Moscow, Aug 26: World chess champion Ruslan Ponomariov has ignored an ultimatum from fide, the World Chess Federation, to agree to a world championship eliminatory match against the world's top player, Garry Kasparov.
In a move that threatens to disrupt the world chess championship, Ukraine's Ponomariov let pass the 1730 hrs yesterday deadline for the signing of the contract for a series of 12 games against Russia's Kasparov starting September 19.
Match organisers spent several hours mediating by telephone between Ponomariov and fide officials in Lausanne, Switzerland, reported from the Ukraine capital Kiev.
On Saturday Ponomariov sent fide president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov a series of demands concerning the conditions for the match, to be held at Yalta on the Crimean peninsula as part of a fide plan to reunite the official world championship with a rebel title that has existed for the past decade.
Under the plan, the winner of the Ponomariov-Kasparov match will meet the winner of a match between Hungary's Peter Leko and Russia's Vladimir Kramnik for the definitive world title.

Kasparov, who held the fide title for eight years until 1993, has the highest rating by which chess performances are measured and is generally regarded as the world's strongest player.
Bureau Report