CHESS : INTERNATIONAL NEWS

The first Professional Chess Assn. event of 1996, the Kremlin Stars, ended Tuesday in Moscow. Vladimir Kramnik, the 20-year-old Russian grandmaster who won the Amber Rapids in Monte Carlo a week earlier, again showed his skill at 25-minute chess. Kramnik defeated PCA world champion Garry Kasparov and earned the first prize of $30,000.

Kramnik’s worst scare in the knockout tournament came in the first round, when he lost to English grandmaster Nigel Short. Kramnik won the second game to tie the minimatch, then drew as Black in a speed game (five minutes for White, four minutes for Black) to advance to the quarterfinals. After comfortable 1 1/2- 1/2 victories over Alexander Chernin of Hungary and Judit Polgar of Hungary, Kramnik met Kasparov in the final match. They drew both 25-minute games, then Kramnik won a five-minute game and drew another to win the tournament.

Kasparov reached the final by defeating Boris Gelfand of Belarus, 2-0, Alexey Dreyev of Russia, 2-1 (Kasparov lost the first game), and Viswanathan Anand of India, 1 1/2- 1/2. Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand and Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine have dominated the PCA’s series of 25-minute events. This time, Ivanchuk was knocked out by a 1/2-1 1/2 quarterfinal loss to Polgar.

The PCA had been inactive since losing its sponsor, Intel Inc., in January. However, the PCA ran the Kremlin Stars with the same $160,000 prizefund as in 1994 and 1995, when Intel supplied the money. There are tentative plans for three more PCA 25-minute tournaments this year.

Last weekend’s meeting of European representatives to the World Chess Federation (FIDE) did not resolve the crisis in FIDE. The delegates criticized the new FIDE president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, for proposing Baghdad as the site for FIDE’s Anatoly Karpov vs. Gata Kamsky world championship match, and for canceling the qualifying events (the Interzonal tournament and Candidates matches) in the middle of the next world championship cycle. Ilyumzhinov now wants to stage Karpov vs. Kamsky in his hometown of Elista, Russia, but Kamsky has balked. Ilyumzhinov also plans to replace the old world championship with an annual $5-million, 100-player world championship tournament despite objections from several leading players.

NATIONAL OPEN

The 1996 National Open, held last weekend in Las Vegas, attracted 848 players, another outstanding total for one of the country’s most popular tournaments. Grandmasters Pavel Blatny of the Czech Republic, Alexander Ivanov of Massachusetts and Dmitry Gurevich of Illinois and SM Erico Sevillano of Pennsylvania tied for first place, scoring 5 1/2- 1/2. At 5-1 were GMs Walter Browne of Berkeley, Nick de Firmian of New York, U.S. Senior co-champion Eduard Gufeld of Los Angeles, Gennady Sagalchik of New York and Alex Yermolinsky of Ohio, IM Igor Ivanov of Arizona and SM Leonid Filatov of North Carolina.

LOCAL NEWS

There is a new place to play chess in Westminster. Press Box Chess Club meets Monday evenings in the Westminster Lanes Bowling Center at 6741 Westminster Ave. The club offers speed tournaments and casual play. For more information, call Edward Labate at (714) 744-0197 or Mike Jacoby at (714) 893-5005.