A NEW HIGH FOR CHESS

From the 107th-floor observation deck of New York City’s World Trade Center, the Statue of Liberty below has the scale and look of a queen on one of those miniature, travel-size chessboards. Ordinarily the deck offers only spectacular vistas. But for the next month or so, visitors will be able to see something else entirely: the Intel World Chess Championship.

For only $15, tourists and chessophiles can watch the two best players in the world, Professional Chess Association champion Gary Kasparov and challenger Viswanathan Anand, in a best-of-20 competition for $1 million. (The loser gets half a mil.) The championship is a co-production of the Intel Corp., the computer chip-maker, and the P.C.A., the breakaway chess organization started by Kasparov two years ago. With its heavyweight title-fight purse, a lightweight ticket price, an inspired setting and rules intended to shorten the matches, the event has been designed to reach those of us who still call knights “horsies.” Until recently, says P.C.A. commissioner Robert Rice, chess was “a medieval game supported in medieval fashion.” Now, quite literally, it has been given a whole new horizon.

Most chess matches of this caliber have been held in grand halls, with hushed audiences watching the players onstage. This time Kasparov and Anand pore over the board in a 3-m by 6-m soundproof booth. There are a few choice, $75 seats in the makeshift King’s Room overlooking the booth, but the action is livelier in the cheap folding chairs next door, where chess mavens can follow the match via TV or computer. Helped along by animated commentators Maurice Ashley (“E-5? Funky!”) and Danny King, amateurs and grand masters alike try to anticipate each move. When either player holds his head in his hands for half an hour or so, a fan can wander off for such ballpark staples as hot dogs and popcorn or have a trick picture taken that shows himself or herself sitting across the table from Kasparov. The show is part chessboard, part boardwalk.

The World Trade Center is an apt site for another reason. In the chess universe, Kasparov is such a dominating figure that his nickname is King Kong. A cartoon in a chess publication depicted Kasparov climbing up the World Trade Center (the edifice that trumped the Empire State Building) with Anand flying past in a biplane, trying to shoot him down. Born 32 years ago in Azerbaijan, Kasparov is considered by many to be the best player in history. Since becoming world champion at the age of 22, he has defended his title four times, written four books and played phone chess with David Letterman.

Anand is a worthy opponent in both ability and charisma. Though the game was devised in India some 2,000 years ago, his nation has produced surprisingly few chess geniuses. Anand, raised in Madras, became India’s first grand master when he was only 17. Still boyish-looking at 25, Vishy–as he is familiarly known–is one of India’s most famous sporting heroes. Yet he carries himself with an almost Gandhi-like humility. According to S. Lourduraj, one of his high school math teachers, “He was gentle with his classmates and respectful to his teachers. That’s why God has blessed him so much.” A nondrinker and strict vegetarian, the single Anand invariably travels with his parents. Once asked the secret to his success, Anand said, “I am laid back and relaxed. You have a problem if you get too excited. I play without being too optimistic.”

Yet like Kasparov and unlike his persona, Anand the player is aggressive. At one time he was so fast he was known as the Lightning Kid. Now he is called Speed King, though. in recent years he has learned to be deliberate. Anand will need to be if he hopes to defeat the champion, who beat him in five of their nine previous matches. “Kasparov can be had,” says 1992 U.S. champion Patrick Wolff, one of Anand’s seconds. “Vishy is still learning, while I think Gary has peaked.” Asked how such a humble fellow can be so forceful on the board, Wolff says, “Vishy’s aggression is channeled through his humor. He’ll sometimes belittle opponents by calling them silly names. When he was playing Vassily Ivanchuk a couple of years ago, he kept referring to him as Chuckie Cheese. When we got in the elevator the other day, Vishy wondered if King Kong was going to climb up the outside of the building.”

In their four games so far in the current match, King Kong and Speed King have played to four draws. Anand, playing white, actually had Kasparov on the ropes last Thursday, but then Anand turned cautious and let an opportunity on Move 20 get away, much to the disappointment of some of the observers. “He should have sacrificed the bishop,” said one sweat-shirted expert. “Maybe he lost his nerve.”

Or maybe Anand was just afraid that New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani would burst into the room and move a piece for him. The very first match on Sept. 11 started 15 minutes late to accommodate the mayor, who then made the ceremonial first move for Anand. Giuliani pushed the c pawn two squares forward. Vishy, somewhat horrified, wanted e-4. Even though the mayor had taken his hand off the piece, Anand was allowed to change the move–flouting the most basic rule of chess. But, hey, that’s show biz.

–With reporting by Georgia Harbison/New York and Anita Pratap/New Delhi