Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand will renew their rivalry once again when the two legends of chess face off at an exhibition game for the Clutch Chess series. Before the match though, the Russian Grandmaster took a dig at Anand, saying that he’ll give the Indian chess icon a chance to improve their head to head records.
“It’s entertaining. I think I should give Vishy a chance to improve our score!” Kasparov joked during the live broadcast of the fifth round of the Sinquefield Cup tournament on Saturday when asked about playing Anand. “He’s playing very good chess and he’s very much in chess, I am not. But I’ll enjoy it. Let’s see if I manage against Vishy even if my chess preparation is almost non-existent,” Kasparov added.
In the Classical format, Kasparov has a 15-3 winning record against Anand while 30 matches have been draws. However, in the most recent encounter in 2021, Anand had defeated Kasparov at the Croatia Rapid and Blitz in Zagreb.
The Russian Grandmaster, often considered one of the the greatest chess players in history, has won the world championship title six times with four of those titles coming against Anatoly Karpov. He also beat Nigel Short and five-time world champion Anand.
Comments on Gukesh
In the same broadcast, Kasparov also had some not so encouraging things to say about current world champion D Gukesh who had won the title last year after defeating China’s Ding Liren. Kasparov added that the era of classical world champions ended when Magnus Carlsen refused to take part in the world championship cycle since 2023.
Chess legend Garry Kasparov with current world champion Gukesh before the start of the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz Croatia 2025 in Zagreb. (PHOTO: Grand Chess Tour via Lennart Ootes)
“Gukesh won fair and square but you can hardly call him the strongest player in the world. I don’t want to sound offensive but I think Magnus ended the era of classical world champions. Gukesh’s world championship title is very different. It’s still clear that Magnus is the strongest and Gukesh is yet to prove his superiority over others. Even players of his age category. The round 1 game against Praggnanandhaa at the Sinquefield Cup was very unimpressive. The rules are the rules and the games are the games,” Kasparov said.
“I’m sure there will be more excitement in the Candidates and the next world championship match. But I apologise. I have to apologise time and again. This is not exactly the title that I had or Karpov had or Fischer had or Magnus had,” Kasparov added.
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