Kasparov defeated by 15-year-old prodigy

In one of the biggest upsets in the history of the game, a 15-year-old boy has defeated Garry Kasparov to become the youngest person to beat a world No1 in tournament play.

Teimur Radjabov's success at the annual "chess Wimbledon" in Linares, Spain owed little to luck. The world No1 is almost invincible with the white pieces, but the teenager from Azerbaijan grabbed the initiative from the start. A piece down at move 39 and faced with looming checkmate, Kasparov resigned.

To add insult to injury, his conqueror, who will be 16 next month, hails from Kasparov's home town of Baku. Radjabov's father is a petroleum engineer, his mother teaches English, while his grandfather competed in Olympic sport.

His talent showed early. At 10 he beat Viktor Korchnoi in a simultaneous display and by the time he was 11 Kasparov predicted he would be world champion. It is said Kasparov presented prizes at a junior competition and spent time on stage talking to Radjabov, who told friends "I saw the fear in his eyes".

By 12, he had stopped school and was working seven hours a day on chess and, at 14, he was a grandmaster. Last year he reached the Moscow grand prix final and his first meeting with Kasparov, who crushed him. Months later, at the World v Russia match, they drew.