Below is an excerpt of what my friend Henrik, father of Magnus, wrote on behalf of his son on Magnus blog:
After Dresden I’ve been more concerned with the changes related to Grand Prix…
What really stole the attention of Magnus and many others during the latter part of the Olympiad was of course the news from FIDE about changes to the Grand Prix cycle.
First came the short notice cancellation of Doha (about two weeks after we had been told everything was all right and could go ahead and buy plane tickets (which we did).
Going to the new venue Elista in wintertime and over Christmas was not something Magnus wanted to do, and later we have got oral confirmation that this issue has been resolved. (I don’t know how and do hope it was done without any harm to other GP participants.)
Later the really big issue came up.
Without proper prior notice, and on the last day of the FIDE congress, a proposal was approved by the (people still left in the) General Assembly to degrade the GP midway by introducing a new qualifying layer, an 8-player Candidate tournament replacing the match between GP and World Cup winners as qualification for the 2011 World Championship match.
Thursday November 27th I wrote an e-mail letter of protest to the FIDE office on Magnus’ behalf and Monday December 1st they reverted promising a response to the letter by today (which we have not received yet).
What we want from FIDE are transparent processes, fairness and predictability. Significantly changing the GP regulations to the detriment of the GP players in the middle of the cycle is clearly unacceptable, and the reactions we consider include legal action and withdrawal from the cycle.
It is understandable that the FIDE board is unhappy about the fact that several top players decided against taking part in the Grand Prix. But, this should not have come as a big surprise and was anyhow known before the start of the GP cycle. Subsequently giving privileges to the players involved in the current World Championship cycle is obviously not the right way to solve their problem.
In the (unfortunately) lopsided GP regulations, there’s a clause (1.4) stating that “The body responsible for any changes to these Regulations is the FIDE Presidential Board.”
I’m not a lawyer, but to me this passively oriented wording describing the role of the FPB would typically apply to the resolution of uncertainties or conflicts pertaining to the GP regulations and not as a basis for completely changing the purpose of the cycle midway…
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen December 2nd 2008
Source: Magnus Blog
Good letter. Really sober.
Bruno
The 2011 cycle implies some compromises, in order to reset old agreements and claims from contenders of yesteryear. After that, starting from 2013, the terms should be transparent and fair for all participants.
Keep up the fighting spirit, Magnus. Don’t let these technical hinders stop your progress in chess. The future belongs to you!
Claims from the past were/are going to be sorted out in 2077-2009 cycle. Only Topalov vs. kamsky and anand vs. winner is the thing from the past. Everything else is already setled.
FIDE is incredible.
They simply can’t get it right. Since 1993 every new WCC cycle is different and each time more stupid…
After the Re-Match Anand-Kramnik they had a chance to go back to the old proven cycle that was in place before 1993, but they simply screwed it again.
Most probably we will not see a fair and interesting WCC cycle for the next 15 years
FIDE sucks big time…
All these complaining and rebelion against FIDE by Ivanchuck’s act, Shirov’s letter and now H. Carlsen’s note is harming chess. This is the bottom line. Chess goes down when the chess world isn’t united and divided and it took a long time to unite it. Why ruin everything in one minute. All of the aforementioned above are great players and have great character and integrity and they are honorable men. Moreover I can , without checking the details presume that they have justification to their case so justice is also on their side. But the implication of shaking the chess world again, shaking the foundation and make FIDE now take back their resolution will be bad because the chess world need a strong leadership. Does Carlsen want to take the lead to the chess world and manage it? It is easier to criticize and more difficult to lead. So I am with FIDE. And I don’t think that they should take back their decisions.
Ivanchuck can get a warning . Shirov says : Don’t press on making chess an olympic sport. I agree. Anand is right however in his wish to have chess as an olympic sport. hwever don’t press.
It’s not worth it , and banning Ivanchuck is a scandal. I woould hate FIDE probably if they dare to ban Ivanchuck