The beast is back! Garry Kasparov will take another shot at competitive chess starting Tuesday at the Chess960 Champions Showdown in Saint Louis. He will play a 20-game rapid and blitz match against Veselin Topalov with the starting positions randomized. Four other match-ups will also take place: Nakamura vs. Svidler, So vs. Giri, Shankland vs. Vachier-Lagrave, and Aronian vs. Dominguez.
The tournament will last four days (from Tuesday until Friday). The first three days, the participants will play two rapid games followed by two blitz games — all four games will be played with the same starting position. On Friday, on the other hand, they will play the remaining eight blitz games — the starting positions will be drawn twice, once at the beginning and once before the final four games.