This check was drawn on the Wells Fargo Bank in Las Vegas in August. However, Nisipeanu has not complained until now because he had been told that the check would be made good momentarily.

FIDE Executive Director Emmanuel Omuku promises to make good on the bounced checks

When reached in Lucerne, Switzerland, Emmanuel Omuku, the Executive Director of FIDE, the World Chess Federation, acknowledged that there was a problem with the last batch of checks. Omuku said that those players who had cashed their checks quickly got paid, but those players at the end are still waiting.

Omuku said that he has the money. He will try to make good by the first of October. The problem, said Omuku, was caused by the last batch of checks received from the sponsors.

Omuku said that all players and officials who are in receipt of bad checks should contact him and he will try to send the money to the players directly.

Omuku asked me for the contact number in Romania where he can reach Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. I am trying to get the number.

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu was the big surprise of the FIDE World Chess Championship. Virtually unknown prior to the event and qualifying only through an Interzonal, Nisipeanu won a string of matches against several of the strongest players in the world, defeating Shirov, Ivanchuk, Azmaiparashvili and Leitao, before finally losing to Khalifman, the eventual winner, in a play-off in the semi-finals.

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania, whose check for $138,065 has bounced.

Nisipeanu will probably never again have such a big payday in his life, which will make it especially disturbing if he does not get his money.

Equally disturbing is the likelihood that Khalifman might not have received his winners purse of $482,705 and that Akopian might not have received his second place prize of $396,000 minus 20% to FIDE.

A total of $3 million in prizes were awarded in the FIDE World Championship. First prize was $660,000, second prize was $396,000, the two third prizes were $172,800 each and the four next prizes were $172,800 each. From these amounts were deducted a 20% sanctioning fee payable to FIDE and an administrative fee of $175. A percentage was also added or subtracted if any matches required playoff games.

Sam Sloan

El Pais newspaper has just become the first major newspaper to report that checks from the FIDE World Championship in Las Vegas have bounced.

The report, by well known chess journalist Leontxo Garcia, is reported on the web site at http://www.elpais.es/p/d/19991017/deportes/jaque.htm

The report is entitled "La FIDE paga con cheques sin fondos", which means "FIDE paid with checks without funds".

It reports that all of the semi-finalists, with the exception of Michael Adams of England, have not received their money. This means that Khalifman, Akopian and Nisipeanu have not been paid.

The list of players who have not been paid also includes Shirov, Kramnik, Bauer and Leitao.

The article said that FIDE Executive Director Emmanuel Omuku was reached by mobile telephone "somewhere in Russia" and that Omuku admitted that 12 players have not yet been paid. The identities of the remaining five unpaid players are unknown.

Sam Sloan

• FIDE responds to allegations that one million dollars was embezzled from the World Chess Championship prize fund
• Report concerning missing FIDE World Championship prize fund
• El Pais reports bouncing of checks
• Polina Tsedenova of Kalmykia
• Grandmaster Amador Rodriguez of Cuba talks to Alexander Khalifman just after Khalifman has won the FIDE World Chess Championship
• Khalifman poses with a journalist for a photograph
• Khalifman is interviewed by the press
• Photo taken from behind of Khalifman with FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov at a press conference
• Grandmaster Valery Salov with Grandmaster Walter Browne giving live commentary of Khalifman-Akopian game in progress
• Marina Makarytcheva - NTV-Plus Sport from Russia interviews Khalifman
• Marina Makarytcheva with her trusty cameraman Igor
• Marina Makarytcheva and her trusty cameraman Igor with Khalifman
• Fide Presidential Board meets, with Ilyumzhinov at the head of the table
• Another view of the Fide Presidential Board

• Shamema and the Camel
• Individual photographs of 73 of the players who competed in the FIDE World Championship in Las Vegas
• Three Polgar Sisters with Shamema
• FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov takes the hard line

• Last Batch of Checks from FIDE World Chess Championship may be bouncing
• El Pais Newspaper: FIDE issued checks without funds
• French Chess Federation Reports that the checks of the two French players, Lautier and Bauer, have bounced
• Individual photographs of 73 of the players who competed in the FIDE World Championship in Las Vegas: Warning: These photographs altogether come to more than 800K, so if you are short of computer memory, do not come here.
• Xie Jun defeats Alisa Galliamova in match for Woman's World Chess Championship
• Commentary by Yasser Seirawan and Inside Chess
• Club Kasparov
• Alexei Shirov's gambling style fails him in the long run
• Minutes of the 1999 USCF Delegate's Meeting in Reno
• Combined rating lists for July, 1999
• FIDE Online - New FIDE website!!
• Klub Karpov
• Khalifman wins World Chess Championship match
• FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov takes the Hard Line
• Emmanuel Omuku, Executive Director of FIDE
• Khalifman's Grandmaster Chess School
• Marina Makarytcheva - NTV-Plus Sport from Russia
• Commentary by Yasser Seirawan and Inside Chess
• CHESSDON by Don Schultz is out
• Grandmaster Becerra of Cuba defects
• Hikaru Nakamura, age 11, defeats Grandmaster Alejandro Hoffman in US Open
• Ken Horne, Las Vegas chess organizer, dies in Airplane Crash
• Spanish chess web site
• Karen Birkedahl, 17, Sensation of the 1999 US Open Chess Championship
• Votes for and against OMOV at the 1999 Reno USCF meeting
• World Chess Rating Lists
• World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer Interviewed over the Radio
• Maurice Ashley makes The New York Times
• Hikaru Nakamura makes master at 10 years, 2 months