The Hindu : Kasparov, FIDE sign 'unification' agreement

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 08, 2002

Sport

Sport - Chess

Kasparov, FIDE sign 'unification' agreement

Prague May 7. The International Chess Federation FIDE and celebrated chess master Garry Kasparov settled a nine-year dispute on Tuesday by agreeing to cooperate on World Championship tournaments.

Kasparov and FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov signed a ``unification'' agreement following the Eurotel World Chess Trophy contest in Prague, said spokeswoman Lucie Boublikova.

``The unification is complete,'' Boublikova told Deutsche Presse- Agentur. ``It's not so messy anymore.''

The two men were leaders of separate camps in the chess world that disagreed over policies and procedures for championship tournaments.

The dispute prompted Kasparov to split from FIDE in 1993 and start his own tournament system, sponsored by a group called Brain Games. After that, each group organised its own matches and named a world champion.

Kasparov's group last championship tournament was in 2000, when he was defeated by Vladimir Kramnik. FIDE, meanwhile, recently named eighteen-year-old Ruslan Ponomariov the 2002 world champ.

Boublikova said in the future a single tournament would be held to select the best chess player on the planet.

At the Eurotel tournament, Kasparov had lost in the quarterfinals.

The winner was India's Viswanathan Anand.

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