Lindsborg ? Former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev has agreed to visit Lindsborg later this year to play chess against former world champion Anatoly Karpov, who helped turn the small central Kansas community into something of a chess Mecca.

Lindsborg Mayor Ron Rolander extended a written invitation to Gorbachev through Karpov, who was in the town earlier this month to promote “Chess for Peace,” a worldwide exchange program that will culminate there in 2006.

Karpov, who is a friend of Gorbachev, passed the invitation on to the former Soviet leader by telephone, which he accepted under two conditions: That Karpov is in Lindsborg when he visits, and that the two play a game of chess while he’s there.

“I never thought it could happen,” said Mikhail Korenman, director of the Karpov Chess School in Lindsborg. “It’s very exciting.”

Korenman was given the news Sunday after calling Karpov in Russia. No dates have been announced, other than it will be during Gorbachev’s next scheduled trip to the United States in October or November.

Gorbachev was president of the former Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991.

“For a little town here in the Midwest, I think it’s incredible,” said Wes Fisk, who founded a chess club in Lindsborg in 1997 that has gained worldwide fame by linking with Karpov and other chess greats.

“It’s like Bill Clinton playing golf in Lindsborg,” Korenman said. “For chess, it’s a big time.”

The club plans to invite other famous people to the event, including former President Jimmy Carter and Kansas City Chiefs’ running back Priest Holmes, a chess player who sponsors youth events in the Kansas City area.

Organizers are hoping Gorbachev’s visit will gain broad media attention, thus helping the club in its effort to promote chess.

“Having Gorbachev playing chess publicly, I hope for a boom for chess,” Korenman said.