Chess coup by players

GARY KASPAROV and Nigel Short pulled out of the official world chess championship yesterday and announced a breakaway match, writes Stephen Ward. They said the coup was designed to seize control of the sport for the players.

The champion, Kasparov, 29, and Short, 27, are setting up the Professional Chess Association, which will accept new tenders for the championship. Each will give 10 per cent of the prize fund to establish the body.

They accused FIDE, the international chess federation, of stifling world chess. This week FIDE announced the result of a competitive tender for the right to stage the 24-game match in the summer. Manchester offered pounds 1,169,585, while a consortium of Channel 4 television and the International Management Group bid an extra pounds 35,944 to stage the event in London.

The players were furious that, rather than using that bid as the basis for further negotiation, FIDE immediately announced that Manchester had won.