The world of chess is set for a nostalgic showdown this October in St. Louis, where two of the game’s greatest rivals, Viswanathan Anand and Garry Kasparov, will lock horns once again. The exhibition, part of the Clutch Chess series, will also feature a blockbuster clash between current world champion D Gukesh and Magnus Carlsen.Kasparov, never one to shy away from playful banter, aimed a light-hearted dig at his old rival during the Sinquefield Cup broadcast on Friday. “I think I should give Vishy a chance to improve our score!” he quipped, hinting at the long history they share across the board.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Their rivalry dates back to the 1990s, when Anand was breaking into the elite and Kasparov reigned supreme as world champion. Across 82 games in different formats, Kasparov leads the head-to-head, though Anand famously defeated him at the 2021 Croatia Rapid and Blitz in Zagreb, their most recent encounter.Alongside this exhibition hype, Kasparov has been weighing in on the current state of world chess. With Magnus Carlsen stepping away from the world championship cycle in 2023, Ding Liren and then 18-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju went on to claim the title. Gukesh’s triumph in Singapore last year made him the youngest ever world champion.Yet Kasparov’s verdict was blunt. “Gukesh won fair and square but you can hardly call him the strongest player in the world,” he said. “Magnus ended the era of classical world champions. Gukesh’s title is very different… even players of his age category. The rules are the rules and the games are the games.” Kasparov later apologized, while holding firm to his opinion: “This is not exactly the title that I had or Karpov had or Fischer had or Magnus had.”As October approaches, fans eagerly await two storylines: Carlsen vs Gukesh for the future, and Anand vs Kasparov, a clash that rekindles chess history.
