Word: kasparov
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...were Kasparov and Short not playing for the FIDE world title in Zwolle? Because these two, who seem genuinely to dislike each other, had nonetheless banded together to mount an unprecedented challenge to the reigning chess establishment. When FIDE decreed last February that the Kasparov-Short match would take place in Manchester, England, for a purse of about $1.8 million, Short claimed angrily that he had not been consulted. He was unhappy with the choice of Manchester, hardly a high-profile or glamorous setting, and he didn't like the prize money either. He phoned Kasparov and said...
...Kasparov had his own reasons for warming to the idea. His resentments against FIDE date back to the mid-1980s, when he was challenging his compatriot Karpov for the world title. After an epochal, 48-game struggle, with Kasparov surging from behind and Karpov near collapse, FIDE president Florencio Campomanes suddenly declared the contest finished "without result" and ordered it to be replayed from the start. Outraged, Kasparov decided that the monolithic Soviet chess federation, which grudgingly tolerated him while championing Karpov, had leaned on FIDE and Campomanes to salvage Karpov's title, at least for a while...
...Kasparov was not the only one who thought that the U.S.S.R., long the dominant force in world chess, dictated FIDE policies. Bobby Fischer had accused the Soviets of match rigging and clashed repeatedly with FIDE officials before and after he won the world title from Boris Spassky...
...United, Kasparov and Short mounted a far more powerful counterforce to FIDE than the solitary Fischer had ever managed. They became the founding -- and only -- members of the Professional Chess Association ( P.C.A.) and began entertaining bids for their runaway world championship match. The Times of London, owned by Rupert Murdoch, rose to the bait. A 24-game competition stretching over eight full weeks and featuring Britain's first-ever contender promised reams of publicity, much of which the Times could provide. Weeks before the match started, the paper began running extensive and incessant chess coverage. London's double-decker buses...
...part, FIDE responded predictably: it expunged Kasparov and Short from its list of ranking grandmasters and decreed the Karpov-Timman match in Zwolle as the only true chess championship. No one, not even FIDE loyalists, took this claim seriously. Surreptitiously or not, chess attention centered on London...