How intense can elite chess players be about their craft? Especially at the grandmaster level? Or even more specifically, at the world championship level? A measure of that concentration and devotion to analysing their craft came recently when two former world champions Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand squared off in an exhibition contest in St Louis called Clutch Chess: The Legends. The event saw Anand and Kasparov face off in 12 games over three days with two rapid and two blitz games each day.
While Kasparov retired from professional chess in 2005, Anand calls himself semi-retired and plates a handful of events each year. Both players were turning back the clock at St Louis of the exhibition game, giving chess fans whiffs of nostalgia about the time the duo had faced off in the PCA World Chess Championship battle in 1995 in New York’s World Trade Centre.
But no matter how much chess they usually play these days—and how much chess they had ended up playing over the course of three days of exhibition chess at St Louis—Anand and Kasparov’s appetite for the sport was visible in a video posted by the St Louis Chess Club on its Instagram page.
In the video, after the 12th and final game of the event, both Anand and Kasparov can be seen analysing the game while standing up. At one point, grandmaster Maurice Ashley and Rex Sinquefield stop by to try and make a request off the duo. Ashley, whose idea the Clutch Chess event was, and Sinquefield (who is an index fund pioneer but most popularly known for his links to chess with the Sinquefield Cup bearing his name), can be seen politely waiting by hoping that Anand and Kasparov stop analysing. But when they don’t, Ashley eventually interrupts: “Gentlemen, sorry we have to conclude. You guys can analyse at your leisure.”
Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand at the Clutch Chess: The Legends exhibition clash. (PHOTO: Lennart Ootes via St Louis Chess Club)
WATCH: Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand analyse chess
Ashley then gets Sinquefield to congratulate Kasparov for winning the event. Ashley then tries his best to get Kasparov to leave the board so that he can come and join the official broadcast of the event for an interview. But by this stage, Kasparov’s thoughts are already on the board again as he starts moving pieces.
“And they’re still talking chess. These champions cannot stop themselves,” Ashley says loudly with a hearty chuckle that makes everyone else around laugh. Everyone, except Anand and Kasparov, who still have ears for only each other and eyes on the board.
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