Garry Kasparov is considered by many to be the best chess player in the world. In fact, he’s included on the list of top 30 smartest people in the world today by the American organization, Super Scholar.
But what is Garry Kasparov’s IQ? Is he a true genius, or simply a chess playing savant?
What Is Garry Kasparov Known For?
Kasparov was born in Azerbaijan SSR, Soviet Union to a Russian Jewish father and an Armenian mother. He started to show interest for chess at a very young age, and by the age of 22, he defeated then-champion Anatoly Karpov to become the youngest undisputed World Chess Champion.
As a teenager he entered and won many chess tournaments, and he even qualified for the Soviet Chess Championship when he was just 15 years old, making him the youngest player to enter the championship at that level.
He rose quickly through the ranks by winning high-class tournaments and in 1980 he qualified as a grandmaster.
Although he’s known as the world’s greatest chess player of all time, he decided to retire from chess in 2005 to become a writer and political activist.
He is now chairman for the Human Rights Foundation, lives in New York City, and travels around the world.
What Is Garry Kasparov’s IQ?
The score of Garry Kasparov’s IQ was 135. Although many sources estimate his IQ to have been between 180-190, he actually scored 135 on an IQ test he did in 1987-88. This was according to a series of tests designed to test his memory, abstract reasoning and spatial ability.
When it comes to Garry Kasparov’s IQ, it’s clear he was a very gifted man, but he doesn’t hold the record for the highest IQ to date.
Garry Kasparov vs. the Machines
In 1985, Garry had the chance to compete against 32 of the world’s best chess-playing machines. He won all 32 games.
Just 12 years later, he explains in his TED talk video that he was fighting with everything he had against just one of those 32 computers. Eventually, he lost the match against the IBM supercomputer, Deep Blue.
Although as he says in his book Deep Thinking that he was a bit of a sore loser, he decided that it was time to get on with things and move forward.
Kasparov envisions a future with artificial intelligence
Kasparov says he doesn’t fear intelligent machines. In fact, he envisions a world where we use machines to turn our dreams into reality. How? By merging human qualities, like reason, emotion, and imagination with the machine’s powerful memory and ability to calculate.
In fact, he likes to imagine that once machines have the ability to learn on their own with artificial intelligence, humans, and machines will be able to create the best chess game ever played in a concept he likes to call: advanced chess.
We all consider Garry Kasparov to be a chess guru, and he was undoubtedly one of the smartest people alive. But who else made it on the high IQ list and who holds the number one spot?
Who Was the Smartest Person Alive in 2018?
Stephen Hawking wasn’t fond of the term: “smartest person alive.” He achieved remarkable results in the fields of relativity and quantum mechanics, proving that despite his disability, he could accomplish anything he set his sights on.
Even though he was reported to have an IQ of 160 points, he never actually took an IQ test. So, when he was asked about his IQ by the New York Times, he replied: “I have no idea. People who boast about their IQ are losers.”
He always believed that the world needed many superheroes in every sphere of life, and not just in science. He was a truly inspiring figure.
Who Is the Smartest Person in the World Today?
According to Super Scholar, the number one spot on the highest IQ list is reserved for the late theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author, Stephen Hawking.
He was a brilliant professor, scientist, and trailblazer who did wonderful groundbreaking work in physics and cosmology. In March 2018, he passed at the age of 76.
Super Scholar’s list also includes names like Edward Witten, Andrew Wiles, Ruth Lawrence, and many more.
The list also mentions Judit Polgar, also known as the Queen of Chess, after her remarkable wins against some of the greatest former and current chess champions, including Kasparov himself, who lost to her in 42 moves.
What Was William James Sidis’ IQ?
We can’t talk about the smartest people in the world and neglect to mention William James Sidis. To this day, he is considered by many to be the smartest man to ever live.
According to some estimates, his IQ score was actually around 50 points higher than that of Albert Einstein.
He was born in Boston in 1898 and was a brilliant child prodigy. He started reading at the age of two and had already learned multiple foreign languages by the age of 6.
When Sidis was 11, he entered Harvard and became the youngest student to ever enroll in the University.
What made him really stand out was the fact that compared to other child prodigies, he was gifted with many different abilities: he was a gifted writer, poet, and a polyglot, having learned eight languages by the age of 6, and created his own language known as Vendergood.
Having a high IQ is an interesting trait to have, but it’s no guarantee of success. And we should also keep in mind that IQ tests only measure a very narrow set of cognitive traits and abilities.
What is intelligence, anyway? It’s not as easy to define these days as it once was.
In fact, some new research suggests we actually possess nine different types of intelligence!
It’s not how smart you are, but how you are smart.
— Jim Kwik, trainer of Mindvalley’s Superbrain Quest
