www.ChessToday.net: Ukrainian newspaper Segodnya cites that former World Knockout World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov is refusing to play in Dresden for Ukraine.
“There is no financial support to chess from the state”, said Ponomariov. He will not play for a team until something will change.
Official Olympiad website: www.Dresden2008.com.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Good for him!
I don’t know. This Ponomariov guy seems to complain a lot. He had a chance to make a lot of money by playing against kasparov in 2002/2003 but refused to do it.
We all know that his chances to win very almost non-existant, but he would get the money anyway. His “negotiations” brought him nowhere – lost the title and lost the oppurtunity to earn some serious money.
What was he thinking?
Bloggers are time-wasters.
gathmas
The question is: should the state even be involved in chess at the master level?