Veselin Topalov Officially Demands Return Match from Kramnik
15 December 2006 09:35 FOCUS News Agency
Sofia.
The leader in the world ranking list of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) Veselin Topalov has officially demanded a return match from Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik who won the word chess title in October in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, Topalov’s press officer Zhivko Ginchev told FOCUS News Agency.
According to FIDE’s rules, each player whose ELO rating is over 2700, or who is a former world chess champion can challenge the current champion to a return match. “The official proposal for a return match was sent late last night to FIDE’s headquarters”, Silvio Danailov, Topalov’s manager said. Bulgaria is ready to organize the match in the period between April 12 and 30, 2007 in Sofia.
The competition will be held under the auspices of Bulgaria’s President Georgi Pavanov, who was the first to support the idea about a return match. Besides, Bulgaria is ready to provide the reward – USD 1 million (without taxes) for the winner; USD 500,000 for the second place and USD 300,000 for FIDE.
Source: FOCUS NEWS
Topalov, get a life! You lost the match! No-one is interested in another freakshow with dirty match tactics!
Play in the candidates matches in the future, like everyone else!
If he gets a match at all, he’ll have to wait until after Mexico City. The rules are quite plain. There will be no match in April.
http://www.fide.com/official/handbook.asp?level=DD105
2.3 The match should be terminated at least six (6) months before the start of the World Championship Tournament, due to be held in September/October 2007.
2.4 The challenger’s side should present the bank guarantees, for the whole sums described in articles 2.1.a, 2.1.b and 2.2, at the same time as his proposal, after which FIDE shall organise the match within a 5-month period.
Not to mention the Prize Fund. A million for the winner, half a million for the loser, is also illegal:
Rule 2.1.a
a. The challenger’s side shall provide an amount of 1,000,000 (one million) USD as guaranteed prize money for the incumbent World Champion, net and not subject to any further deductions such as tax. The challenger’s side should also provide the exact total prize fund of the event (World Champion and challenger), net and not subject to any further deductions such as tax.
It doesn’t seem that Topalov really wants this match, if he’s only filing the challenge today, a full two months to the day after first asking for it.
this just sounds so ugly. there’s such bad blood and acrimony that i can’t believe this would be a positive step for chess.
i just read excerpts from topolov’s interview at the daily dirt (chessninja)and the accusations take this match out of the chess world.
it’s very possible that topolav is right with his accusations, but still, linking the poisoning of the spy with kramniks alledged cheating is a little far fetched.
i’d much rather see another match with other participants that would avoid all this nonchess stuff.
Actually…FIDE is in trouble on this matter of a rematch between Topalov and Kramnik. FIDE has already announced plans for the World Championship in Mexico City 2007. How can they possibly force Kramnik to defend his title against Topalov in a rematch if Kramnik agrees to play in Mexico City?
FIDE will have to drop Topalov’s rematch demand to let Kramnik play in Mexico City. Otherwise…can you imagine the uproar if FIDE forces Kramnik to play a rematch with Topalov and then scratch the World Championship in Mexico City?! FIDE would lose instant credibility and crumble overnight if this happens.
FIDE has set the World Championship match in Mexico City in 2007 and it has to stand by it. So if Kramnik agrees to play in Mexico City then FIDE will have to side with Kramnik over Topalov’s demands for a rematch.
i got this really nice box of kleenex. Triple-layered….very nice for Veselin…asking only $5000. Will provide him with comfort thru his many proposals yet to come 🙂
Bulgaria – that sounds like a neutral venue! They could play in my front room, it might be a bit cold – and only one toilet…….Kirstine bakes great cherry muffins though!
“Not to mention the Prize Fund. A million for the winner, half a million for the loser, is also illegal:”
You are correct, but the article quoted from Focus News seems to be inaccurate. On Chessbase.com:
http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3542
the official proposal of the match states that one million USD is for the champion.
And he still hasn’t guaranteed to agree with letting Kramnik go for long visits to toilets and restrooms where Kramniks usually gets Fritz-like inspirations! Not fair, Topa!
This is very lucrative business for Kramnik. He beat Topalov by giving an extra point in classical, and simply wiped him off the board in the rapids. Topalov is simply not a match for him. The match against Deep Fritz was much more interesting.
Seems like Kramnik will make more money out of chess than Kasparov did.
Ho Ho Ho! Kramnik must be turning yellow to see the same FIDE rules created just for him turn against him. I cannot wait for the real champion (Topalov) to come back. This time he and the organizers will be prepared for Kramnik’s dirty tactics (going to the bathroom every 1 minute, give me a break!).
No doubt the yellow Kramnik fans will hunt for the leagal loopholes in the FIDE rules and do their best to avoid this re-match. Cowards!
“No doubt the yellow Kramnik fans will hunt for the leagal loopholes in the FIDE rules and do their best to avoid this re-match. Cowards!”
