Kasparov had no world championship title. He became the first player to lose a world championship match without winning a game since Lasker lost to Capablanca in 1921.

After losing the title, Kasparov strung together a number of major tournament victories, and remained the top rated player in the world, ahead of both Kramnik and the FIDE World Champions. In 2001 he refused an invitation at the 2002 Dortmund Candidates Tournament for the Classical title, claiming his results had earned him a rematch with Kramnik.^[5]

Due to these strong results, and status as world #1 in much of the public eye, Kasparov was included in the so-called "Prague Agreement", masterminded by Yasser Seirawan and intended to reunite the two World Championships. Kasparov was to play a match against the FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov in September 2003. However, this match was called off after Ponomariov refused to sign his contract for it without reservation. In its place, there were plans for a match against Rustam Kasimdzhanov, winner of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004, to be held in January 2005 in the United Arab Emirates. These also fell through due to lack of funding. Plans to hold the match in Turkey instead came too late. Kasparov announced in January 2005 that he was tired of waiting for FIDE to organise a match and that therefore he had decided to stop all efforts to regain the World Championship title.

After winning the prestigious Linares tournament for the ninth time, Kasparov announced on March 10, 2005 that he would be retiring from serious competitive chess. He cited as the reason a lack of personal goals in the chess world (he commented when winning the Russian championship in 2004 that it had been the last major title he had never won outright) and expressed frustration at the failure to reunify the world championship.

Kasparov said he may play in some rapid chess events for fun, but intends to spend more time on his books, including both the My Great Predecessors series (see below) and a work on the links between decision-making in chess and in other areas of life), and will continue to involve himself in Russian politics, which he views as "headed down the wrong path."

On August 22, 2006, in his first public chess games since his retirement, Kasparov played in the Lichthof Chess Champions Tournament, a blitz event played at the time control of 5 minutes per side and 3 second increments per move. Kasparov tied for first with Anatoly Karpov, scoring 4.5/6.

Kasparov's political involvement started in the 1980s. He joined the CPSU in 1984, and in 1987 was elected to the Central Committee of Komsomol. In 1990, however, he left the party, and in May of that year took part in the creation of the Democratic Party of Russia. In June 1993, Kasparov was involved in the creation of the "Choice of Russia" bloc of parties, and in 1996 he took part in the election campaign of Boris Yeltsin. In 2001 he voiced his support for the Russian television TV channel NTV.

In 1991 he received Keeper of the Flame award from the Center for Security Policy for anti-Communist resistance and the propagation of democracy.

After his retirement from chess in 2005, Kasparov turned to politics and created the United Civil Front, a social movement whose main goal is to "work to preserve electoral democracy in Russia." He has vowed to "restore democracy" to Russia by toppling the elected Russian president Vladimir Putin, of whom he is an outspoken critic.

Kasparov has joined The Other Russia, a coalition including Eduard Limonov's National Bolshevik Party and the hard-left Workers' Party of Viktor Anpilov, which opposes the elected government of Vladimir Putin. The group has been boycotted by Russia's democratic opposition parties, Yabloko and Union of Right Forces for containing nationalist, fascist and hard-left groups and organisations.

On April 10, 2005, Kasparov was in Moscow at a promotional event when he was struck over the head with a chessboard he had just signed. The assailant was reported to have said "I admired you as a chess player, but you gave that up for politics" immediately before the attack. Kasparov has been the subject of a number of other episodes since.

Kasparov helped organize the Saint Petersburg Dissenters' March on March 3, 2007 and The March of the Dissenters on March 24, 2007, both involving several thousand people rallying against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saint Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko's policies. On April 14, he was briefly arrested by the Moscow police while heading for a demonstration. He was held for some 10 hours, and then fined 1000 rubles (~$38) and released.

He was summoned by FSB for questioning as a suspect in violations of Russian anti-extremism laws . This law was applied previously for conviction of Boris Stomakhin and closing of Russian-Chechen Friendship Society

In April, 2007 it became known that Garry Kasparov is a board member of the National Security Advisory Council of Center for Security Policy, a "non-profit, non-partisan national security organization that specializes in identifying policies, actions, and resource needs that are vital to American security". Kasparov confirmed this and added that he was removed shortly after he was aware of it. He noted that he didn't know about the membership and suggested he was included in the board by an accident. However, Garry Kasparov received the 1991 Flame award from the Center for Security Policy. The Center for Security Policy nominates this award to recognize those "individuals who have enhanced American security".

Ratings achievements

• Kasparov holds the record both for the highest rating ever, and the longest time as the #1 rated player.

• Kasparov had the highest Elo rating in the world continuously from 1986 to 2005. The only exception is that Kramnik equalled him in the January 1996 FIDE ratings list.(He was also briefly ejected from the list following his split from FIDE in 1993, but during that time he headed the rating list of the rival PCA). At the time of his retirement, he was still ranked #1 in the world, with a rating of 2812. His rating has fallen inactive since the January 2006 rating list.

• According to the alternative Chessmetrics calculations, Kasparov was the highest rated player in the world continuously from February 1985 until October 2004. He also holds the highest all-time average rating over a 2 (2877) to 20 (2856) year period and is second to only Bobby Fischer's (2881 vs 2879) over a one-year period.

• In January 1990 Kasparov achieved the (then) highest FIDE rating ever, passing 2800 and breaking Bobby Fischer's old record of 2785 rating. He has held the record for the highest rating ever achieved, ever since. On the July 1999 FIDE rating list Kasparov reached a 2851 Elo rating, the highest rating ever achieved.

