GARRY Kasparov opened his 1995 world championship match at a memorable location-the top of the World Trade Center. The date was Sept. 11, six years to the day before the terror attacks.

What’s also remarkable is that Kasparov was in London 10 days ago – and got on an Underground train at the King’s Cross station less than half an hour before the bombing.

According to Malcolm Pein, a London-based international master, Kasparov said he took the tube because he decided to take a trip to the countryside north of London, and he safely reached his destination, unaware of what had happened.

Pein’s store, the London Chess Centre, and the British Chess Magazine’s shop both lie a short distance from the King’s Cross, Russell Square and Edgeware Road tragedies.

Pein said he took the tube that Thursday morning but “by chance” avoided King’s Cross. He was halfway up an escalator at the Euston station when the lights went out, the power went off and he bashed his head in a crush of people.

He managed to get out of the station and discovered his Euston Road store was being used as a sanctuary by dazed passersby.

At the BCM shop, on Baker street, the staff shrugged off the attacks.

“We survived two world wars,” an unidentified official wrote on their Web site. “So I guess we’ll outlast a few bomb-throwing zombies.”