One-hundred-and-twenty-eight chess players are assembled at Khanty Masiysk in Siberia for the Fide World Cup. England’s Michael Adams and Nigel Short are in the field, composed of chess players who qualified in regional events such as the European and Pan American Chess Championships, or by rating. The chess event was planned as a knockout tournament to determine a challenger for the world title held by Vishy Anand. However, following the “Toiletgate” shenanigans at last year’s title contest between Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov, which Topalov lost, his manager contrived to convince the Fide top brass that his man should be in the next cycle. The current plan – and it changes constantly – is that the winner of the World Cup will ...

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