Thaindian News

London, Sep. 22 (ANI): The arch-rivals of world chess, Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov, are set to take on each other after a gap of nineteen years when they meet in Spain.

The Russian grandmasters have set aside their differences to play 12 rapid and semi-rapid games over four days in Valencia, The Telegraph reports.

This contest, which will be shown live on the internet, comes after the duo’s first competition against each another for the world title in Moscow.

Their contest lasted five months before it was apparently halted to protect the players’ health.

Karpov was in the lead when it was cut short but lost the world title to Kasparov the next year, 1985.

Although their hard-fought and always close matches shook up the chess world, but Karpov was more favoured by the Soviet establishment.

The reason for this is said to be their ethnicity. Karpov was an ethnic Russian, while Kasparov was of Jewish/Armenian parentage, had changed his surname from Weinstein, and had been born in the then Soviet republic of Azerbaijan.

Liberals saw Kasparov’s victory as a sign that a younger, less fusty generation was in the dominance.

According to experts, Karpov will be the underdog in Tuesday’s contest due to a spate of recent poor form, but Kasparov, who retired from professional chess in 2005, insists that his lack of practice could hinder him.

“I have not played a serious game for five years, which makes me doubt that I will be capable of recapturing my instinct,” he said. (ANI)