Kasparov-Short blitz match on October 9th in Belgium

Garry Kasparov will play an 8-game blitz match against Nigel Short, on October 9th in Leuven, Belgium. Venue is the Leuven city hall and the match will start at 18.30 local (Central European) time. Chess-news reports that the time control will be 5 minutes plus 3 seconds increment, but Nigel Short told us that he thought it was only 2 seconds increment. Update: it starts at 19.00 CET and the time control is indeed 5+2.

Short and Kasparov in the final of the 2004 Reykjavik rapid tournament | Photo © Omar Oskarsson

The blitz match celebrates the 5th jubilee edition of YourNextMove, a Belgian initiative to promote chess and support children between 6 and 12 years old. Inge Geerdens (CVWarehouse), Jan Callewaert (Option) en Gabriel Fehervari (Alfacam) are behind the project. Callewaert is also involved in the European branch of the Kasparov Chess Foundation, about which we reported recently.

Update 2: We now received a press release as well, which mentions that "the games can be viewed in the auditorium or on a 3D TV screen. The event will also be live streamed on the Internet via www.exqisport.be and Genna Sosonko, a former Soviet grandmaster and Dutch international, will commentate live." After the games Kasparov and Short will comment upon the games.

Kasparov and Short will face each other 18 years after their controversial battle for the world championship in London. In the early 90s they founded the Professional Chess Association (PCA), a rival organisation to FIDE which existed between 1993 and 1996. Nigel Short won the Candidates tournament and became Kasparov's challenger for the PCA World Championship. The match took place in the Savoy Theatre in London, under the sponsorship of The Times. Kasparov won 12.5-7.5 and became PCA World Chess Champion.

On Tuesday, October 11th Kasparov will also play the traditional YourNextMove simul against 30 businessmen, politicians and children. Venue will be the Alfacam building in Lint, Belgium. We reported several times about these events and for example our 2008 article has some good photos.

Like in previous years, children can qualify for this event in several qualification events in different locations in Belgium. The first took place on Sunday, October 2nd in Bruges and the second will be on Thursday, October 6th Brussels. The best kids will qualify for simuls on October 8th with several (inter)national grandmasters, including Nigel Short. On this day, the 10 best youngsters will be selected to play against Kasparov on the 11th.