INQUIRER Sports

MADRID – Chess legend Garry Kasparov took a 2-0 lead against his Russian peer Anatoli Karpov on Tuesday on the first day of a duel renewing one of the game's greatest rivalries.

Kasparov, 46, who has become an opposition activist in Russia since withdrawing from competitive chess in 2005, defeated 58-year-old Karpov in two 25-minute games played in the Spanish eastern city of Valencia.

The rivals played the first of 12 games -- four semi-rapid and eight rapid -- which will end on Friday.

The duel comes 25 years after the chess icons faced off in an epic battle in Moscow that lasted five months. The match ended in controversy when the World Chess Federation stopped the game without a clear winner on alleged health grounds though both players said they wanted to continue.

Karpov, who was 33 at the time, had won five of the matches, Kasparov, who was only 21, won three and 40 more were draws.

In their 1985 rematch, Kasparov beat Karpov narrowly, becoming the youngest world champion, and defended his title the following year.

The last time he played Karpov was in 1990 when he narrowly won.