Chess
The World Chess Championship begins this weekend, re-united again as a single title for the first time in years.
Thirteen years ago, Garry Kasparov, the undisputed world chess champion, broke with the World Chess Federation, over how the federation was organizing a match for the title.
At the time, Kasparov and his challenger, Nigel Short, an English grandmaster, staged their own match in London, which Kasparov won.
In retaliation, the federation declared that Kasparov was no longer champion and organized a match between Anatoly Karpov, Kasparov's predecessor, and Jan Timman, a Dutch grandmaster. Karpov won and the federation proclaimed him champion.
Since then, there have been at least two rival claimants to the title of world champion and efforts to resolve the dispute have fallen through.
Beginning Saturday, in Elista, Veselin Topalov, 31, a Bulgarian grandmaster who is the top-ranked player in the world, will play a 12-game match against Vladimir Kramnik, a Russian grandmaster who is also 31 and is ranked No. 4.
The players will divide $1 million, but the winner will go away with something arguably as valuable: He will be the one, true world champion.
The competitors offer a contrast in styles, should be quite interesting.
09/022/02006 0:54 AM
