Anand and Kramnik set to resume rivalry
Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik often produced fascinating chess when they came face-to-face, until the Russian retired in 2019.
That rivalry resumes on Wednesday — albeit in a brand new format.
The 14th and 15th World champions are set to play a series of four games of No-Castling Chess at Dortmund for the Sparkassen Trophy.
The format will not allow the players to castle — that is, bringing the king, from the middle of the board, to the safety of a fortress at either of the flanks, by a single move.
Castling is the only move in chess with which you can move two pieces — the king and the rook — at the same time. Now, chess is a very theoretical game with professional players memorising the first few moves (called the opening).
Unpredictable
So the real, unpredictable action would begin only after the opening moves are played out.
