Chess Match Moving to Low-Rent District

MOSCOW — The marathon world chess championship will move from the glittering and prestigious Hall of Columns to the outlying Hotel Sport starting with Monday’s 48th game, chess officials said Friday.

The high cost of renting the Hall of Columns--reportedly the equivalent of about $8,000 a day--and the extreme length of the competition that began nearly five months ago were cited as reasons for the move.

Word of the planned change circulated Friday after the day’s scheduled game between world champion Anatoly Karpov, who leads, 5-2, and challenger Gary Kasparov was postponed for a “technical timeout.”

Florencio Campomanes, president of the World Chess Federation, and the chief match arbiter, Yugoslav grandmaster Svetazor Gligoric, said the postponement was called to allow time to move the match to the Hotel Sport, nine miles from the center of the Soviet capital.