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Ponomariov fails to sign contracts

By Arvind Aaron

Wijk aan Zee Jan. 11. World chess champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine had not signed the world title match contracts sent by FIDE and let the January 1, 2003 deadline pass. The first hurdle for the unification of World Chess was up along with it.

Ponomariov revealed in the press conference that FIDE has sent him contracts to play the match against Kasparov around December 15, 2002 and had set a deadline date as January 1, 2003. He had replied asking for a contract in Russian language and to change the time control to what was played under the World Chess Championship, Moscow in 2001-2002 and keep a draw odds being champion. He also asked for a copy of the contract given to him prior to playing in the World Championship 2001-2002 to which he said FIDE has not replied.

FIDE on its side had a Presidential Board meeting and decided not to change any item from the original contract and have deputed two officials, G. Makropoulos, FIDE Deputy President from Greece and GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili, FIDE Vice President of Georgia to hold talks in Wijk aan Zee before possibly defaulting him.

During the event, Ponomariov's chess is going to be affected by the politics around him. Also, his hardline Bulgarian manager, IM Silvio Danailov is not going to be here as his wife is going to deliver her first baby. Politics surrounds FIDE's youngest champion in history in no small manner. For the 19-year old champion, he was at the dinner table last night discussing these issues with Anatoly Karpov who was also stripped off the title in 1999. ``His only issue is the time control. Kramnik has the draw odds (keeps the title in case of a 8-8 tie) in his match against Leko since he was challenger under the same odds. It was not the case for Ponomariov,'' said Zurab Azmaiparashvili, the FIDE negotiator.

Once we finish our talks with Ponomariov we will make a press release or issue a statement in Wijk aan Zee, said Azmaiparashvili.

Meanwhile, Kramnik, who is the champion on the other track, stirred the FIDE pot little bit by adding that Ponomariov's request for a draw odds is `reasonable'. "Let me remind you that Garry always played with the draw odds (keeps the title in case the match ends in a tie)''

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