FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 5, 1999
Press Release #9

OLDEST PLAYER THRIVES, YOUNGEST TAKES DIVE AT THE WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

Viktor Korchnoi, by far the oldest player in the World Chess Championship at 68, defeated Sergey Dolmatov to make it into Round 3 of the World Chess Championship in Las Vegas. Dolmatov, a comparative youngster at 40, wasn't born when Korchnoi became a grandmaster in 1956. And yet, with mere seconds on each man's clock in the final game of their match today, it was the old veteran whose nerves held firm.

Meanwhile, young Ruslan Ponomariov of the Ukraine, a 15-year-old prodigy, fought hard but fell to Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, at 24 a seasoned veteran of the international circuit.

The World Chess Championship, a month-long event held in Caesars Palace, has a total purse of $3 million. For each round that a player advances, his prize money will roughly double. The 32 players who start Round 3 tomorrow will each win a minimum of $21,600. The player crowned World Champion will win $660,000. The seven-round knockout event is sponsored by the World Chess Federation, known as FIDE.

Unfortunately for partisan U.S. fans, the last two American players-out of nine who began the event-both lost today and were eliminated. Gata Kamsky, a medical student in New York, reached the Final of the World Championship in 1996 but had not played since. His lack of practice doomed him here. The other American, Alex Yermolinsky, called "The Yerminator" by fans, was "Yerminated" today by his Russian opponent.

The #2 seed, Alexey Shirov of Spain, completed his comeback from the brink of elimination by winning today's tiebreak match against Ivan Sokolov of Bosnia. Shirov, a native of Latvia, is popular with chess fans because of his daring style.

Judith Polgar of Hungary, 23, the best female chessplayer in the world, has already qualified easily for Round 3. Admirers handed her a large bouquet of yellow roses after she won her game yesterday.

Chess fans around the globe are following the moves live on the U.S. Chess Federation Web site, uschess.org.

CONTACT: Timothy Hanke, Press Officer for the World Chess Championship, at 702-697-5800. Or call Caesars Palace at 702-731-7110, and ask for extensions 5913 to 5927.