The International Chess Federation (Fide) today declared Anatoly Karpov, the Russian challenger, to be world chess champion after Bobby Fischer, of America, had failed to meet the extended deadline given by Fide within which he had to agree to meet Karpov to defend his title.

“We have sent Karpov a telegram informing him that he has been awarded the title, and congratulating him,” Dr Max Euwe, Fide’s president, said today in Amsterdam. He did not conceal his disappointment, but said that Fide had left no stone unturned in its attempt to negotiate a compromise agreement.

Karpov said today that he was glad the chess crown had returned to the Soviet Union but regretted that he did not get to play Fischer for it. He said he could not understand why Fischer did not play the match. “I wanted this match to take place very much and I think I have done all I could for this.”

There was silence today from South Pasadena, California, where Fischer normally lives. But several other American chess players have been expressing regret over the sequence of events which led to his losing the world title.

“It’s tragic for Fischer, for chess in the world and for Karpov,” Colonel Edmund Edmundson, the director of the American Chess Federation, has said. “Poor Fischer won’t have his title, Karpov will have a paper title, and the world won’t have its match. We’re all losers.”