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07/07/2009
Anatoli Karpov and Garry Kasparov are going to find each other again 25 years after their historical match for the world’s champion title. Both players, who maintained 1984-1990 a strong contend beyond sports, are going to fight a duel September 21st to 25th in Valencia. A match consisting in 12 games; 4 semirrapid and 8 blitz, which are placed within the framework of a number of acts defending the city as the cradle of the modern chess.
The negotiations for receiving this confrontation have been long, but Valencia has finally achieved being the venue for this mythical duel. The city turns in as the first one welcoming a match between the two best chess players ever. The act will be retransmitted for the whole world on the radio, television and internet and it’s expected that 10 million people will follow it. Besides, 20 players of the Comunitat are going to play simultaneous chess games against Karpov and Kasparov.
The purpose of the event: ‘Valencia, cuna del Ajedrez Moderno’ (Valencia, cradle of the modern chess) is paying tribute to the city of Valencia, because it was here where the rules of the modern chess were defined in the XVth century and this fact caused its transformation and turned it into one of the most popular sports of the world. It was in Valencia, May 15th 1495 when Francesch Vicent, from Segorbe, published ‘Llibre del jochs partits del schachs en nombre de 100’, the first chess book containing the modern chess rules. Besides, three Valencian poets like Francí de Castellví, Bernat Fenollar y Narcís Vinyoles, invented the poem "Schachs d'amor", creating with it a new form of playing chess, in which the figure of the queen, with its actual strength, was emphasized.
Chess is actually one sport that counts with 17 million federates in the world; the third after football and athletics. In Valencia, there are 250 children practicing chess as an out-of-school activity.
