VALENCIA, September 23 (RIA Novosti) - Russian chess legend Garry Kasparov has a 3-1 lead over his long-time rival Anatoly Karpov after the second day of a showdown in Valencia.
On Wednesday Karpov won the first game playing whites after Kasparov abandoned the game having a lead of 16 seconds. Kasparov took revenge on his opponent playing white pieces during the second game, as Karpov ran out of time.
On Tuesday the opponents played the first two rapid games, having 25 minutes on the clock and five seconds added after each move. Kasparov won both. The game was watched live on the Internet by users from 129 countries. Russia (16.7% of online viewers), Spain (14%) and France (11.2%) were in the top three.
Between September 22 and 24 Kasparov and Karpov are playing a 12-game match, involving four rapid and eight blitz games, in which each player starts with five minutes on the clock, and receives two seconds after each move.
Prior to the encounter Karpov had all but retired and Kasparov had officially quit chess to focus on politics.
The result of their first showdown, a five-month world championship epic struggle in 1984, was terminated by chess authorities due to the large number of draws. Their second meeting took place a year later in Moscow with a 23-year-old Kasparov defeating Karpov 13-11 to become the youngest world champion.
