Topalov will Try to Win World Chess Championship Title in New Match vs. Kramnik
15 October 2006 13:06 FOCUS News Agency
Sofia. “Bulgaria’s chess grand master Veselin Topalov will try to win the World Chess Championship Title in a new match versus Kramnik”, Topalov’s manager Silvio Danailov said at a press conference at Grand Sofia Hotel, a journalist of FOCUS News Agency reported.
“The regulations of the World Chess Federation allows each world champion, who has lost the title to extend an invitation for a new match. The sum of EUR 1.5 million has to be provided as an award. We will find the money and will demand that the match take place in Sofia. We will even propose the date March 3rd, 2007”, Danailov stated.
I seriously doubt that Kramnik would go for that. They already had an agreement that the winner will go to Mexico, the loser won’t.
Topalov should fire Danailov, he really makes a bad publicity to Topalov. This statement, “invitation”, suggesting Sofia as the place, is nothing more than a “suggestion” that Kramnik won, because the match was held on russian land, which is nonsense.
Gabor
(docobgyn@yahoo.com)
I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Why should Kramnik turn down a share of $1.5 million?
He’ll probably say, “I’ve beaten him at the board over and over again. I’ll do it again, and get paid handsomely for it too.”
All of that assumes Danailov can get the money.
But Topalov isn’t a losing world champion, really; he’s a tournament winner that FIDE nominated as its champion. So I’d suggest that the moral right to a return match doesn’t actually exist here.
That is hilarious
Danilov must be on serious drugs if he thinks that Kramnik will ever be within sninffing distance of a room with Danilov’s stench
Has Danilov ever been outside of his own head?
well, marc, Kramnik is not rich as Tiger Woods or Michael Schumacher but I doubt that he really needs the money. He got paid quite well for the Elista match and he’s got another big pay-day coming up with the match against Fritz.
I’m fairly convinced that he will sit back and relax for a short while. He will then fairly soon announce how his next challenger will be decided (presumably the winner of Mexico 2007 in which I doubt Kramnik will take part) and the chess world will be happy.
Apart from Kirsan and Topalov (who may end up not even playing in mexico)of course
Common! The title should be held at least a year before the next World Championship ’bout!
FIRE DANAILOV, DUMMY!
What a sore loser!
I doubt Kramnik has any qualms about a rematch, but give it at least a year!
Danailov is just doing this because he knows Kramnik will likely reject the offer and he (ie. Danailov) can use the media to denounce Kramnik for being scared and not wanting a challenge to his title.
Danailov is just a trickster. Why can Topalov not see this?? Is he not above these kinds of tricks??
A bit more details on that can be found here – a BG site in English
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=71178
I hate to say that but I dont believe that Topalov is smart and independent enough to fire Danailov (a clinical case of megalomaniac) – he is like Tison for Don King, a cash mashine with great talent but very limited knowledge of the world beyond chess.
Of course Kramnik will not take this seriously, and I dont see him playing in Mexico either, then what happens? He will be stripped from his title by FIDE and annouce that FIDE is no more relevant anyway? etc. So the mess is far from over. It appears that right now the closest by spirit sport to chess is boxing as far as the title is concerned
Cheers
Svetoslav
Topalov should have to play thru and win candidate matches or tournaments before he gets a rematch. Now that the Title is unified FIDE must return to the old format. This will revitalize interest in Chess.
This is the problem thats come from the non-FIDE Champion winning the match, even though his winning was the right result. Topalov should wait till after Mexico and challenge whoever wins it in a candidates match, though he really has no claim, having lost the match. Mexico City isnt a qualification tournament. Its the next World Championship, where Kramnik is to defend his title. I hope Kramnik will refuse the rematch against Topalov and defend his title in Mexico City.
A world championship again in 4 months? What is this? A joke? If WCC is held every 4 months it’ll completely lose it’s significance. There should atleast be a gap of two years. The winner of Mexico should only have the right to challenge Kramnik.
I am almost sure that Kramnik will not even show up in Mexico city – for him, a round robin tournament is a tournament and on cannot decide the world chess champion in a tournament but in a match.
