Erratic England miss chess medal

In the Chess Olympics in Moscow, England shared third place but were edged out of the bronze medals, on tie-break, by a Russian junior team. The Russian first team justified their position as top seeds to finish first, with Bosnia producing the m ajor surprise in taking silver.

England's performance was remarkably uneven, with drawn matches against unfancied runners such as Scotland and Singapore and outstanding victories against Yugoslavia and the Netherlands, both of whom had their medal hopes destroyed by 3.5-.5 losses to England.

Final scores: Russia I 37.5; Bosnia 35; Russia II and England 34.5; Bulgaria, Netherlands, United States 34; Georgia, Ukraine, Hungary, Belarus and China 33.5. Georgia won the Women's Olympics by a point from Hungary with China and Romania in third place. England beat Russia in the final round to finish sixth.

The closest result came in the election for the Presidency of the International Chess Federation, Fide. After saying he would be standing down, the outgoing president, Florencio Campomanes, patched up his feud with Garry Kasparov and the two campaigned for Campomanes's re-election on a platform of reunification between Fide and the rival PCA.

The anti-Campo camp maintained he could not stand without a change in the constitution, requiring a 75 percent majority. A procedural motion to allow Campo's candidacy with a 50 per cent majority was defeated by 69-68. But the following day it was announced that the delegate from Kazakhstan had misunderstood the motion. A new vote overturned the result, two other candidates withdrew and Campomanes beat Bachiar Kouatly of France to keep his job.