The Queen's Move: How Garry Kasparov's Daughter Lives, Which the Chess Player Rejected Before Her Birth

In the west, the young artist Nika Neyelova is known as the heiress of an actress and a diplomat, but at home the girl is remembered as the child of love of Garry Kasparov and Marina Neyelova, who were shared by chess and another woman.

In the end of September, connoisseurs of beauty desperately grab their heads and diaries. At the same time, three major and important events for the capital's life begin at once: Fashion Week, Kinotavr and Cosmoscow. You will have to choose: look at the creations of Russian designers, judge the novelties of intellectual cinema, or unravel the ideas of artists.

We strongly advise you to visit the last point of attraction, because Muscovites have long since elevated Cosmoscow to the rank of autumn city attractions. World-famous creators coexist in neighboring halls - Mr. Doodle, Zhang Huan, Nika Neyolova ... It's nice to see a compatriot on this list. And if you are not aware of Nika's work, then know: the 34-year-old artist has already managed to gain a reputation as a talented sculptor recognized throughout the world.

“Why, how not to be born gifted with such and such extraordinary parents,” - whispered near the exposition of Niki. Unknowing visitors look into the biography of the sculptor and discover that she was born in the family of actress Marina Neyelova and diplomat Kirill Gevorgyan.

This union cannot be called ordinary in any way, but not many people know that genius was inherent in Nika's genes even before Marina met Kirill ...

When Novaya Gazeta congratulated Neyelova on her victory in the 2010 gallery competition, journalist Yuri Rost wrote: “The daughter of my friends Kirill Gevorgyan and Marina Neyelova was recognized as the main '' new sensation '' of the British competition. In modern secular society, Nika is perceived precisely as an extraordinary heiress of extraordinary parents, but in the distant 1980s she was judged as the daughter of Garry Kasparov.

All of Moscow was gossiping about the novel of the outstanding Soviet chess player and famous actress. Still, because the age difference between the lovers was 16 years. Harry was 21 years old, Marina - 37. Both were happy to find in each other what their peers did not give them: Neelova admired the mind of her chosen one, and the chess player was fascinated by the wisdom of the actress. In addition, she did not want to tie the knot, which terribly irritated Kasparov in other women.

“Our close communication with Marina Neyelova lasted more than two years. She was 16 years older than me, like all my then friends. Women of the same age, as a rule, sought to get married as soon as possible. Of course, I could not even think about this, as I was preparing for my first match for the world championship, ”Kasparov wrote later in his book“ Child of Change ”.

Harry's career was steadily going uphill, and he needed to learn to concentrate, "not to drive horses", not to let success turn his head. Once, after a victorious match with Vasily Smyslov, the chess player called his beloved and boasted that he had become “in five minutes the world champion”. To which she coldly replied: "Is your watch in a hurry?"

Marina came to all of Harry's important matches and sat in the hall next to his mother Klara Shagenovna. There was such a motley team: Kasparov, preparing for the title of the best chess player in the world, his main defender and support and adored beloved. Everything went almost perfectly until 1986, when the actress became pregnant.

“I almost stopped seeing Marina. Parting was becoming almost inevitable. Therefore, I was completely sure that the child she was carrying could not be mine, ”Kasparov immediately explained in his book. The chess player left the actress while she was still pregnant.

Despite the chess player's assurances that by the time of Marina's pregnancy they were no longer together, all secular Moscow sharply took up arms against Harry. Valentin Gaft even suggested not to let Kasparov into “decent houses”. Neelova did not even think about not giving birth to a baby, and Nika was born a real copy of Harry - the girl's deep expressive eyes did not allow lying.

“This is not our child,” Klara Shagenovna immediately told the press. There were rumors that she in every possible way set her son up against marriage with Marina, they say, "if you want to marry an actress, it is better to marry right away in a whole factory hostel."

Kasparov continued his ascent to the chess Olympus, and Neelova lulled her beautiful daughter in splendid isolation in her arms.

Two years after Nika's birth, Marina married diplomat Kirill Gevorgyan, with whom she is happily married to this day. He accepted the girl as his own and still clearly says in an interview: Nika is his daughter. And she says this with extraordinary pride, because from a crumb with an amazingly wise look, she has grown into a successful girl and an artist of a world scale.

Nika early showed the ability to learn languages and speaks fluent French, Dutch, English. Even as a child, she realized that she did not want to be an actress, like her mother, but the creative world still attracted her. Neelova's daughter studied at the courses of set designer Oleg Sheintsis, chief artist of Lenkom, and then received her education at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague.

After - the art university in Britain and the "New sensations" competition, which Nika brilliantly won. Gallery owner Charles Saatchi, the founder of the competition, purchased her sculpture for his gallery, elevating the name of Neelova to the rank of the most famous young artists. Nika's installations are now in many private collections in Great Britain, Russia, France, the Netherlands, and Germany.

In her work, she often uses elements of the post-apocalyptic world and creates non-working copies of real things, as if explaining their inconsistency for the eternal picture of the world. Critics note a certain pessimism in Nika's works and call lemniscates - signs of infinity, immortalized in space, as a key element.