Born in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1963, Garry Kasparov came to international fame as the youngest world chess champion in history in 1985 at the age of 22, taking the title from the Kremlin favorite. His peak rating is still the highest of all time. Mr. Kasparov’s outspoken nature did not endear him to the Soviet authorities, giving him an early taste of opposition politics. From 1989-91 he played a prominent role in the democratic opposition to the Soviet system.

After twenty years as the world’s top-ranked player, Mr. Kasparov retired from chess in 2005 to take up the struggle for Russian democracy full time. His organization, the United Civil Front, is a member of the Solidarity opposition alliance that staged “Marches of Dissent” across Russia to protest President Putin’s authoritarian crackdown on democracy and civil rights. The ongoing efforts of Kasparov and his allies are directly connected to the popular eruption of anti-Putin protests that took place after the corrupt parliamentary elections at the end of 2011 and the similarly fraudulent presidential election of March 2012. Kasparov continues to be a potent voice for democracy and civil rights in Russia and around the world. For more information on what’s really happening in Russia today, please visit theotherrussia.org.

The US-based non-profit Kasparov Chess Foundation promotes the teaching of chess in schools. Chess has been demonstrated to improve academic performance as well as encouraging friendly competition between kids of all ages and backgrounds. KCF establishes a blueprint for bringing chess to millions of kids. Since its founding in 2002, the KCF program has reached over 3500 schools in every state. In 2011-12, international outposts were launched in Sao Paulo, Brussels, and Johannesburg.

Mr. Kasparov became a contributing editor to The Wall Street Journal in 1991 and has been a frequent commentator on politics and human rights in dozens of publications. He speaks frequently to business audiences around the world on innovation, strategy, and decision-making. His book “How Life Imitates Chess” on business and decision-making is available in over 20 languages. He is the author of an acclaimed series of chess books, “My Great Predecessors” and “Modern Chess”. He lives in Moscow.