Garry Kasparov was so impressed by Elisabeth Pähtz at the Hanover Trade Fair last year that he immediately called the German Interior Minister and demanded that she be given sponsorship and a stipend for training. “Rather than being intimidated by playing the World Champion,” he said, “Elisabeth thought very hard about her moves in our two games, and she solved her problems very well. She will be among the top five women in the world within a year.” Not bad for a 14-year-old. Elisabeth won her first tournament match at age 6, and by 1997 she was Champion of the German Federal States for players under 20.

You wouldn’t expect an eighth-grader to have played chess in Austria, Hungary, France and Brazil, but she has placed in the top five in her age group in tournaments in all those countries as well as in her homeland, Germany. She practices chess three times a week for three hours with her father, a well-known Grandmaster and chess trainer in her home town of Erfurt. Her other interests are playing the piano and flute, drawing, mathematics and English.

Elisabeth plays online chess with her colleagues in Poland and Russia. She follows her opponents’ games in ChessBase and analyzes them using the Fritz computer software program. Her favorite chess author is John Nunn. Now rated 2270, she especially likes speed chess. “It’s more a sport than a game,” she said, “where if you have a bad position, you can still win. For example, if you are down a rook, your opponent might make a mistake under pressure. Normally it’s impossible to win in that situation.” Kasparov has heavily promoted speed chess as an alternative to long games. Elisabeth is currently leading in five out of six rounds in a speed chess championship.

Her thoughts on Kasparov’s strategy? “He’s a genius – holding the title for 14 years proves it.” She’s thrilled about her assignment as one of our Chess Analysts. What does she like about Garry (in addition to his brilliant chess)? “He talked about history during our entire lunch,” she said, “And he’s very funny!” Will anyone be able to beat him? “Not in the near future,” she said. “The only possibility might be a young genius like [Ruslan] Ponomariov now 14 years old, when he’s 21.” Or maybe Elisabeth Pähtz, when she’s 21. Garry faces a major challenge down the road.