Two deadlines have passed and still nobody has come forward to host the Magnus Carlsen v Vishy Anand world title rematch scheduled for November. The global chess body Fide has been heavily criticised by the all-time No1 Garry Kasparov, who is campaigning to become president.

Kasparov blames Fide's incumbent, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, for his poor image due to Ilyumzhinov's real or alleged meetings with Hussein/Gaddafi/Assad/aliens. But many other top Fide events have taken place in his 19-year office, and the current failure is arguably just bad luck.

If any of the other seven players had won the 2014 candidates, his East European government would likely have forked up the estimated $5m to stage the match. But India hosted the 2013 series in Chennai, funded by the regional state, saw its favourite son crushed without winning a single game and has no appetite for a repeat.

The other prime candidate, Norway, is already committed to the 150-nation team Olympiad at Tromso, which is desperately short of funds less than three months from the start. The Norwegian government has refused extra backing and there are even reports this week that the Olympiad could be cancelled.

Emil Sutovsky of the Association of Chess Professionals, the trade union for grandmasters, argues that 'chess and democracy do not match well' so that funds for world championships are most likely to come from state-backed firms or from wealthy enthusiasts like Andrey Filatov who financed Anand's title match with Boris Gelfand.

Arguably, too, the world championship series has become a financial bubble with its £800,000 prize fund plus substantial other costs comparing with the modest £100,000 for which Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky played in Reykjavik in 1972. Chess no longer has its Cold War angle which created an extra dimension and pushed up prize money in the two decades after Reykjavik. Championship matches were every three years then, now they are annually or biannually. By comparison, snooker's world championship had live BBC coverage for a fortnight but its winner received £300,000.

The critical news is from Norway,, where last week Carlsen's manager and other chess officials met the government minister for culture and sports. They asked for state aid to back a Carlsen v Anand series in Oslo and estimated a budget of around 40 million NOK (£4m). Commercial sponsors will be needed as well, with Statoil and the Telenor communications giant on the list. However, this approach has already led to tension between the cash-strapped Tromso Olympiad organisers and the Norwegian chess federation.

If Norway falls through for Carlsen v Anand, what then? I guess there will still be a match somewhere, even if it is in bleak midwinter in the Siberian oil town of Khanty-Mansiysk, which has already hosted the 2012 Olympiad and 2014 candidates. There is also possible interest from Azerbaijan, where Carlsen scored his latest tournament victory last month.

Longer term there remains a large question mark over the viability of the current championship set-up with its huge costs. The bubble theory may yet prove correct.

3358 1 Rc2+ Kf3! 2 b6?? Qh3+! 3 Kxh3 with an unusual stalemate.