My good friends from Mexico City won the bid to host the next World Championship, the same people who brought Kasparov, Topalov and me to Mexico City in the past.
The World Championship Match Topalov – Kramnik will take place in Elista, and the “WC Final 8” (similar to San Luis last year) will be in Mexico City. The Mexican organizers have already transfered the prize funds of one and a half million dollars to FIDE’s bank account.
The winner of the World Championship match will play in the next FIDE world championship, which will take place in Mexico City. However, the loser, even if it’s Topalov, will have to start from “scratch” in the World Cup.
The “classical” World Champion, Kramnik, in turn, in case of a victory, will play in the next “WC Final 8” and if he loses, World cup. This is stated in the contract, and this was signed by both participants of the Elista match.
Congratulations to the organizers! Well done! Mexico is very lucky to have such wonderful chess supporters!
What do you think?
Do you like what FIDE is doing now with the World Championship?
Do you think that it is fair for either loser of the World Championship match to have to start from scratch? If not, what would be your suggestion?
This is the article from ChessBase.com
Topalov-Kramnik match to take place in Elista, “Tournament of Eight” in Mexico
President of FIDE Kirstan Illumzhinov told Sport Express correspodnent Juri Vasiliev at the Presidential Committee meeting of the International Chess Federation FIDE yesterday in Dubai that he had just signed three important contracts.
The first two were with World Champion Vesselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Classical Chess World Champion Vladimir Kramnik on their match for the world chess crown. This will take place from September 21st to October 13th in the Kalmykian capital of Elista.
“The third contract I signed with the Government of Mexico, which wants to stage the next FIDE world championship in Mexico,” Ilyumzhinov said. “This will be a tournament of eight, like the San Luis Championship. The Mexican organizers are ready to transfer the prize fund of 1.5 million dollars to the FIDE bank account. Sport Express is the the first news outlet to inform the world about this.”
Ilyumzhinov revealed further details: the match Topalov-Kramnik will be held over twelve games, with classical time controls. In case of a draw there will be four games with shorter time control – 25 minutes per side. The prize fund of one million dollars will be split equally between the participants, regardless of the outcome of the match. This was decided in order to show the equal status of both participants in the unification match.
Sport Express says it means that what has been up in the air has become a reality, the match for the title of world championship has been officially announced, the contracts with all participants have been signed.
An important point is that the winner of the Topalov-Kramnik match will play in the next FIDE World Championship, which will be held in Mexico City. The loser, even if it is the current title holder Topalov, will have to start from scratch and play in the World Cup.
Classical chess world champion Kramnik will play in the next “Tournament of Eight” in Mexico if he wins the match against Topalov. If he loses he will have to play in the World Cup. These conditions have been agreed in the contract and signed by both participants of the Elista match.
I have to say I am deeply cynical about the timing of this announcement.
Ilyumzhinov has had 10 years in which to sort out the World Championship properly, then a few weeks before the elections in Turin, this announcement is made.
The choice of venue also makes me deeply suspicious of the motives. To stage this in Kirsans home town carries the suggestion that maybe voting Ilyumzhinov out of office would put the match in jeopardy.
Everyone in chess wants this issue resolved once and for all, but I feel this is being done purely as an election stunt by the imcumbant FIDE President.
If it means we don’t get the change of President FIDE so desperately needs, then I would not feel inclined to support it.
Everyone knows politicians will promise the world during an election campaign, this is just one more example of that I fear.
Things such as the 1993 split from FIDE just serve to keep the world’s best players from playing in official federations. Take Zsoyd for example. His estimated ELO is well above the highest achieved by both Fischer and Kasparov, yet he does not play in any federation recognized by FIDE.
This post was from March: This is a position from a game by Topalov recently in Mexico City. Topalov is White. He just played 14. Be2. White has a small advantage. Set this position against your computer program (level appropriate) or your chess buddies. Your goal is to hold this position as Black and try to win as White. Have fun 🙂
# posted by SusanPolgar @ 3/26/2006 10:56:00 AM 5 comments
Can anybody tell me when this game was played and who was black? Thank you very much.
Zsoyd?
what has this to do with an IM who knows how to program a front end cheating system on his computer?
Seed the loser of this match into the WC tournament as well. Make it a 9-player tournament. How hard can it be? But OK, maybe it makes too much sense for FIDE. Above all I wish they returned to the match format. It would be tragic for chess if this match marked the end of that wonderful tradition.
Hello,
What does ‘start from scratch’ mean ? Does he go into final 16, final 8, or play in a 128 player knockout ?
– Vinay
what is the guarantee that if Kramnik wins, he will abide by the contract. How do we know he won’t jus refuse to play again ? Of course, FIDE can then strip him off the title, but they’ve done that in the past and Kramnik didn’t give a damn. He will still proclaim himself to be the champion as beat Kasparov (and Topalov), and organise his own cycle
I feel this is dirty politics, it is not the best situation to resolve the mess since 1993 which Kasparov created by the way in case anyone has forgotten. It is just 12 games and then faster time controls until a winner. This is basically what Kirsan has done to chess in the past 10 years, destroyed the World Champion Status and tradition from Steinitz to Kramnik. Without a great World Champion in chess, Kirsan can control the GM’s a lot easier which is his goal. I hope Kok beats him but even this is looking dim with the dirty Politics Kirsan is employing to get Federation votes.
I just fail to understand all the noise about. Kramnik is a spent force. As someone on this blog said, only he thinks he is a world champion. There is no need to even hold this tournament, but even if someone wants to do so for some sentimental reasons, let it be so. Given Kramnik’s current form, it will be a massacre, unless, there is something more to it than what is obvious.
Capa and Alekhine played more than 30 games
Botvinnik played 24 against many challengers
Kasparov, Anand played 18
Kramnik, Leko 14
Now Topalov and Kramnik will play 12.
I think in 20 years, they will play one single game to define a world champion and their will draw this game.
The long matches of yesteryear were so absorbing. Why does everything have to be like fast food? What about the satisfying and well prepared meal?
I think “what FIDE is doing with the WC” is a little bit misleading, since FIDE is not in charge of the WC except as far as its actions fit with what people see the championship as being. FIDE had a series of WC’s in the 90’s-00’s, won by Pomorionov(sp?) and who knows who else, but nobody cared. Everyone knew Kasparov was the WC and then pretty much (at least for a while) accepted Kramnik as the WC. FIDE’s pretenses meant nothing.