At the FIDE World Chess Championship in Zwolle, former world champion Karpov faced Dutch grandmaster Timman. However Kasparov was absent because of resentments against FIDE.

Amid the noise of jostling photographers and clacking shutters, the two combatants finally squared off last Tuesday on the stage of the Savoy Theater in London. In one corner, the challenger and clear crowd favorite, a pink- cheeked, brush-cut 28-year-old and the first native-born Briton ever to contend for theā€¦