Alexei Shirov is taking the World Chess Council (WCC) to court! The Spanish Grandmaster was left without money or a world championship match after he had defeated Vladimir Kramnik over two years ago in a match to decide the challenger to Garry Kasparov. Kramnik got duly paid for the match, but Shirov was promised his prize money in the supposedly following world championship match. Shirov never signed any type of contract for the match, however.

As most of us know, this match never happened, and Shirov has continuously kept the issue in the public eye, demanding his money and a shot at the title.

Shirov is demanding the sum of $1,300,000. The original agreement between Shirov, Kasparov and match organizer Luis Rentero was that Shirov get $1,300,000 for winning against Kasparov and $600,000 for losing. Both Rentero and Kasparov say that the cancellation of the Kasparov-Shirov match was not their responsibility.