Online auction site gives bidders chance to play chess grandmaster

Bidorbuy, a large online auction site, based in South Africa, is set to give people a unique bidding opportunity. Six winning bidders will have the opportunity to take on renowned Russian chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov in a simultaneous game of chess.

Kasparov will play an exhibition match against 30 or so participants. Six of those will be reserved for bidders on the site.

According to bidorbuy the auctions will be a “one-a-day” affair. One ticket will be available every day over six days, with the auction running between 9AM until 9PM with bids opening at R1(US13c).

“Garry Kasparov is a legend. We are very proud to host these auctions”, says bidorbuy CEO Jaco Jonker.

He expects that bidders will jump at the opportunity to play a game with one of the world’s most renowned chess players.

The mass exhibition match event is part of the preparations leading up to the launch of the Kasparov Chess Foundation Africa in early 2012.

The so-called “simul” will reportedly include a number of high-profile politicians, celebrities and sports personalities.

According to bidorbuy, the Kasparov Chess Foundation, already active in the USA and in Europe, plans to develop its African arm in cooperation with the one year old, and already very successful South African programme called Moves For Life.

The two organisations will reportedly work together to bring chess to schools throughout the South Africa as well as the continent, with the eventual aim of making Johannesburg the African capital of chess.

The proceeds of the auctions will also go to the two charity organisations.

“Visitors to www.bidorbuy.co.za will find the Gary Kasparov simul auctions on our Charity Listings page, which was designed especially to host non-profit organisations that wish to make use of bidorbuy for fund-raising purposes”, says Jaco Jonker, adding: “As always in cases like these, bidorbuy will forfeit its regular selling commission, ensuring that every cent the winning bidders put forward ends up in the organisation’s coffers”.

Kasparov’s chess skills were first identified when he was a young child and he made his name by becoming the youngest world chess champion in 1985. He was just 22 at the time.

His place in the popular imagination, however, was probably secured by the various exhibition matches he has played against computers.

The most notable of these matches were his victory against Deep Thought in 1989 and his 1997 loss to IBM’s Deep Blue, a computer designed for the sole purpose of playing chess.