Today, the Alapin is considered to be one of the most and respectable , and it is championed by grandmasters such as Evgeny Sveshnikov, Eduardas Rozentalis, Sergei Tiviakov, Duško Pavasovič, and Drazen Sermek. It has been played by World Champions Viswanathan Anand, Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Veselin Topalov, and Vladimir Kramnik. Deep Blue played the Alapin Variation against Kasparov in their 1996 match in order to avoid a main line Sicilian that would walk into Kasparov's lifetime of experience with the opening.