No. Being a Kramnik fan, I very much want this match to happen. He is just going to be a million dollar richer. I don’t really care about living standards in Bulgaria.
Kramnik will be the richest chess player ever to live.
if i were Kramnik i’d accept the “bulgarian challenge” because i’d take no risk at all.
this goatee bearded wanna be number one – with a bulgarian birth, but a spanish living – has – of course – deserved a rematch! (*tusk tusk)
BUT: i’d not agree to play in Sofia – BULGARIA – but in a neutral country – e.g. GERMANY or FRANCE.
i’d not agree IM Silvio Danailov to be an active part of the goatee bearded team …
> i’d cancel my acceptance for mexico city (maybe Ivantchuk can take my place).
but i’ll keep the World Chess Champion title (in the tradition of Steinitz and Zukertort) and will go on to annoy the anonymouses of Susan Polgar’s Chess Blog …
this is – what i am: arrogant, boring, chicken-hearted…
i am a coward, bad smelling, a toilet cheater, an abuser of UTP-5 cables wherever they meet me – but i’m also the – proven by match games – strongest human chess player on this rotten old earth…
I AM THE MAN!
i am not Kramnik – but i like the idea to earn 1 million EUROS with ease (bucks are bad at the time… ^^), by defeating a bulgarian / spanish “wunderkind” (prodigy) again and again and again …
thx god, thx fide, thx to all anonym tattletales:
there has risen a market for the good smelling, well dressed, but unsuccessful goatees – and the aliens will play by Kirsan’s rules.
by the way – it is bearing good prospects to earn a living keeping the title … (if i were Kramnik, of course)
– and Topalov – who is Topalov? one who thought to be the best – but failed to prove this and has a goatee, too.
hmmm, at least – I DO NOT NEED A WORLD CHESS CHAMPION at all, to play chess …
^^
who cares what you belive
Topalov team should have proposed this a lot earlier. I don’t think its feasible to arrange staffs in end of February to finish it before March 12, 2007 accoridng to 6 motnhs regulations. Better if Topalov waits to challenge the new World Chess Champion of Mexico 2007 (which I hope will be V Anand).
>>You are correct, but the article quoted from Focus News seems to be inaccurate. On Chessbase.com:
http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3542
the official proposal of the match states that one million USD is for the champion.
>>
You’re right. Chessbase shows a reproduction of the page and it says one million for the champion. So this error at least is Focus’s and not Danailov’s.
“Ho Ho Ho! Kramnik must be turning yellow to see the same FIDE rules created just for him turn against him.”
How embarrassing for you. If you’d read the posts ahead of you, you’d seen that the exact opposite is the case. No matches within 6 months of Mexico City. Right there in front of your face and you didn’t see it.
“I cannot wait for the real champion (Topalov) to come back.”
What makes you think he is or ever was the real champion? He’s lost two matches to Kramnik already. He’s certainly not entitled to another.
Let’s face it, though Topalov may have had a great year, and be a great tournament player, he’s just not much of a match player. Kramnik has beaten Kasparov and Topalov. Who’s Topalov beaten? Nisipeanu. Not much comparison there.
“This time he and the organizers will be prepared for Kramnik’s dirty tactics (going to the bathroom every 1 minute, give me a break!).”
By lying about him, you admit that you don’t believe what you’re saying. If you don’t care that your own man broke FIDE ethics rules, don’t pretend to get upset over protocol issues on the other side. We both know you don’t mean a word of what you’re saying.
How can the challenger and loser demand a rematch???
That said Kramnik ought to take it if the purse is a guaranteed million – chess is his career after all – not a hobby.
“Topalov team should have proposed this a lot earlier.”
Topalov’s afraid of Kramnik. He’s never been able to beat him before. Had a massive losing record against him before the last match. And the last match showed nothing had changed. He knows his match is illegal, he’d have filed the challenge two months ago if he was serious. He just wants to be able to pretend he wanted it when he gets turned down.
I don’t think its feasible to arrange staffs in end of February to finish it before March 12, 2007 accoridng to 6 motnhs regulations. Better if Topalov waits to challenge the new World Chess Champion of Mexico 2007 (which I hope will be V Anand).
“How can the challenger and loser demand a rematch???”
Anybody can demand anything, with or without a right to it. I demand your hamburger. But I’m probably not going to get it.
“That said Kramnik ought to take it if the purse is a guaranteed million – chess is his career after all – not a hobby.”
It’s not his decision. A match in April is illegal whether he wants it or not.
Your argument is a specious one. If 100 people all challenge to a match, should a champion accept them all because chess is his career? Topalov is asking for an unprecedented advantage here. No defeated champion has ever in the history of chess gotten a rematch 6 months later, much less a defeated challenger, which is what Topalov is.
Asking a champion to defend his title twice in the same year… well, that’s not totally unprecedented. Lasker did it in 1910. But he did it voluntarily, and one of the defenses was against a joke challenger.
