Chess masters Anand and Karpov to match wits

Chess grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand will have an unexpected old rival to contend with when he arrives in Moscow to defend his FIDE World Championships title.

Anatoly Karpov, who thwarted Anand from winning the title in 1998 in a remarkably unexpected decision, has agreed to attend the FIDE championship in his homeland, Russia.

The championship preliminaries are scheduled in Moscow from November 25 to December 11 and the title match between the two finalists will be held at the same venue from January 16 to 26, 2002.

Karpov, who stayed away from the 2000-2001 championship held in New Delhi and Tehran, which Anand won, said in a statement: "Anand had the home court advantage then. Now I shall have the edge since the championship is in Russia."

For FIDE, the governing body of world chess, securing a confirmation from Karpov was a major coup. The player's confirmation was displayed prominently on the FIDE Web site.

The decision from the former world champion who dominated the chess world from 1975 to 1985 before relinquishing his throne to Garry Kasparov came as a major surprise.

He had some time ago written a joint letter, along with Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, that was critical of FIDE's policies and it seemed more or less certain he would also stay away from the FIDE World Championships like last year.

In 1997-1998, when FIDE first introduced the Knock-Out World Championships, Karpov had been seeded directly into the title match where he met Anand, who had won his way through the long-winded and strenuous preliminary stage in Groningen.

Karpov finally beat Anand in the tiebreak in Lausanne, Switzerland. The following year both Anand and Karpov stayed away as Alexander Khalifman won the title in Las Vegas.

Last year, when the championship came to New Delhi, India (preliminaries) and Tehran, Iran (the final), Anand won through comfortably beating Alexei Shirov in the final. Karpov, Kasparov and Kramnik stayed away from the championships.

Karpov, who turned 50 this year, had earlier said he would play in a special tournament involving Kasparov, Kramnik and himself in Moscow at the same time.

The event was planned to mark the 90th anniversary of former world champion Mikhail Botwinnik who had trained all the three Ks.

According to Karpov's statement: "The time is right for me to make a comeback."

Karpov also claimed that many of his friends had urged him to "wrest the crown." He said: "I celebrated my 50th birthday this year with close to 2,000 guests at the Bolshoi theatre and many of my friends encouraged me to make this move. My recent victory at the Najdorf Memorial Cup in Buenos Aires inspired me to seek the title again."

FIDE suggests that Karpov had a change of mind following their decision to change the championship cycle from one year to two years.

Karpov also added, "I brought the title back to Russia from the West in1975. Now in 2001 I feel it is my duty to wrest the crown from the East and take it back to Mother Russia."

On the issue of the 3Ks tournament, Karpov said, "I approached the organising committee to coordinate another date at the beginning of next year. I strongly support the idea of that tournament in honour of the great Botvinnik."

Interestingly, FIDE has also planned to honour Botwinnik, besides other leading players including Karpov in their celebrations this year.

Karpov's confirmation for the championship is a big boost for FIDE, which had been threatened by the planning of the 3Ks event in Moscow at the same time.

Another victory for Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the FIDE president, is that Karpov's coming over to his side means the Botvinnik Memorial looks certain to be cancelled.

--Indo-Asian News Service