Chennai: The London Chess Classic opened with a novelty on Saturday. The nine Super Grandmasters in the London fray took on the world in a Twitter game to popularise the gameand the result was as expected: a win for the combined might of the top chess players who had the black pieces.
The question at the start of the game was how long the world would last against the GMs? After 23 moves when the arbiter brought the curtain down, there was laughter all around. The scene would definitely change from the first round in the competition for sure.
The Rest of the World's first move was said to be made by tennis ace Boris Becker of Germany. Known for his 'boom boom' serves Becker opened with king pawn. The reply was Modern defence.
The GMs were taking turns to make the moves, but there were some discussions among them about the plans. It was all very informal and the strict laws of the game were not being adhered to. At one point, the arbiter was said to have given an advice to a player, who was rated 700 points above him. Well, this could be the only occasion when he would be allowed to do that.
Anand takes on local star Michael Adams with black pieces in the first round. The Indian has a rest day on Sunday and will assist the commentators in analysing the other games. The first round player to assist the commentary will be Nigel Short. This is because in a nine-player event one will have rest in every round.
Later, in a press conference, Anand was asked whether he would be at a disadvantage playing inMoscow against a Russian speaking Gelfand, originally from Belarus. The world champion in his inimitable way said speaking Russian would definitely help and added. "But I've also been there a lot, and I'm quite familiar with the city. I don't think I'll be at a disadavantage." The chess world knows Anand speaks Russian, Spanish and German fluently.
TOI