Former world champion Gary Kasparov of Russia will be present during the World chess championship match at Chennai on November 11 and 12.
Kasparov, who will be in India for a conference at Goa on November 8, will hop across to Chennai for a couple of days and is likely to be present during the third game to be played on November 12 at the Hyatt.
“I’m participating at the THiNK conference in Goa (November 8-10) then at Anand-Carlsen match 11-12 in Chennai...,” Kasparov tweeted.
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The former world number one and the first to scale the 2850 ELO rating mark in chess, Kasparov had paid a visit to Moscow last year too when Anand had beaten Boris Gelfand of Israel.
Anand had been criticised by Kasparov during the championship’s sixth match wherein the Russian was one of the guests.
“What I think with Vishy is that he has lost motivation,” Kasparov had said during the match. Anand had lost the seventh game, recovered to win the eighth and the match in tiebreakers.
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“Kasparov lost his match in 2000 (to Kramnik) and retired in 2005. Then since 2011, he has been trying to make me retire too. He is perhaps missing the attention he used to get as the World champion,” Anand had retorted after the match.
Kasparov’s presence will obviously raise a few eyebrows as he is standing up against current FIDE administration in the next elections in 2014.
Interestingly, there are wide speculations that Kasparov has also worked for Carlsen for the match against Anand.
According to a recent article by Grandmaster Nigel Short, Kasparov and Carlsen have joined hands again and teamed up for the match against Anand.
It may be recalled that Kasparov had trained Carlsen previously too but the Norwegian had found the Russian to be too demanding and bossy. It was an amicable split though when they parted with mutual consent.
Kasparov had mentioned during the last Commonwealth Chess Championship at South Africa earlier this year that he would be in India during the match (for a conference) for a few days but ‘may not go to Chennai’ The decision to visit now could be prompted by his nomination as the next FIDE President as well as improved relations with Carlsen.
Kasparov’s visit could have some effect on Anand. Even though Anand took Kasparov’s help for the match against Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in 2010, the verbal war since last year by Kasparov could not have helped retain healthy relations.