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Heavyweights butting heads in world chess championshipsLinebackers may be cracking helmets on high school gridirons ..., on college campuses, and in the NFL — but in Europe the egos of the world’s four top chess players are colliding in two world championships. As in college football, chess now has no single championship game — noSuper Bowl of chess.Garry Kasparov, the world champion since 1985 and the highest-rated player ever, defeated challenger Nigel Short (Monday) in London in the first clash of their tournament.Across the English channel, in Zwolle, Netherlands, the next two highest players jousted in an alternative world championship. Former world champion Anatoly Karpov won the first game against Jan Tim-man.How did two championship games get launched? It’s fallout from the end of the Cold War — the political one, not the one among testy chess players. FIDE, the French acronym for the international chess federation, had supervised the matches for decades. But in the 1985 match between Mr. Karpov and Mr. Kasparov, at that time both Sovietcitizens, FIDE canceled a months-long match about to be won by Mr. Kasparov. Mr. Kasparov chargedthat FIDE was a lackey of the Sovietregime, then won a rematch.When the Soviet Union collapsed two years ago, Mr. Kasparov thought himself independent enough to throw FIDE aside. He did so earlier this year. Mr. Short beat Mr. Karpov for the chance to challenge Mr. Kasparov. But then Messrs. Kasparovand Short dumped FIDE and set up their own tournament, sponsored by the Timesof London.Not to be checkmated, FIDE promoted the two also-rans, Messrs.Karpov and Timman, as challengers for the title. Messrs. Kasparov and Short have exchanged insults with one another as well as against the other players. And everybody has exchanged insults with Mr. Fischer.Chess involves little physical activity, but players must be in shape for psychological torture almost as difficult as trying to figure out the real world champion after all these matches have been played outOrange County RegisterSanta Ana, Calif.
Newspaper Details
New Bern Sun Journal
New Bern, North Carolina, US
Wed, Sep 08, 1993
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Los A.
CA, USA 29 Nov 2022
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