garry kasparov collision conference

Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov defeated 11 opponents at once in Toronto

All manners of celebrities have appeared at the 2022 Collision Conference in Toronto, but one of the hottest stories out of the global tech industry event is actually… chess-related?

Like a scene out of the hit Netflix drama "The Queen's Gambit," legendary chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov singlehandedly defeated 11 simultaneous opponents before a stunned crowd on Wednesday at the Enercare Centre.

Kasparov was on hand in his capacity as an ambassador for tech company Avast Security, delivering analysis on the war in Ukraine with Financial Times editor Gillian Tett and cybersecurity expert Ondrej Vicek.

But what really seemed to fill the seats was Kasparov's exhibition chess match held against 11 opponents at once.

And every single one of them fell to the Grandmaster, who spent a record 255 months at the top of the world's chess rankings and is widely considered among the greatest of all time.

Sure, it would probably hit harder to see a 59-year-old Michael Jordan (the chess and basketball legends are the same age!) winning an 11-on-1 matchup, but Kasparov made a pure show of it all, reminding everyone in attendance that he is one of the true legends of the game.

The 2022 Collision Conference runs from June 20 through 23 and is attended by over 35,000 people representing the best and brightest in the tech world.

And somehow, a game dating back to the 15th century became one of the hottest stories out of the conference. Go figure.

Lead photo by

CollisionHQ


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