Anand to participate in World Championship

The plan to find an undisputed World chess champion received a huge boost when Viswanathan Anand, the world's highest rated active player confirmed his participation in the World Chess Championship Tournament 2005.

The tournament, which is held in San Luis, Argentina, starts from September 27 and ends on October 16. Anand confirmed his willingness to FIDE inside the deadline of May 12, 2005.

Anand talking about the tournament, said, "In general I think this is the best solution. I think this will choose the World Champion and hopefully that will be the end to a lot of ambiguity."

In the past 10 years and more all efforts to bring about a unified tournament have failed and so this could well be a landmark event.

The tournament with a purse of US one million will feature the world's top eight players who have been invited by the World body, FIDE.

The eight players invited include Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzbekistan), Michael Adams (England), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Peter Leko (Hungary), Garry Kasparov (Russia), Viswanthan Anand (India), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), and Alexander Morozevich (Russia).

The tournament assumes great significance in light of the disputes in world chess for more than a decade and half now.

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It is also the first time, the top three rated players in the world, Kasparov, Anand and Kramnik, have been invited for a world championship. In the last few years, a lot has been spoken about World Championships and reunification.

Kasparov recently announced his retirement from chess after the Linares tournament and Vladimir Kramnik has opted not to play the tournament. The two reserves in this situation could be Peter Svidler and Judit Polgar.

The Indian ace, winner of the Chess Oscar for last two years and reckoned by many as the leading player in the world -- since Kasparov and Kramnik play fewer events -- added, "At present I am focusing on the GM tournament in Sofia and will start to think about the (World) Championship in August. Of course I will do a special training camp. More importantly, since it is a double round robin, it will be a tough format."

Anand has played in Argentina once in the past when featured in a Sicilian tournament in Buenos Aires in 1994.

Anand's confirmation for the event in Argentina has raised a lot of excitement in a country where chess is very popular.

Major national dailies in Argentina have already carried lengthy interviews with Anand on the tournament.