"Phil Innes" wrote in message
...

[snip]
What actually qualifies Peter Leko in front of these other claimants?

Simply that Leko qualified in the official qualification tourney. Seems to
be a bit out of date, but *this* kind of qualification was - strangely
enough - possible this time (this time I will *not* ask what qualifies
Kasparov as he refused to play the qualifier...). The Pono case is a
different story, but he had his chance, no matter if he was betrayed by FIDE
or if his management is nuts.

Andreas