Olympiads

Kasparov played in a total of eight Olympiads. He represented the Soviet Union four times, and Russia four times, following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. His debut was at La Valletta 1980 as second reserve, scoring 9.5/12, when he became the youngest player ever to play for the USSR in this event, a record which still stands. In 1982, he advanced to second board at Lucerne, scoring 8.5/11. He did not play in 1984, since the World Championship match was still running at the same time. In 1986, he played first board at Dubai, again scoring 8.5/11. In 1988, he was again first board at Thessaloniki, where he made 8.5/10. All four times, the Soviet Union won the team gold medals.

Then, in 1992, he played first board for Russia at Manila, scoring 8.5/10. In 1994 at Moscow, he scored 6.5/10 on first board. In 1996 at Yerevan, he scored 7/9 on first board. His final Olympiad was Bled, Slovenia in 2002, where he scored 7.5/9 on first board. Likewise, Russia won the team gold medals all four times.

Other records held

Kasparov holds the record for most consecutive professional tournament victories, placing first or equal first in fifteen tournaments from 1981 to 1990.

Kasparov won the Chess Oscar a record eleven times.

See also Notable chess games

Books and other writings

Kasparov has written a number of books on chess. He published a somewhat controversial autobiography when still in his early 20s, titled Unlimited Challenge; this book was subsequently updated several times, after he became World Champion. Its content is mainly literary, with a small chess component of key unannotated games. He published an annotated Best Games collection in the 1980s: Garry Kasparov: Life, Games, Career, and this book has also been updated several times in further editions. He has annotated his own games extensively for the Yugoslav Chess Informant series and for other chess publications. In 1982, he co-authored Batsford Chess Openings with British Grandmaster Raymond Keene, and this book was an enormous seller. It was updated into a second edition in 1989. He co-authored a book, with Alexander Sakharov, on the Scheveningen Sicilian, Sicilian: ...e6 and ...d6 Systems in the 1980s for British publisher Batsford. Kasparov has also contributed extensively to the five-volume openings series Encyclopedia of Chess Openings.

In 2003, the first volume of his five-volume work Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors was published. This volume, which deals with the world chess champions Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine, and some of their strong contemporaries, has received lavish praise from some reviewers (including Nigel Short), while attracting criticism from others for historical inaccuracies and analysis of games directly copied from unattributed sources. Through suggestions on the book's website, most of these shortcomings were corrected in following editions and translations. Despite this, the first volume won the British Chess Federation's Book of the Year award in 2003. Volume two, covering Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vassily Smyslov and Mikhail Tal appeared later in 2003. Volume three, covering Tigran Petrosian and Boris Spassky appeared in early 2004. In December 2004, Kasparov released volume four, which covers Samuel Reshevsky, Miguel Najdorf, and Bent Larsen (none of these three World Chess Champions), but focuses primarily on Bobby Fischer. The fifth volume, devoted to the chess careers of Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov, was published in March 2006.

His latest book "Revolution in the 70s" (published in March 2007) covers "the openings revolution of the 1970s-1980s" and is the first book in a new series called "Modern Chess Series," which intends to cover his matches with Karpov and selected games.

Chess against computers

Deep Thought, 1989

The chess computer Deep Thought was easily defeated in both games of a 2-game match with Kasparov in 1989.

Deep Blue, 1996

In February 1996, IBM's chess computer Deep Blue defeated Kasparov in one game using normal time controls, in Deep Blue - Kasparov, 1996, Game 1. Kasparov recovered well, however, gaining three wins and two draws and easily winning the matchDeep Blue, 1997

Main article: IBM Deep Blue

In May 1997, an updated version of Deep Blue defeated Kasparov in Deep Blue - Kasparov, 1997, Game 6, in a highly publicised six-game match. This was the first time a computer had ever defeated a world champion in match play. A documentary film was made about this famous match-up entitled Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine. IBM keeps a web site of the event.

Kasparov claimed that several factors weighed against him in this match. In particular, he was denied access to Deep Blue's recent games, in contrast to the computer's team that could study hundreds of Kasparov's.

After the loss, Kasparov said that he sometimes saw deep intelligence and creativity in the machine's moves, suggesting that during the second game, human chess players, in contravention of the rules, intervened. IBM denied that it cheated, saying the only human intervention occurred between games. The rules provided for the developers to modify the program between games, an opportunity they said they used to shore up weaknesses in the computer's play revealed during the course of the match. Kasparov requested printouts of the machine's log files but IBM refused, although the company later published the logs on the Internet at http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/watch/html/c.shtml. Kasparov demanded a rematch, but IBM declined and retired Deep Blue.

Deep Junior, 2003

In January 2003, he engaged in a six game classical time control match with a $1 milllion prize fund which was billed as the FIDE "Man vs. Machine" World Championship, against Deep Junior. The engine evaluated three million positions a second. After one win a piece and three draws, it was all up to the final game. The final game of the match was televised on ESPN2 and was watched by an estimated 200-300 million people. After reaching a decent position Kasparov offered a draw, which was soon returned by the Deep Junior team to the dissapointment of millions. Asked why he offered the draw, Kasparov said he feared making a blunder.^[31] Originally planned as an annual event, the dissapointing result of this match prevented that from happening.

X3D Fritz, 2003

In November 2003, he engaged in a four-game match against the computer program X3D Fritz (which was said to have an estimated rating of 2807), using a virtual board, 3D glasses and a speech recognition system. After two draws and one win apiece, the X3D Man-Machine match ended in a draw. Kasparov received $175,000 for the result and took home the golden trophy. Kasparov continued to criticize the blunder in the second game that cost him a crucial point. He felt that he had outplayed the machine overall and played well. "I only made one mistake but unfortunately that one mistake lost the game."