Eideard

MADRID: Chess legends Garry Kasparov and Anatoli Karpov will face off on Monday in the Spanish city of Valencia for a five-day re-match, 25 years after their epic world championship duel.

The September 21-25 match will not carry the same suspense as the Moscow showdown between then world champion Karpov and challenger Kasparov, their first battle that dragged on five months before it was called off with no winner.

The new match will have only 12 games – four semi-rapid and eight rapid – with Kasparov, 46, and Karpov, 58, facing off under the watch of Dutch chess arbiter Geurt Gijssen, the Valencia regional government said.

Kasparov, who earlier said it would be more a “ceremonial tournament” with a time-limit on moves, has been training in the Norwegian capital Oslo with the 18-year-old chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen….

Karpov has secluded himself for the last week in an apartment on the Spanish coast, training with a group of world-class players and with a computer, according to organisers.

The matches will be broadcast live on the Valencia regional government website (www.gva.es). Organisers said they expect some 10 million web users to follow the event in this city known as the birthplace of modern chess, where the game has been played since the 15th century.

I realize that this story is about as interesting to most people as watching paint dry. And, of course, I don’t care.

It won’t be the match of the century. It probably won’t even be the match of the year. But for some of us who were watching in 1984, it will be interesting on one level or another.

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Updates:
Kasparov Wins First Two Games Against Karpov