BUENOS AIRES, September 21 (RIA Novosti, Yury Nikolayev) - The selection of participants for the upcoming world chess championship, scheduled for September 27-October 16 in St. Louis, Argentina, violated sports regulations, former world champion Anatoly Karpov said Wednesday.

"This can hardly be called a world championship, as the rules of sports were not observed," he said. "There was no [proper] selection. Of course, each of the eight candidates deserves respect, but others had no chance to have their say."