George Duke wrote on Fri, May 14, 2004 10:53 PM UTC:
Regarding Roberto's comment, I think most consider Vladimir Kramnik the
'actual World Champion,' not Ruslan Ponomariov. That is because Kramnik
beat Gary Kasparov, 13th champion, in 2000 to become 14th in a succession
that goes back clearly to at least 1886 with Wilhelm Steinitz the first.
Whereas, Ponomariov is only the most recent winner of FIDE 'lottery' as
128- or 64-elimination tournaments have been called. If Peter Leko
defeats Kramnik in Sept./Oct.2004, in match backed by new Association of
Chess Professionals, likewise most everyone will regard Leko as 15th World
Chess champion. Of course, there is talk of 'unifying' the title, but FIDE
has usually sanctioned the (recent) Fischer-Karpov-Kasparov-Kramnik
succession.