Now I’m sure Kramnik would be glad to play a Topalov rematch instead of Mexico City, but that wouldn’t really be fair to the other candidates, would it? Another possibility is to let Topalov play in Mexico and for Kramnik to defend against the winner of that tournament, but that’s already been proposed and rejected.
So I’m afraid Topalov is out. Eliminated fair and square. Twice. He’s going to have to wait until after Mexico City at the very earliest to have another shot. If the title means as little to him as he claimed it did after Elista, that shouldn’t be a problem. If you’ll recall, he said then that he didn’t care about the title as long as he had the #1 rating. Maybe his feelings about that have changed because after the Bundesliga, Anand is unofficially a couple of points ahead of Topalov now.
I think Topalov is still ok, but Danailov.. Topalov should take the initiative and stay calm, play in the forthcoming tournements, Corus and Linares.. It would be very good if he challenges whoever the champion is after Mexico. The way he behaves (or he and Danailov)is not very respected.
Im just sad governments and $ dictates things nowadays.
Why cant a poor but top ranked GM have the same privileges? The rules suck big time.
Nothing wrong with Topa wanting a match though. It will be exciting again.
– Vinay
Quite frankly, in my eyes, Topalov has never been a legitimate world champion. That title can only continue in the line of Steinitz onwards.
Thus Topalov, when playing Kramnik for the first time, was the challenger to that crown. Consequentially he has no right to challenge Kramnik again.
I believe that if FIDE finally settles on a stable world championship cycle, this challenge rule has to be removed ASAP. I just don’t get why FIDE seems so utterly unable to maintain any kind of consistency in their decisions. At this point I would prefer almost anything to the constantly changing rules.
Vohaul said… BUT: i’d not agree to play in Sofia – BULGARIA – but in a neutral country – e.g. GERMANY or FRANCE.
So you agree that former russian republic Kalmicia is a neutral country?!? funny guy
“So you agree that former russian republic Kalmicia is a neutral country?!? funny guy”
Kalmykia (sp) wasn’t a neutral site, it was a pro-Topalov site, as was shown very clearly when the Appeals Committee resigned in disgrace for fudging the rules in Topalov’s favor. Now Topalov wants another friendly site. Doesn’t ask for much, does he?
Kramnik is a farce, people say they want proof, He claims he was taking walks in the toilet, but the door was closed. I think we have a naive public that enjoy being ‘lied to’. There are so many things that strongly imply Kramnik’s behaviour was suspicious. You Kramnik supporters just choose to have a blind eye, ”equivalent to a Wife who knows her husband is cheating on her but accepts the lies he tells her because she has not caught him on camera” yet she has many other signs of evidence. Jeezus Christ … open you eyes. Kramnik has Dubious, Powerful freinds and Russia is desperate to hold their title, they have done so for 70 years (Excluding Fischer) and intend to go on for another Generation, and will do everything in thier Power to do so. PUBLIC PLEASE USE YOUR BRAIN FOR ONCE AND SEE THE LIGHT.
Topalov: «El Kremlin nunca reconocerá que mató al espía ruso, ni Kramnik que hizo trampas»
POR FEDERICO MARÍN BELLÓN. FOTO LUIS ÁNGEL GÓMEZ. BILBAO.
14-12-2006 09:05:35
Topalov interview for ABC-Spain:
http://www.abc.es/hemeroteca/historico-14-12-2006/Deportes/el-kremlin-nunca-reconocera-que-mato-al-espia-ruso-ni-kramnik-que-hizo-trampas_153433546648.html
father_simon said…
Normally I would say that a rematch is absurd, impractical, unwise from Kramnik’s point of view, naively opportunistic on Topolav’s and Danailov’s part…the whole concept of a rematch in general is a real pain in the you know where.
However, upon further consideration, I think that pending Kramnik’s approval, if Topalov and Danilov meet several important conditions, a match may bring world wide attention.
Condition 1: To demonstrate his pure, untainted desire to play Kramnik in lieu of fame or fortune, both Topalov and his manager Danailov will become eunuchs.
Condition 2: Both Topalov and Danailov will wear only tunics for a period of not less than one hundred days while sitting in uncovered seats atop 30 meter tall flagpoles located at the famous Chigorin Club, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Condition 3: Both Topalov and Danailov will consume only bread and water while seated atop said flagpoles.
Meeting these three conditions will prove that Topalov’s and Danailov’s commitment to chess be their true motive, making Topalov worthy of an immediate rematch.
Pending verification and the conclusion of the flagpole sitting demonstrations the rematch will proceed.
>>- but in a neutral country – e.g. GERMANY
Germany a neutral country? Gimme a break. How can the home of ChessBase be neutral?
>>an abuser of UTP-5 cables wherever they meet me
Kramnik very accidentally met with UTP-5 cables, in the toilet, of all places!
And he liked this meeting so much that he repeated it every 10 min or so behind closed doors.