World chess final starts

The Indian chess grandmaster, Vishwanath Anand, is challenging the defending World Chess Federation champion, Anatoly Karpov of Russia, for his title in a series of matches starting in the Swiss city of Lausanne today.

Mr Anand was undefeated in the qualifying rounds and enjoyed his most successful year ever in 1997.

He currently outranks Mr Karpov, who qualified for the final automatically as the defending champion.

The winner of the six-match series may get the chance to challenge the champion of the rival Professional Chess Association, Gary Kasparov, who's generally recognised as the world number one.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service