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Workers fix photos of Garry Kasparov (left) and Nigel Short outside a London theater, site of their $2.5 million championshio* chess match scheduled to begin today. luduipiunnnipChessthe titleholder a ‘master of the quick, sure kill” vs. the challenger, a fairhaired hometown underdog who trained four months for a shot at the crown.aThey have taken off the gloves and traded insults at prebout news conferences. The $2.5 million purse is one of the richest in British sporting history, the kind of money expected tor a contest that delivers fast-paced, gut-wrenching action.But when the contest opens today, spectators paying up to $82.50 for a seat at the Savoy Theatre in London won’t get any dancing like a butterfly or stinging like a bee. All they will see are two guys in suits hunkered over a chessboard flexing their brains: Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short, the two baa boys of international chess.pectively ilavers inNo. 1- and No, z-ranicea players world, broke with the governing WorldChess Federation in February in a dispute over a title match the group scheduled for Manchester, England. The two players foimed their owntoorganizatione Professional ChessAssociation, and opened their title bout to promoters. The Times newspaper of London and Teleworld of Rotterdam won with a bid of $2.5 million and are sponsoring The Times World Chess Championship, featuring 24 games through Oct. 30.The dispute fragmented the chess world into competing spheres.The World Chess Federation stripped Kasparov and Short of their rankings ana scheduled a competing title match beginning Monday that pits former international champion Anatoly Karpov against Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman in 24 matches in the Netherlands and Oman through Oct. 31.The London duel, featuring the world’s top players and being managed by promoters, has captured the most attention and ink. The Times has led the way, while its chief competitors grumble over the newspaper’s promotion of the match.The Times pictured Kasparov in front of the Big Ben clock tower the day after the champion arrived in London, while its competitors ran photographs of a major British news story.The Times is running several chessoffstories a day, headlining Kasparov i the‘‘master of the quick, sure kill,” d scribing Short’s rigorous four-mom training schedule and profiling tl wives of the two combatants.Th£ two chess champions contrii uted to the promotional frenzy, usir news conferences to deliver insultwhip up interest in the match and vfor a psychological edge.Short said Kasparov was a formi Communist, had been helped by th KGB and, evidently worst of all, had body so hairy he was known by wome at poolside as ‘‘the rug.” Kasparov ha a message for “the English boy,” tolt;but saicf he would “deliver it over chessboard,“Gloves Come Off in Clash of He: vyweights, trumpeted The Times.Promoters drew television into tha? hf?’ Slt;^g Channel 4 il? Britai the right to air the match in the Unite$$5 000* rePortedty ^or an estimate* *The match is being broadcast eithe publicly or privately in at least a doze countries, and promoters were hopinto raise more money by coaxing ethi siasts at home into the match.
Newspaper Details
European Stars and Stripes
Darmstadt, Hesse, DE
Tue, Sep 07, 1993
Page 5
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Allgemeine Kirchen Zeitung
European Stars and Stripes
