Kasparov surprised by novelty

World chess champion Garry Kasparov has recently been taking part in an Internet chess game where he’s taking on everyone in the world. Garry vs The World has been taking place on Microsoft’s website, where both sides have 24 hours to make their moves via email.

It works like this: Garry makes a move and then people all around the world vote for the best replying move. This was all going according to plan until the 10th move, when the rest of the world voted for an unusual queen move in a variation on the Sicilian Defence.

“It’s a brand new idea,” said the Russian Grandmaster. “It doesn’t promise me a lot but it puts some pressure on black. It’s a very unusual position, a broken balance.”

Rumours that Garry’s game has been off since playing Future Gamer's Editor last December, in which it took him 26 moves to break down Andy Smith’s cunning queenside attack, have not been substantiated.

Get yourself along to the Microsoft gaming website to follow the action.