Leading players yet to confirm for World Chess Cup

Some of the world's leading players have decided to opt out of the second World Chess Cup 2002, to be played in Hyderabad, in October.

Releasing the first list of participants on Thursday, FIDE vice-president P T Ummer Koya said efforts are on to rope in as many players as possible.

He also informed that the Indian Chess Federation has extended the entry date for defending champion Vishwanathan Anand as he is "in transit" after playing in the just-concluded Russia versus Rest of the World match, in Kremlin.

GM Judith Polgar of Hungary will not be playing while GM Jun Xie of China has not yet confirmed her entry in the women's section, he said.

However, world women's champion Chen Zhu (China), defending champion Xu Yuhua (China), GM Koneru Humpy (India), GM Maia Chiburdanidze of Georgia, GM Pia Cramling of Sweden and Ekateina Kovaleskaya of Russia have confirmed participation.

The first list also does not figure the name of reigning men's world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine, while the entries of Anand and highest-ranking junior player Alexander Grischuk of Russia are yet to be confirmed.

The entries of the highly-rated players like Garry Kasparov, Vladamir Kramnik (both Russia), Vesselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Michael Adams (England), Boris Gelfand (Isreal) and Peter Leko of Hungary are also yet to be confirmed.