Meeting crucial to chess bid

Press, 1 September 1989, Page 5

Meeting crucial to chess bid

PA Wellington Whether New Zealand renews its bid for the world chess championship depends on what happens at a meeting of the Grandmaster Association in Brussels in December. There the association will decide what attitude it will adopt toward the International Chess Federation, Fide.

The world champion, Garry Kasparov, aged 26, a founder of the association, is upset with Fide because of its attempt to take total control of the world championship, leaving the players to accept whatever venue is decided for them.

In spite of Lyons having already been chosen by Fide for next year’s world championship, he wants the matter reconsidered with the players having an input. New Zealand

should renew its bid, he says. His likely challenger for the world title is Anatoly Karpov, also a member of the association. This means Fide will find itself in a difficult position if Kasparov’s stand is supported in Brussels. Without some sort of compromise, the top players could split from Fide and arrange their own world championship. New Zealand, which will have an observer at the Brussels meeting, withdrew its bid to host the 1990 world championship in Wellington because Fide could not guarantee Kasparov would play.’

What the Grandmaster Association decides and how Fide reacts to it will determine the direction for international chess in the foreseeable future.