The 58-year-old lost in seven moves in Zagreb in July but is scoring well this week against top grandmasters
Garry Kasparov made a much better comeback in St Louis on Thursday night after the legend, who many consider the all-time No 1, crashed two months ago in Zagreb, where he won only one game out of 18 and lost in seven moves to Azerbaijan’s Shak Mamedyarov.
The 58-year-old’s poor clock management and outdated openings in five-minute blitz contributed to his Zagreb disaster. This week’s format in the $150,000 Champions Showdown is Chess 9LX, also known as Fischer Random and Chess 960, where the back rank pieces start at random squares and the time limit is 15 minutes for the game plus per move increments, so that the clock plays a lesser role and opening knowledge is irrelevant.