It's blitz: Kasparov against Caruana, So and Nakamura

It's going to be a great spectacle when Garry Kasparov will take on the top three finishers of the US Championship 2016: Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura.

This is the first time Garry will play publicly after
he crushed Nigel Short 8.5-1.5 in blitz a year ago

The tournament has the the following format:

• It will be a four player sextuple Round Robin. Each player will play against the other six times.
• The time control is 5 mins + 3 seconds delay (not increment)
• The prize fund is $ 50,000
• The first game begins at 1 p.m. local time in Saint Louis. This would be 7 p.m. CET or 6 p.m. GMT.
• The games can be watched live on the official website.​

It's great that the best three players finished at the top of the
US Championship - it makes the blitz tournament even more interesting.

The first thing that Garry told Yasser after entering the studio
was, "Look, Yasser I have lost some weight!"

Hikaru began with the friendly trash talk right after the US Championships ended.

Hikaru: It will be interesting to see how Garry does against us!

Maurice Ashley: How Garry does against you guys as opposed to how you guys do against Garry?

Hikaru: Of course!

Maurice: The trash talking starts early!

Nakamura: I mean if you look at Basketball you see that people always say Stephen Curry is better than Michael Jordan. With every passing generation, the players are better than the previous one. That's why I think it will be more interesting from Garry's point of view than our.

Maurice: Because you are supposed to be the better?

Hikaru: Well, we are supposed to be. But many consider him to be the best player ever! So it will be interesting.

Garry was in the studio when Nakamura said this

Garry: "For a moment I thought he was doing it on purpose [not finishing in the top three] (laughs!) I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him trailing. For me it was almost a given that I would be facing Nakamura, Caruana and So. It would be interesting to see how I fare against one of the best blitz players in the world [Nakamura]. I don't know if they are better, but they are surely much younger!"

It will be 18 rounds of blitz chess to remember! What do you think will happen? Will Garry thrash these youngsters like he beat Nigel Short a year ago, or will he find himself out of shape and struggle against the deadly trio? We look forward to your views in the comments section below.

Links Official tournament site All Open games in PGN All Women's games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.