The cause was cancer, according to an announcement on the federation’s Web site.  Mr. Campomanes’s disputed call came as Mr. Kasparov, then 21 years old, and Mr. Karpov, 33, were facing off in Moscow in a world championship match that was to be decided in favor of the first player to win six games. Though both were Soviet players, Mr. Karpov, the titleholder, was the Kremlin’s favorite.  Mr. Karpov won four games quickly, and it seemed as if the match would soon be over. But then Mr. Kasparov settled down. The next 17 games were drawn before Mr. Karpov finally won again. After four more draws, Mr. Kasparov broke through with his first victory in the 32nd game, after which an additional 14 draws followed.  By now the match had stretched to 46 games and nearly five months. Both men were clearly worn. Mr. Karpov, a man of small stature to begin with, had lost more than 20 pounds from the pressure and strain of the match. He starting playing listlessly and making mistakes, losing the 47th and 48th games. The match had seemed to reach a turning point.  That was when Mr. Campomanes stepped in. At a raucous news conference in February 1985, he halted the match, saying that both men’s health was deteriorating and that the match was unwinnable. Though Mr. Karpov protested, saying he wanted to continue, and Mr. Kasparov began shouting that he did, too, Mr. Campomanes would not change his mind.  At the time, Mr. Campomanes was suspected of acting at the behest of the Soviet authorities in order to protect Mr. Karpov.  In a video interview with Frederic Friedel of the Web site Chessbase in 2005, Mr. Campomanes denied there was any Soviet pressure to end the match.  “The final decision, as a matter of fact, was made right there on the stage,” he said, adding, “I’ve made many decisions that way; I seek my inspiration for a decision right there on the spot, facing my audience, facing the people, facing the protagonists.”  The match was rescheduled for later in 1985 and limited to 24 games. Mr. Kasparov won the title, but he was angry with Mr. Campomanes and tried several times to form a breakaway organization to rival the federation. He eventually did so in 1993, organizing his own title match against Nigel Short of England.  Mr. Campomanes’s response was to expel Mr. Kasparov and Mr. Short from the federation — a decision that was later reversed — and to organize a match to crown a federation champion. Mr. Karpov won the title, and the chess world remained split between rival champions for the next 13 years.  Mr. Campomanes was born in Manila on Feb. 27, 1927. He earned a master’s degree from Brown University and studied for a Ph.D. at Georgetown before deciding to devote his life to chess, both as a player and as an organizer. He won the Philippine championships in 1956 and 1960 and played for his country in five Chess Olympiads.  In 1978, he led the effort to organize the world championship match between Mr. Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi in Baguio City. Though Mr. Campomanes won the contract, many of the details, including raising the prize money and securing the venue, had not been worked out, according to an account by Casto Abundo, a friend of Mr. Campomanes’s. Mr. Campomanes solved the problems with the help of Ferdinand Marcos, the Philippines’ autocratic president and an old friend.  Mr. Campomanes also developed a close friendship with the champion player Bobby Fischer, whom he invited to the Philippines on more than one occasion and introduced to Marcos. Mr. Campomanes became president of the federation in 1982 by defeating the incumbent, Fridrik Olafsson of Iceland, in an election.  During his time in office, the federation added about 50 member countries, but its finances sank into disarray.  In 1995, he was succeeded by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, an obscure but wealthy Russian businessman whom Mr. Campomanes had helped recruit.  There was no immediate word on survivors, though Mr. Campomanes was known to have married twice and to have had more than one child, including a son, Enzo.  Eight years after he left office, Mr. Campomanes was convicted by a Philippine court of failing to account for how almost 13 million Philippine pesos (about $240,000) had been spent organizing the 1992 Chess Olympiad in Manila. The conviction was later overturned on the grounds that Mr. Campomanes represented an international organization not based in the Philippines and that he was therefore not bound by the nation’s laws on disclosure.  Mr. Campomanes denied that he ever stole money or accepted bribes. In the 2005 interview with Mr. Friedel, he said: “And there are also accusations, ‘Campo, how much money did you make?’ When they tell me this, instead of getting angry, I say, ‘Where is it?’ ”
As the leader of the World Chess Federation, Mr. Campomanes ended a title match between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov.