Gata Kamsky

Who is Gata Kamsky?

Gata Kamsky is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster, and a former World Rapid Chess Champion. As of May 2012, he was rated No. 2 in the United States and No. 14 in the world.

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 played in the Candidates Tournament to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2012, where he advanced to the semifinals before losing to Boris Gelfand.