MOSCOW, Sept 8: Two of the world’s greatest chess players, Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov, were stunningly defeated on Sunday in their first games at the opening of the “match of the century” pitting a Russian team of grandmasters against opponents from a “Rest of the World” team.

Amid the pomp and fanfare of a grand opening in the Kremlin Palace, officials said the world team which includes players such as the brilliant Indian grandmaster, Viswanathan Anand, held the first of four days of play against the Russians with a 6-4 advantage.

Kasparov lost to Ukraine’s Vassili Ivantchuk, while Karpov was defeated in his opening game to the Israeli player Ilia Smirin.

World Chess Federation (FIDE) president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov — who has organised this week’s event - said players on each side will meet all the opposing side’s players in games lasting 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move.

In carefully chosen words reflecting today’s changed world, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the players that the tournament should not “merely hail the ‘chess greats’, but also serve to reinforce peace, friendship and mutual understanding”.

In addition to Kasparov and Karpov, the Russian team is made up of Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Khalifman, Yevgenny Bareyev, Alexander Grushchik, Alexei Dreyev, Alexander Morozevich, Pyotr Svidler and Alexander Motylev, with Vadim Zvyagintsev and Sergei Rublyovsky as back-ups.

With Anand, the world team line up is: Ruslan Ponomaryov (Ukraine, current FIDE world champion), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Alexei Shirov (Spain), Peter Leko (Hungary), Boris Gelfman (Israel), Nigel Short (Britain), Judit Polgar (Hungary), Ilya Smirin (Israel) and Teymur Radzhabov (Azerbaijan), with Vladimir Akopian (Armenia) and Zurab Azmaiparashvili (Azerbaijan) as back-ups.—AFP