20th February, 2003

THE first stage of the Prague Agreement to unify two rival chess crowns
looks set to be implemented, as FIDE announce details of an Argentinean
match-up between world no.1 Garry Kasparov and FIDE World Champion
Ruslan Ponomariov.

In a joint news conference in Moscow on Tuesday with Kasparov, FIDE
president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announced that the $1 million
Kasparov-Ponomariov match will take place June 19-July 7 in the
chess-mad city of Buenos Aires. The victor will then go forward to meet
the winner of a match between Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, the Classical
World Champion who won the crown from Kasparov in 2000, and his
Hungarian challenger Peter Leko.

No details have emerged yet about proposals for the Kramnik-Leko match,
but recently Steve Timmins, the CEO of Einstein TV, the company who own
the rights to the Kramnik crown, announced that they were in
negotiations with two locations with sponsorship for the match to be
held on schedule in 2003. Ilyumzhinov said that the venue for this
match is likely to become clearer at the upcoming FIDE Presidential
Council meeting in Bucharest, as representatives of both players will be
in attendance.

A potentially lucrative unifying match (reputed to have a value on it of
$3 million) between the winners of the Kasparov-Ponomariov and
Leko-Kramnik matches will probably also take place in Buenos Aires or
even New York, Ilyumzhinov added.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Moscow, the Aeroflot Open is heading for a
dramatic finale, as overnight leader Alexei Aleksandrov of Byelorussia
is joined in the lead on 6.5/8 going into the final round by his fellow
countryman, Alexei Fedorov. Both now face each other in the top-board
clash of the final round, with the top prize of $25,000 and a spot in
the elite Dortmund tournament up for grabs.

Standings: 1-2 Aleksandrov, Fedorov 6.5/8; 3-8 Bologan, Dreev,
Galkin, Granda Zuniga, Kaidanov, Svidler 6; 9-26 Bu, Dolmatov,
Efimenko, Khenkin, Kobalia, Mamedyarov, Moiseenko, Morozevich, Najer,
Rublevsky, Sakaev, Shomoev, Smirin, Smirnov, Sorokin, Sutovsky,
Tregubov, Ulibin 5.5.

A Fedorov - M Sorokin
Aeroflot Open 'A', (8)
Petroff's Defence
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nxe5 d6 4 Nf3 Nxe4 5 d4 d5 6 Bd3 Nc6 7 0-0 Be7 8 c4
Nb4 9 Be2 0-0 10 Nc3 Be6 11 Ne5 f6 12 Nf3 Kh8 13 a3 Nxc3 14 bxc3 Nc6 15
Nd2 Na5 16 cxd5 Qxd5 17 Re1 Rfe8 18 Bb2 Qc6 19 Bd3 Bf7 20 Qc2 h6 21 c4
Bf8 22 d5 Rxe1+ 23 Rxe1 Qd7 24 Bf5 Qd6 25 Bg6 Bg8 26 Qc3 b6 27 Ne4 Qd8
28 Re3 Nb7 29 Rh3 Bh7 30 Bxh7 Kxh7 31 Qd3 Kg8 32 Rxh6 gxh6 33 Nxf6+ Kf7
34 Qf5 Nc5 35 Ne4+ Ke8 36 Qg6+ Kd7 37 Nxc5+ Kc8 38 Qc6 1-0

JOHN B HENDERSON