Anand faces an unusual opening

In a response to the statement, Owen Williams, agent for Kasparov, has replied to many of the points mentioned by Kuruvilla. Williams’ reply, also available on Kasparov’s website, says some of the points mentioned in Kuruvilla’s release are "pure fiction".

Williams reply suggests that Anand himself does not think the match is cancelled and that Kuruvilla has "jumped the gun".

Williams says, "I have read the press release attributed toMr. Kuruvilla Abraham, Manager of Vishy Anand, and it contains sufficient inaccuracies to warrant a response. It also makes a salacious attack upon my client which needs attention. Mr. Abraham commences by saying that the match between Kasparov and Anand will not take place this year and next says "has been cancelled" and again in the third paragraph says "now stands cancelled". It is, therefore, Mr. Abraham who has jumped the gun and made a statement that should have come from Bessel Kok (Chairman) or Serge Grimaux (Promoter).

What caused Mr. Abraham to rush into print with a cancelled statement is beyond my comprehension especially as it is my understanding that his client does not think the match is cancelled."

Williams goes on to point out some "errors" in Kuruvilla’s statement, saying: "Next, Mr. Abraham compounds his errors by making a statement about a Silicon Valley corporation pulling out at the last minute due to a conflict of interest caused by the Kasparov-Microsoft match. This is purefiction! The potential sponsor knew about the Microsoft match and I was with Garry when the Chairman of the potential sponsoring company said that the Microsoft match was not a problem to them. Where does Mr. Abraham get this stuff? Perhaps he would be good enough to tell us? Then comes a low blow as Mr. Abraham tries to lay the failure for no sponsorship on Garry Kasparov.

The facts are that the committee took on the task of finding the site, sponsor and organisation about nine months ago and soon turned the organisation and the all important guarantees over to Mr. Grimaux. Serge Grimaux had his contracts out to both players well before Garry revealed that he "might" have a total sponsor for not just one but for many years. We cautioned them against stopping other sponsorship solicitations. This was done verbally and in writing. If Mr. Abraham cares to check, he will discover that Serge and the committee went into this agreement a long time ago and at that time, led us to believe that they had excellentsponsorship prospects. To try and blame Garry is a very cheap shot indeed! Errors are compounded in the last paragraph which reads "It is also unfortunate that Garry Kasparov went ahead with a press conference in London to announce that the championship was cancelled before the expiry of the extended organising period given to Mr. Grimaux by all signatories to the agreement. All the signatories were bound by a clause of confidentiality, which Mr. Kasparov has not seen necessary to honour." The press conference in London was called by Microsoft and had nothing to do with the World Championship. The only question asked about the World Championship was whether Microsoft would be the sponsor? A Microsoft representative answered and not Garry, and a transcript of the conference is available. So now, we have no statement by Garry as described by Mr. Abraham.

"After the conference, Garry was asked privately about the match and he was very careful with his answers saying that he could not see the likelihood of thematch taking place this year and what is important, at no stage did Garry say that the match was cancelled. The last sentence of Mr. Abraham’s release is insulting and if he is deliberately trying to kill off a potential match, then insulting Garry is the best way to set about it. I hope he will apologise."

Anand and his agent are yet to respond to this letter from Williams.