Sunday 26 April 2015

Kasparov v Short 2015

The 2 day Kasparov v Short match began overnight at the St Louis Chess Club. The first day saw 1 rapid game and 4 blitz games, which will be repeated on day 2. Both players came into the match with slight handicaps, Kasparov's being a lack of match practice, while Short's was possibly too much of it (plus a media storm to deal with).
At the end of the first day Kasparov lead 3.5-1.5. The players drew the rapid game, with Kasparov dominating the blitz 3-1.Even in the blitz game he lost, he was slightly better but ran out of time.
The other piece of news out of St Louis was the announcement of the "Grand Chess Tour" details. It was known that this event was being put together for a few months, but only now are the details being confirmed. For next year 3 events (St Louis, Stavenger, and London) are part of the series, but the prize pool of $1,000,000 is a big attractor. The field for each of these events will consists of all the worlds top rated players (with the exception of Kramnik who has other commitments), plus a couple of wild cards. Assuming that the series succeeds this year, there may be more events organised for 2016.


Kasparov,Garry (2812) - Short,Nigel D (2664) [E11]
Legends Rapid Match 2015 Saint Louis USA (1), 25.04.2015



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