Original artwork by Mike Magnan
Topalov is not willing to put his title on the line against Kramnik
Translated from Russian by Aryan Arghandewal
Newly crowned World Champion Veselin Topalov has no plans to put his title on the line in a possible match against Kramnik. “So far this year I have won my third Super Tournament. Vladimir Kramnik is an outstanding player of modern chess, one of the best players of the last decade. However, he is currently number seven in FIDE world rankings, and I don’t think he has the right to challenge me. When I was the world’s number seven player it never occurred to me that I had the right to challenge world’s number one,” the Bulgarian Super GM is reported to have said in San Luis.
Topalov stressed that Kramnik had been invited to San Luis, but had refused to participate. Hence, in Topalov’s opinion, Kramnik has automatically lost the right to contend for the title. Topalov is also reported to have said that from January 1st he was going to have the highest rating, leaving aside the retired Garry Kasparov (still the highest rated player). It is certainly true that five years ago Kramnik had defeated Kasparov. However, according to Topalov, Kramnik’s latest results do not provide sufficient grounds to have any claims for the title.
“There’s a big difference in our ratings,” Topalov stressed. “In chess 60 Elo points means a different class altogether. If Vladimir was offered to play against someone 60 Elo points below himself he’d simply burst out laughing. If there is going to be a Topalov-Kramnik match, it will be on purely commercial basis. I do not believe we can play for the title because I’ve already won it here in San Luis. A Topalov-Kramnik match for the title is out of question, because FIDE has organised a two-year cycle for the world championship, analogous to the one we had in San Luis, where eight qualifiers will fight for the title. Thus the tournament shall determine the new holder of the Crown. That is the plan.”
FIDE President Kirsan Illumzhinov had earlier indicated that, in principle, a match between the winner of the World Championship in San Luis and Vladimir Kramnik was possible, providing the Kramnik camp comes up with a minimum of two million dollars. 
What most have repeated regarding Kramnik is true. He has held a “split” world championship title for far too long, but I wonder if some of the blame for this falls with others. Certainly, FIDE did not have much interest in legitimizing the classical title when it was already having so much difficulty in finding sponsorship to back a title match of it’s own. Should it be up to the artist to organize and hustle sponsorship to interest someone in knocking him off of his throne? Granted, Vladimir COULD have agreed to play in San Luis, thereby “cutting his own throat”, so to speak, in acquiring a well-deserved title purse in a reunification match. Play the match! Otherwise, the current schism will remain! How important will that be? Probably not much in the long run, but it certainly will leave yet another reminder in chess history of the petty squabbling and ineptitude of the current FIDE administration that exists. Probably Topalov has more to lose here and little more to gain, other than the respect and gratitude of the millions of chess fans who long to rally behind the one world champion, and put this messy era to rest!
Best wishes,
Frank K