Elsewhere on the Web : Kasparov - Kasimdzhanov Match in Dubai

Saturday October 16, 2004

Caissa, the goddess of chess, must be smiling. During the final week of the Kramnik - Leko World Championship match in Switzerland, FIDE announced $1.2 Million for Kasparov - Kasimdzhanov match in Dubai.

'The World Championship Match between World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan and the world's highest rated player, Garry Kasparov of Russia shall be held 7th to 24th January 2005 in Dubai. This was announced by FIDE President H.E. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov at a press conference on 13th October at the Interfax News Agency in Moscow. The match will be held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum with a prize fund of USD 1.200.000. President Ilyumzhinov said that this is one of the steps of the Prague Agreement signed two years ago in the Czech Republic. The winner of the Kasparov - Kazimdzhanov match will play against the winner of the Kramnik - Leko match.' • The prize fund compares favorably with the SFR 1.000.000 on the table for the Kramnik - Leko match.

After several false starts on the FIDE commitments to the Prague Agreement, chess players everywhere can be excused for remaining a bit skeptical (for example, Seen on the Web 13 September 2003 : 'Cancellation of the Ponomariov - Kasparov Match'). Before we get too excited about this latest piece of excellent news, we'll wait for confirmation from both Kasparov and Kasimdzhanov. • The FIDE announcement also mentioned, 'Players contracts with FIDE will be sighed in a few days.' Oops! Let's hope they meant 'signed'. We've had enough sighing and can only hope that Caissa keeps smiling.

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