Ukrainian teen takes FIDE world title

Moscow:

Ukraine's Ruslan Ponomariov, 18, has become the youngest-ever FIDE world chess champion after beating compatriot Vassily Ivanchuk in the final here. Playing white, Ponomariov drew the seventh game of the final yesterday to defeat Ivanchuk, 32, by 4.5 points to 2.5 points and secure the title previously held by Viswanathan Anand of India. Ponomariov, ranked seventh in the world, won the first prize of $500,000, with Ivanchuk getting $250,000. The world's top-ranked players, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik boycotted the competition on the grounds that a knock-out tournament was an inappropriate way to choose the chess champion of the world. Ponomariov, the first Ukrainian to hold the FIDE world crown in its 54-year history, was born in Gorlovka, in the west of the former Soviet republic on October 11, 1983. He first signalled his prodigious talents as a chess player by qualifying as an international master at the age of 14. Kasparov was the previous youngest holder of the FIDE (World Chess Federation) title, becoming champion in 1985 at the age of 22. He held the title until 1993 when he refused to defend it under the FIDE aegis. Since then, chess has effectively had two world "champions" after Kasparov set up his own Professional Chess Association to run a world championship series more to his liking than FIDE's. (PTI)