With Gary Kasparov showing no interest in rejoining FIDE, the world chess body continued with its normal qualification cycle to produce an opponent for its champion, Anatoly Karpov. An American grandmaster, 21 year old Gata Kamsky, emerged the winner of the process.

	Gata Kamsky

Kamsky, born in 1974 in Siberia, had defected to the United States in 1989. A genuine chess prodigy, he won the under-20 Soviet Championship at the age of 12. In July of 1990 he became the youngest player ever to appear FIDE's top ten rating list. He obtained his Grandmaster title at age 16. Driven strongly by his father, young Kamsky single-mindedly pursued his goal to be World Champion, participating in both the PCA and FIDE qualification cycles. He reached the finals of the 1994-1995 PCA Candidates' matches, eliminating Kramnik and Short before losing to Anand. The FIDE Candidates matches brought even greater success, defeating Van der Sterren, Anand, and then Salov to emerge as Karpov's challenger.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of the tiny Soviet republic of Kalmykia, had been chosen as the new FIDE president in 1995. He scheduled the match to be played in Baghdad, Iraq; but the US State Department refused to let Kamsky travel to that country. Ilyumzhinov then chose Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, as the match site. Kamsky was reluctant to play in a Soviet satellite but agreed when his safety was guaranteed.

The prize fund was 2 million dollars with approximately 1 million going to the winner, 500,000 to the loser and the rest split between FIDE and various charities. The match was scheduled for 20 games; if tied, the match would continue until a player won a two game mini-match.

The match began on June 6, 1996. Karpov won the first game, but Kamsky came back to win the second to even the score. But experience trumped youthful ambition: Karpov--then playing his ninth world championship match--won 4 of the next 7 games, to establish an all but insurmountable lead. On July 11, after 18 games, with a score of 10½ to 7½, Karpov retained the title of FIDE World Chess Champion. Immediately after the match, Kamsky gave up chess to pursue a medical career, but returned to chess in 2004 to resume his goal of becoming World Champion.

click on a game number to replay game 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Kamsky 0 1 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ Karpov 1 0 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ ½

FINAL SCORE:  Karpov 10½;  Kamsky 7½
Reference: game collection WCC Index [Karpov-Kamsky 1996]

NOTABLE GAMES   [what is this?]

	· Game #4		Kamsky vs Karpov, 1996		0-1
	· Game #2		Kamsky vs Karpov, 1996		1-0
	· Game #6		Kamsky vs Karpov, 1996		0-1