Kochi: The All-India Chess Federation secretary and Fide vice-president P T Ummerkoya has been appointed the deputy chief arbiter for the 33rd Chess Olympiad commencing in Elista (Kalmykia Republic) on Sept 26.

Las Vegas hosts

KOCHI: The Fide World Knockout Chess Championship-1998, to be held in Las Vegas will be almost like the inaugural one at Groningen/Lausanne, except that this time the venue for the entire event remains the same and that the champion has no extra privilege than the Candidates.

The 29-day event will be held at Hotel Belaggio from Nov 29 to Dec 27. Round 1 will consist of 72 players from which the winners will join 28 seeded players in Round 2.

From there on, the field will be reduced systematically with 32 players in Round 3, 16 in Round 4, eight in Round 5, four in Round 6 and two in Round 7 which will be a six-game affair, as in Lausanne. Rounds 1-6 wil have two games each and tiebreakers.

Patankar manager

MUMBAI: Former Testcricketer Dr Chandu Patankar will be the administrative manager for India's short tour of Zimbabwe.

The Mohammed Azharuddin-led Indian team would be playing three One-day internationals and an one-off Test on their 15-day tour, a Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) official said here today.

Centenary golf

BANGALORE: Country's leading golfers will be in action in the McDowell's Centenary Golf Open, the fifth leg of the Wills Sports Tour, beginning at the Bangalore Golf Course on September 24.

Barring three leading golfers -- Vivek Bhandari, Amritinder Singh and Arjun Atwal -- other top notchers have confirmed their participation, BGC captain B S Patil and secretary Vijay Reddy told newsmen here today.