There was drama in the air at the renovated St Louis Chess Club after the second day of the Clutch Chess: The Legends battle between former world champions Viswanathan Anand and Garry Kasparov after the Indian legend lost on time in the first rapid game of day 2 despite being in a winning position on the board. Anand seemed to forget about the clock and flagged (losing on time), something that Kasparov noticed first and pointed it out to his opponent. The duo had famously battled in the 1995 World Chess Championship at New York’s World Trade Centre three decades back. Kasparov went on to win the event with two games to spare on Friday, following which Anand won the two remaining two games to bring the final score to 13-11 in favour of the Russian. ALSO READ | Vishy Anand's blunt verdict after Garry Kasparov match: ‘At least I don't have to hide my face when I return home’ Anand had been trailing by just one point after the four games on day 1, but lost two more games on day 2 (Thursday) to fall five points behind the Russian legend at the end of day 2. The biggest talking point was Anand losing on time to Kasparov in the first game itself. Woman Grandmaster Anastasiya Karlovich, who was interviewing the Russian at the end of the second day for the official stream, noted in the interview that she had overheard Kasparov apologising to Anand after the win. When asked why he had said sorry to Anand, Kasparov said: “I said I'm sorry because that's not (to win from losing position on time). It's a lost position and I deserved to be punished.” INTERACTIVE: How Anand lost to Kasparov after flagging When Anand compared playing Kasparov vs playing Carlsen In 2022, which doing commentary for the Candidates tournament, Anand was asked to compare playing against Magnus Carlsen at his peak as opposed to playing Kasparov at his peak. This this, Anand had said: "For Magnus it is a recent phenomenon. But what I saw during 2019 from him left me awestruck. Garry feels remote. As the years pass, you stop feeling it. Garry was equally intense and it was a heavy experience playing him. The one difference between playing both is that Magnus is a much more universal player. Garry needed dynamic positions more. Even though he played many positions quite excellently, he never chose them. Magnus wins a lot more dead-drawn positions than anyone else. Magnus experiments much more." ALSO READ | Garry Kasparov after win over Vishy Anand: ‘Ghosts of past visited him during game… his score against me historically is bad’ WATCH: Garry Kasparov explains why he apologised to Anand WATCH: Vishy Anand speaks about his loss to Kasparov while talking about his loss, Anand said: "I saw at one point I had 1 minute 26 seconds and then I don't know I should have looked at the clock again. I just completely forgot and I was so absorbed in this. I mean, I couldn't believe that he went for this f4 f5 because uh he's clearly worse after that. I went knight e4 and I was deliberating between e7 and c7 and I just lost track of time) and then when the arbiter came (to inform him he had lost), it was the biggest shock." The former world champion continued: “It was a horrible game (from me). But the next three games, I am pretty happy with what I did.” ALSO READ | WATCH: Viswanathan Anand forgets about clock and loses on time in winning position vs Garry Kasparov There are four more games and 12 points on offer on Friday. Kasparov said that he felt "guilty" after winning game 1. "After game one, I feel guilty because it's the I don't know why I deserve this kind of luck," Kasparov added.
