October 11, 1995

Less than a half-hour into yesterday's game in the world chess championship, the reigning title holder from Russia, Gary Kasparov, made his 12th move, sliding a bishop diagonally forward one square. He looked at his challenger, Viswanathan Anand of India, smiled, then offered a draw. Mr. Anand scanned the board for several minutes, then accepted with a characteristic lack of expression. After 30 days and 18 games, with more than 250 foreign journalists sending reports around the world -- including to more than 300 million television viewers in India alone -- it all ended. Not with a bang. Not even with a whimper. But with a simple handshake, acknowledging that the turning point had come days before. The final score was 10 1/2 to 7 1/2.

NEW YORK CITY

As Congress today considers some of the most severe anti-immigration measures since the 1920's, it is facing resistance from a surprising alliance of high-technology manufacturers, religious leaders, conservative think tanks, civil liberties organizations and tiny, grass-roots immigrant groups. From Microsoft, which is fighting limitations on visas for foreign computer scientists, to the Roman Catholic Church, which is battling for the rights of political refugees, the coalition is giving some heft to the loosely organized opposition by immigrants, who belatedly realized that the mood of the country had turned against them.

Federal authorities investigating the deadly sabotage derailment of an Amtrak train in Arizona said today that they had no suspects or motive, but that a note found at the scene began with a poem about the women who died in the fire that ended the siege of the Branch Davidian sect's compound near Waco, Tex. As Federal investigators scoured the remote desert site where several passenger cars of Amtrak's Sunset Limited tumbled off a Southern Pacific trestle early Monday, killing a crewman and injuring dozens of people, specialists at the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington began studying the note for clues.

An Assembly committee will take the first steps toward bringing minor league baseball to South Jersey when it holds a hearing today on a bill to authorize the Delaware River and Bay Authority to provide an $8 million loan for building a 6,000-seat baseball park in North Wildwood. Under the town's plan, the city would set up an independent authority to repay the loan and operate the ball park, Mayor Aldo Palombo said.