However he signed a contract – the winner of the unification match must play in Mexico or give up the title. Thats invention of Kirsan and things are not so simple, they are gone for months of negotiations about that.
Kramnik has no reason to play in Mexico.
Even if FIDE takes away their title from him he has the real title already
He can just wait for the winner of that match and there will be plenty of sponsorship for him to play against the winner and “unify ” the title.
To michael: Agreed, but why they dont define the rules once and for all now?
In fact the WC title matches are already in a 2-year cycle – 2004, 2006 etc, the “candidate” tournaments among the best 8 are also there – 2005, 2007 etc.
They have all the ingredients to make decent rules and give this sport the credibility it deserves.
What I can’t stand about Kramnik is his arrogance… he thinks that everything should be the way he wants it… Before this match, they signed contracts that they will relinquish the title and play in Mexico City for the Title. But now, all of a sudden Kramnik will refuse? He is an anathema to the sport… horrible. He refused to give Kasparov a rematch… and I’m sure he will never play Topalov again… And his play is horribly boring…
Kramnik’s play is boring only to people who don’t understand chess. His concepts are beautiful. I am of the opinion that any real chess player should be able to appreciate Petrosian as well as Tal.
I’m not sure what Kramnik will do as regards Mexico City, but there has not been any indication that he will not play. We all know that he played under considerably less fair conditions these past few weeks in Elista.
Kasparov was a great player and gave us many beautiful games for the last 20 years, however, he also was a despicable chess opponent disrespecting his fellow players and cheater (Judit Polgar the Touch Move incident) and a liar with meglomaniac ideas he is the greatest ever. Kramnik did not avoid him, Kasparov did everything in his power to mudsling and devalue Kramnik’s title and try to win it back with dirty politics using FIDE and outside. He created the mess when he and Short left FIDE to have their match. Kramnik did not avoid Kasparov, it was Kasparov who lost to Kramnik and probably was afraid of losing again to Kramnik just as Topalov did. That is why Kasparov really quit chess, he knew all of his illegal attempts to get the crown back backfired on him and he was not going to get it back. Kasparov is upset because most people acknoweledge Bobby Fischer as the Greatest ever. For one thing, Kasparov never dominated the chess world the way Fischer did from 1970 to 1972. Kasparov did not win 20 games in a row playing the world’s best grandmasters like Fischer did. Enough said!
WCCh WILL be held in Mexico. They have even given to FIDE some (30%) of the prize found already..
Kramnik has signed contract (as all the other participants in the last fide circle ie San Luis and World Cup) with FIDE and if he fails to appear he loses the title AND has serious legal consequences unless there are medical reasons for not participating, in which case he still loses the title.
Also the new fide rules for the WCCh state that any 2700+ player can chalenge the Champion if he finds funding the Champion needs to agree. If the total funding includes 1 (or more) million dollars for the Champion, the Champion HAS to agree (acording to the FIDE rules)
So while Kramnik may not want to play Topalov again, he probably does not have a legal way to refuse. Ofcourse maybe Kramnik wants to gain 1 million and play another match, in which case we will indeed have this rematch
What strikes me as odd in the new FIDE rules is that they provide two different ways to become champion, either by winning a tournament or a match. In doing so, they favor players with financial backing, which seems quite opposite to what good sportmanship (where chances are decided only by talent) should be.
I thought Susan has just said, ” Win with grace, lose with dignity.”
Danailov should visit this blog once in a while 🙂
I for one would like to see more of the amazing games that they both fought. Not wanting Kramnik to fight Topalov again is not good for chess, its just fanatical thinking by Kramnik’s, well, fanatics.
Uh, I don’t think anyone is saying that Topalov should never play Kramnik again.
Its just silly to claim that Topalov has an IMMEDIATE right to a rematch. That isn’t how sports works. You don’t lose the superbowl or the world cup and go “but, I want a rematch next month and you have to play in MY home stadium or you lose the title!!!”
There is a reason little kids have a “no tag-back” rule. What would be the point of holding the title if the loser could demand a rematch every couple months?
What is this nonsense about Kasparov not dominating the chess world? Who posts such things and believes that s/he should be taken seriously? Please, take up bridge!
