World chess champion Anatoly Karpov has agreed to compete in the world championship later this year, backing down from his efforts to block the tournament, an official said Saturday.
Also Saturday, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the billionaire president of the southern Russian republic of Kalmykia, was re-elected head of the Swiss-based World Chess Federation until 2002.Karpov won the world title in January and was to have held it for two years. But the World Chess Federation decided the championship should take place annually and set the tournament for Nov. 29 through Dec. 27, in Las Vegas.
Karpov had said he would sue to stop it. But on Friday night, he signed an agreement with Ilyumzhinov saying he would compete.
About $3 million in prize money will be on the line.