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Barua drawn to meet Khalifman in first round

En Passant

WITH just under three days to go for the start of the FIDE World Chess championships in the Casino City, Anatoly Karpov, Alexander Morozevich, Susan Polgar and D.Velimirovic have decided to pull out of the event. Their pull-out will necessitate changes in the draw, which will now be made on Wednesday and Thursday.

According to sources, the replacements for the four who have withdrawn have also been made. They are former World junior champion Joel Lautier of France, U Andersson of Sweden, Alexi Dreev of Russia and Vadim Milov of Switzerland.

The replacements are likely to create a problem with the draw. Karpov and Morozevich had been seeded into the second round. It is now possible that the two highest rated players in the first round - the round of 64 - will be promoted into the second round. Lautier, Andersson, Dreev and Milov will then take the four vacant spots in the first round. But again, their respective ratings will be considered before deciding on who they will play.

Susan Polgar was due to play Mohamed Saleh, while D Velimirovic was due to clash with Kobese in the first round. Morozevich and Karpov had been seeded into the second round.

India's Dibyendu Barua is due to play Alexander Khalifman in the first round.

The first round will run from July 30 to August 2.

Meanwhile, the reason for Susan Polgar's withdrawal from the World Championships has been made clear by the player herself. In a statement, she said that she decided to decline the invitation to play at the knockout tournament in Las Vegas till FIDE re-instates her status as the women's World champion.

Further, she wants the match between Alisa Galliamova and Xie Jun in China to be treated as a match to find the challenger for Polgar. That title match should be held next year.

As of now, the FIDE has announced that Alisa Galliamova (Russia) and Xie Jun (China) will play a World title match. The first half of the event will take place in Kazan (Russia) and the second one will be hosted by Chinese city of Shenyang.