World Chess Championship in Las Vegas

chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5717

:unamused:

That is a lot of pizza coupons.

Gee, can I declare myself World Champion, too? Seriously, what is Akobian thinking?

Alex Relyea

EDIT: Post deleted by author

With that resume, Vaughan should only be playing Polgar… to settle the title, once and for all, of Undisputed Inner Solar System* Champion.

*plus Asteroid Belt

Just one thing to point out is that while this $6 mil. World Championship Match is supposed to start on Dec. 1st, GM Varuzhan Akobian will be playing in the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk which will take place Nov 20 - Dec 15. As such, I guess this match is something for Varuzh to fall back on and relax a bit in case of an early knock-out in Siberia. Otherwise, Stan Vaughan will get the purse by forfeit.

Michael Langer

I spoke to GM Akobian this morning about this. He stated that he has no idea what this is about and he had no involvement in it.

I figured that would be the case.

And the farce continues:

chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5735

Any bets on whether the supposed email from Akobian is real?

I’ll ask Varu next time I speak with him but he was quite annoyed with the whole thing and said his performance at the beginning of the Montreal International was thrown off.