Back in 1995, when Gata Kamsky was only 21 years old, he achieved astonishing success, knocking down in matches Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand – today, two of the strongest players in the world–and qualifying to fight at the highest level for the FIDE world-championship title. But in that same year, Kamksy abruptly interrupted his chess career to get an education in a field far less intellectually rigorous than chess: namely, law. After becoming the proud holder of a law degree, Kamsky returned to the chessboard and, despite his legal education, over the past three years has completely regained his stellar form. In the just-concluded World Cup in the Siberian city of Khanty-Mansiysk, Kamsky played nothing short of brilliantly. Thanks to unlucky parings, he was forced to play successive matches with all of the tournament’s favorites: Peter Svidler, Ruslan Ponomarev, Magnus Carlsen and Alexei Shirov. Kamsky mowed them all down and won the World Cup. His game against Shirov was the most exciting game of the competition.