World Chess Championship the organisation of the so-called "Prague Agreement" to reunite the world championship. Kramnik had organised a candidates tournament (won later in 2002 by Peter Leko) to choose his challenger. It was decided that Kasparov play the FIDE champion (Ponomariov) for the FIDE title, and the winner of this match play the winner of the Kramnik–Leko match for a unified title. However, the matches proved difficult to finance and organise. The Kramnik–Leko match, now renamed the "Classical World Chess Championship", did not take place until late 2004 (it was drawn, so Kramnik retained his title). Meanwhile, FIDE never managed to organise
World Chess Championship 1981 and successfully defended his title as world champion. World Chess Championship 1981 The 1981 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi in Merano, Italy from October 1 to November 19, 1981. Karpov won. Two Interzonals were held in 1979, one in Riga and the other in Rio de Janeiro. The Riga interzonal was won in dominant fashion by Tal, who went through the tournament undefeated ahead of Polugaevsky. They were joined in the Candidates Tournament by Adorján, whose better tie-break score in the main tournament put him ahead of Ribli, after the two drew a playoff