Kasparov, Kramnik 'no' to FIDE championship

Grandmasters Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik said on Saturday they will not participate in the World Championship that the International Chess Federation, FIDE, plans to hold in Moscow later this year.

FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov had announced on August 30 that the next World Championship would be held from November through January in Moscow and Kramnik, Kasparov and another former world champion from Russia, Anatoly Karpov, would be invited to participate.

FIDE claims sole legitimacy as the sponsor of the world championship, but the world has had two world champions since 1993 when Kasparov, who was then reigning champion, broke away from FIDE to form the Professional Chess Association, which disbanded in 1998.

Kasparov defended his title twice under its auspices. Last November, Kramnik defeated Kasparov for the world title in a match sponsored by Brain Games Network, an internet start-up company.

In 1999, FIDE switched from the traditional long match against a single challenger to an annual knockout tournament of 100 players. Indian Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand won the event last December.

In April, Kramnik, Kasparov and Karpov released an open letter blasting FIDE for allegedly trying to monopolise the game and for attempting to speed up matches to make tournaments more popular on TV and the Internet. FIDE has rejected the criticism.