Anand confirms for World Cup chess

The World Cup Chess Championship, scheduled to be held in Hyderabad from October 9, has failed to attract the world's leading players even as defending champion Vishwanathan Anand's name was confirmed by the FIDE, the game's world governing body.

"Anand's name figures in the FIDE list, while other players like (Gary) Kasparov could not confirm as there are many championships going on," FIDE vice-president P T Umer Koya informed on Tuesday evening.

Asked to confirm the participation of Anand following reports that "there was a hitch on appearance money", Koya only maintained that the defending champion's name appears in the list released by the FIDE.

Besides Anand, the only striking name in the list of 23, released by Koya, is young Teimour Radjabov of Azerbeijan, who had beaten Anand in one of their encounters.

However, in the women's section, defending champion Yuhua Xu of China confirmed her entry while Maya Chiburdanidze of Georgia, who has an Elo rating of 2516, has been given top billing. Romanian Judith Polgar's name does not figure in the list.

Koneru Humpy, the world's youngest Grandmaster will be the cynosure of all eyes, playing a major event for the first time in her home state.

Casto P Abundo of the Phillipines will be the chief arbitrator during the 12-day tournament, to be held at Ramoji Film City.