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Linebackers may be cracking helmets on high schooli c ros s me i 'e r m t a n n asm, on college campuses a no_ — but in Europe the egos of the world's four topers are colliding in two world championships. As incollege lootoait, cness now nas no single cnampionsmp game — no Super Bowl of chess.Garry Kasparov, the world champion since 1985 and the highest-rated player ever, is taking on challenger Nigel Short in London in one tournament. Across the English channel, in Zwolle, Netherlands, the next two highest players joust in an alternative world championship. Former world champion Anatoly Karpov is squaring off against Jan Timman.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 forarov, ai tnat time ootn soviet citizens, nut cane months-long match about to be won by Kasparovcharged that FIDE was a lackev of the Soviet re2muSimilar charges had been made in the mid-1970s bsAmerican noooy riscner, ine o.uy non-aovici cnampion since before World War II. Fischer was so angry that he refused to take part in FIDE’s tournaments. FIDE gave the title by default to Karpov in 1975. Fischer went into exile and re-emerged only recently — to claim, of course, that he’s still the world champion.When the Soviet Union collapsed two years ago, Kasparov thought himself independent enough to throw FIDE aside. He did sO' earlier this year. Short beat Karpov for the chance to challenge Kasparov. But then Kasparov and Short dumped RDF and set up their own tournament, sponsored by theNot to be checkmated, FIDE promoted the two also-rans, Karpov and Timman, as challengers for the title. Kasparov a Short have exchanged insults with one another as well as against the other players. And everybody has exchangedinsults with Fischer.Chess involves little physical activity, but players must be in shape for psychological torture almost as difficult as tryin to figure out the real world champion after all these matches have been played out.
Newspaper Details
Odessa American
Odessa, Texas, US
Wed, Sep 15, 1993
Page 4
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Los A.
CA, USA 29 Nov 2022
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