Clutch Chess: 'Lucky' Kasparov stretches lead over 'forgetful' Anand

St. Louis: Indian ace Viswanathan Anand let slip some crucial chances against old nemesis Garry Kasparov as the Russian great stretched his lead to five points with two wins and as many draws on the penultimate day of their much-hyped showdown in the Clutch Chess Legends here.

Kasparov was lucky to clinch the first game as disaster struck Anand at a close-to-winning position when the Indian ran out of time after "forgetting" to keep an eye on the clock.

In one of the two blitz games of the day, Kasparov again won the first game to lead 8.5-3.5 going in to the final day of the USD 144,000 prize money event.

With four games still to come in the 12-game match, it is still not over for Anand because of the newly-introduced format. On the last day each victory will be worth three points for the winner while a draw will be worth 1.5 points.

Theoretically, Anand can still win the match by winning two games on the final day in the chess-960 format -- where the initial position of the pieces is selected through a random drawing of lots.

However, he hasn't looked at his best so far.

It was Anand's day to lose and not necessarily a day Kasparov would be proud of.

The former world number one could have easily lost the first game had Anand not forgotten about the clock in a nearly-won position.

"The first game I saw at one point I had one minute, 26 seconds and then I don't know, I should have looked at the clock again. I just completely forgot," Anand said after the game.

While the second game was a hard-fought draw, Anand lost another one on the day when each victory was worth two points giving Kasparov a five-point lead.

This was the shortest game of the match and lasted a mere 18 moves as Anand blundered a piece and resigned immediately.

Speaking about the third game Anand said, "full credit to him, because he spotted 0-0 (short castle). We'd been trying to castle long for a while, both of us... but after the bishops were taken, he spotted that he could just castle short and I think after that I'm just much worse. It's horrible!".

Things could have been worse for Anand but Kasparov did not push hard enough in the last game of the blitz.

"I just saw that it's not fair to push," said Kasparov, adding, "After game one I feel guilty—I don't know why I deserve this kind of luck!" When WGM Anastasya Karlovich wished him luck, Kasparov was quick to respond, "Thank you very much, but I don't think I need more luck. I'm happy with the luck I have now."