Author: Michael Vox
Date: 17:54:56 11/22/02
http://www.rochadekuppenheim.de/heco/index.html The Scotsman 22nd November, 2002 THE FIDE-sponsored $1 million match between Garry Kasparov and top software program Deep Junior now looks set to be moved out of Jerusalem, due to the heightened tensions and political unrest in Israel. Originally one of the touted venues for the match was Montreal in Canada, however now the unlikely last-minute US candidate of Jacksonville in Florida looks set to stage the high-profile Man v Machine challenge, which is now due to start 19th January. It's also perhaps no coincidence that the match has been delayed until this date as it would allow for the attendance of the new incoming president of FIDE Commerce, Yasser Seirawan, who will be one of the leading contenders for the 2003 US Championships, which runs 9-18 January in Seattle. It looks as if a high-powered US delegation led by former USCF president Don Schultz (who have secured a major sponsor) is poised to turn Jacksonville into a veritable Chess Mecca by lodging a serious last-minute bid with FIDE to host the 2004 Chess Olympiad there - and with the enthusiastic backing of Kasparov, who fully-supports their plans. Should they secure the rights to the biennial team tournament, it would be the first Olympiad to be held in the Americas since the 1978 Buenos Aires Olympiad; and with it the first to be held itself in America. Although FIDE have given a commitment to the Spanish resort of Minorca to host the 2004 Olympiad, there is mounting speculation that the required bank guarantees securing the Spanish bid have not been lodged yet in the FIDE accounts. Apart from that, there are also concerns within FIDE that the site for the proposed Minorca bid falls woefully short of their specifications for hosting an Olympiad. However, should the Jacksonville Olympiad bid fail, they have made it clear they would re-position themselves to become the leading venue for the World Championship Unification match scheduled for November 2003, between the winners of the Kramnik-Leko and Kasparov-Ponomariov matches. Last weekend during the Electronica Fair in Munich, Kasparov played a six-game demonstration match at the ZMD (Zentrum Mikroelektronik Dresden) stand against the top German female player, 17-year-old Elisabeth Paehtz. Despite having a time handicap of 16 minutes to 8, and having Kasparov on the ropes in games one and three by being a piece up in both games, the 500-point rating difference between the two proved too much for Ms. Paehtz, as Kasparov won the match with a 6:0 whitewash.
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