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The might of the Russians take on the
Rest of the World again. Russia (then USSR) which won the earlier
encounters in 1970 (Belgrade) and 1984 (London) has a formidable
lineup with four world champions, Gary Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik,
Anatoly Karpov, Alexander Khalifman...but strike three won't be easy
with Vishy Anand leading the Rest of the World!
The match was announced at a press
conference by "ITAR-TASS" and attended by FIDE President
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Garry Kasparov. It is likely to take place from
September 8th to 12th, 2002 and would be played on ten boards.
The Lineup:
|
Russia |
Rest of the
World |
Country |
|
Gary Kasparov |
Viswanathan Anand |
India |
|
Vladimir Kramnik |
Ruslan Ponomariov |
Ukraine |
|
Anatoly Karpov |
Veselin Topalov |
Bulgaria |
|
Alexander
Khalifman |
Vassily Ivanchuk |
Ukraine |
|
Alexander
Morozevich |
Boris Gelfand |
Israel |
|
Evgeny Bareev |
Peter Leko |
Hungary |
|
Alexander Grischuk |
Alexei Shirov |
Spain |
|
Peter Svidler |
Judit Polgar |
Hungary |
|
Alexy Dreev |
Ye Jiangchuan |
China |
|
Sergey Rublevsky |
Illia Smirin |
Israel |
|
Vadim Zvjaginstev |
Vladimir Akopian |
Armenia |
|
Alexander Motylev |
Zurab
Azmaiparashvilli |
Georgia |
Joel Lautier (France), Rustam
Kasimdzhanov (Uzbekistan), Nigel Short (Britain) and Loek van Wely
(Netherlands) are other likely candidates for the Rest of the World
team.
Top board match provides additional
interest with Vishy Anand having another opportunity to go at Gary
Kasparov. In the 1970 match, Bobby Fischer surprisingly gave up his
claim for the first board to Bent Larsen and played against against
Petrosian, whom he beat 3-1. Perhaps he wanted the tension to build
until their famous 1972 World Championship encounter! The USSR team
which had five world champions (Botvinnik, Tal, Smyslov, Petrosian and
Spassky) won 20.5-19.5, just by a point margin, but lost all top
four boards.
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