I also find this FIDE Rent-A-Match to be silly. Radjabov is not worthy of challenging for the title yet. Even the pseudo-champions of recent years had to actually beat people to claim a seat in the final match. World title matches are not things to be thrown together in a month, and if weaker players are to challenge (e.g. Short), let them at least beat legitimate players (as Short did) to earn their shot.
Finally, does anyone know if Danailov, should he succeed in getting a match in Sofia, would be able to get front-row seats for the “famous Bulgarian grandmasters” who wrote an open letter in favor of Topalov? How many such seats would he need to reserve, and how many of those seats would have actual people in them?
I think this is great news for Kramnik. In this match Kramnik
– was surprised in the opening stage of nearly every game
– had some serious dips in form
– was surprised by Topalov’s attacks (some straight out the opening) judging from clock times
– ‘forfeited’ a whole point in a white game
– faced three Topalov whites in a row
– had to suffer serious off-board stuff
– in other words, Kramnik didn’t have a good match, except for winning. I think he probably underestimated Topalov in fact. So he would do better in a rematch I suspect. Especially as he would be more prepared for Topalov’s new ideas for white in the Slav.
Although Topalov ought take the lesson that he needs an upgrade in technique, too.
Here is the problem. FIDE was not sure that the Kramnik-Topalov match will really become a reality and they will play it through. Thus they opted for a two-way outcome:
If it falls apart, they can still call Mexico the next world championship
If it doesn’t, the winner will go to Mexico.
Except that will create some more potential chaos, since the winner (Kramnik) could say:”in what way me defeating last year’s champ gives me the exact same position than the other 7 player showing up in Mexico?”. And in some ways he would be correct. It all depends what he signed with FIDE, how binding his championship status if he doesn’t show up. I am puzzled that FIDE didn’t think of this. Because pretty much regardless what he may signed, he certainly can hold himself the world champion after defeating Topalov (and Kasparov, and Leko).
So, the chaos (or not) is up to Kramnik. If he shows up and accepts whatever outcome in Mexico, than the title remains unified. If he doesn’t, back to post-Kasparov square one.
At this point the best solution would be, if FIDE would allow to Kramnik stay on the sideline and have the winner of Mexico play Kramnik for the title (except the winner of Mexico will CLAIM the title, if Kramnik doesn’t show up).
Fortunately we have a precedent: the Kramnik-Topalov. Topalov, the last year winner ACCEPTED the concept that for the real title he must play Kramnik.
So the “show” is not quite over just yet. In any event, whatever the outcome of Mexico-with or without Kramnik, and whatever follows, FIDE must create a new and real world championship method. What we have now is begging for problems. What was wrong with the pre-Kasparov system?
Or why not to follow the world championship methods of many other sports?
Gabor
What is funny is that it seems to me that both Kramnik and Topalov underestimated each other – Kramnik because of his previous record with topa and Topalov because of the wrong feeling of superiority due to his recent performance.
I agree with Gabor that with the Kramnik victory, the problems are not solved, they just begin to pile up.
Better FIDE and Kramnik sit down now and draw the regulations again – a 2-year championship cycle and a match for the title is maybe what most of the chess fans want to see. Methinks
Things are much simpler.
It is impossible to call Mexico qualifier, because the organizers did not give 1.3 millions $ for holding the qualifier and they will disagree strongly, even if FIDE change their minds.
Kramnik if he fails to appear in Mexico not only he loses the title but he is legally prosecuted (unless this is for medical reasons).
Even if he ignores this, he will be unable to find any player to have as a chalenger for his matches, because now UNLIKE before, most players have contracts with FIDE that they cannot participate in any other world championship. Recall that the reason Anand did not play with Kramnik back in 1998 to qualify to play with Kasparov for exactly this reason. He had contract with FiDE. Now all the participants of Saint Luis and all those that played in the World Cup have contracts.
BTW: Topalov did not accepted to play with Kramnik for a match to have a “real” title, but as a champion accepted the challenge of one over 2700 player. (at least legally)
Topalov, had he won, would also have to play in Mexico, so Kramnik cannot say in any llegal or moral grounds that he should play only the winner of Mexico…