Florencio Campomanes, Chess Official, Dies at 83

[madinmaryland]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/world/asia/06campomanes.html?hpw

Florencio Campomanes, a former president of the World Chess Federation who made a controversial decision in 1985 to suspend the first title match between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov after it had lasted five months, died Monday. He was 83 and lived in Baguio City, the Philippines.

The cause was cancer, according to an announcement on the federation’s Web site.

Mr. Campomanes’s disputed call came as Mr. Kasparov, then 21 years old, and Mr. Karpov, 33, were facing off in Moscow in a world championship match that was to be decided in favor of the first player to win six games. Though both were Soviet players, Mr. Karpov, the titleholder, was the Kremlin’s favorite.

Mr. Karpov won four games quickly, and it seemed as if the match would soon be over. But then Mr. Kasparov settled down. The next 17 games were drawn before Mr. Karpov finally won again. After four more draws, Mr. Kasparov broke through with his first victory in the 32nd game, after which an additional 14 draws followed.

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