CHESS : ALL HAIL GATA KAMSKY

Gata Kamsky of New York has had a spectacular year, highlighted by four victories in world championship qualifying matches. The latest rating list issued by the Professional Chess Assn. (PCA) takes into account Kamsky’s 5 1/2-1 1/2 mauling of English grandmaster Nigel Short in September. The PCA now ranks the 20-year-old Kamsky third in the world at 2741, behind only PCA world champion Garry Kasparov (2813) and World Chess Federation (FIDE) champion Anatoly Karpov (2758).

No American has ranked in the top five since Bobby Fischer went into seclusion after winning the 1972 world championship. Kamsky has opened a wide gap over his contemporaries. The next Americans on the PCA list are Gregory Kaidanov of Kentucky (2618) and 1994 U.S. champion Boris Gulko of New Jersey (2617).

Kamsky will oppose Valery Salov of Spain, ranked sixth at 2699, in a FIDE-sponsored match early next year to determine an official challenger to Karpov in the 1995 FIDE world championship. Tentative plans call for him to play Viswanathan Anand of India (fourth at 2738) in the PCA challenger’s final in Las Palmas in the Canary Islands next March. Kamsky edged Anand in a thrilling match conducted by FIDE in July.