Kasparov Posts 2nd Win in Marathon Chess Series

Gary Kasparov, the 21-year-old challenger for the world chess crown, scored his second victory in the marathon series today--keeping his hopes alive of wresting the championship from titleholder Anatoly Karpov.

Kasparov’s victory in the 47th game of the record-breaking series made the score 5 to 2 in favor of Karpov, who needs only one more win to retain the title that he has held since 1975.

The challenger, playing Black, defeated the champion on the 32nd move, the official Tass press agency said.

According to Tass, “the game unfolded essentially as trench warfare, but on the 19th move, Black opted for a more aggressive continuation.”

Karpov, playing White, opened with the Cambridge Spring variation of the Queen’s Gambit in which the Queen’s Knight is advanced.

The match began in the ornate Hall of Columns last Sept. 9 and has broken virtually every record in championship play, including the number of matches, the number of draws and duration of the contest.

Karpov, 33, ran up an impressive 4-0 tally in the first nine games, but the two grandmasters then appeared to fall into a routine of draws, which do not count in the final score.