London Candidates puts Classic in doubt
IM Malcolm Pein
London Chess Classic director IM Malcolm Pein says that the staging of the Candidates tournament in London October 24th – November 12th puts the viability of a prospective 4th London Classic in December in doubt.
Do you want the good news or the bad news? The good news is that some more top flight chess is coming to London. Agon, FIDE’s new commercial partner has announced that the Candidates Tournament will take place in London from October 24 – November 12. The bad news is that this development raises serious questions about the 4th London Chess Classic, which would have taken place in December.
Although some players have indicated they would still play the 4th LCC, I am not sure if the public and particularly the media would have the appetite for two elite tournaments in London staged so close together. I recall an earlier time in the Ilyumzhinov dynasty when one of his former commercial partners, Artiom Tarasov, invited me for a cup of tea at his offices in Piccadilly and said he would deliberately organise FIDE events to clash with existing tournaments. This proved to be just an empty threat but here, Nimzowitsch’s maxim that: ‘the threat is stronger than the execution’ does not apply. I will have to consider the effect of FIDE’s move on the Classic which I suspect cannot be held in its current form this year.
There has been some criticism of FIDE’s announcement. Ilya Levitov, the Chairman of the Russian Chess Federation, tweeted: “As FIDE vice-president I apologize to M.Pein and J.C.Fernández (organiser of the Grand Slam Final) that I can’t change the dates of the Candidates tournament. I hope your wonderful tournaments will survive”.
Source: http://www.chess.co.uk/twic
FIDE events are more important.
Well…I think I`ll weigh in on this.
What Fide did was show its cards and thats a mistake in the game of Diplomacy. Seriously…who cares what FIDE does. Their qualification cycle is about as inept as it gets. Anyone with half a brain knows who the best players are….Carlsen Aronian Kramnik and Mr Anand. To throuw a candidates cycle in the middle of it just to make money..complicate things is simply stupid..but of course very `FIDE`The fact that the Kramnik Aronian match is much more interesting than the official title match says it all. I don`t think the public really cares what FIDE does…they`ve already discredited themselves. The top GMs will probably just elect to play the tournaments and bypass this Fide cycle as well. A Fide tournament is nowhere near as prestigious as the London Classic. It won`t be a big deal I even doubt some of the top players will bother to play in this FIDE cycle. Hell of a sad state of affairs..but then again..You get what you vote for.
Mike Magnan
Hello Mike. You may have a point,but the top GM’s will still prefer to play the canidates!. The London Classic is just another tournament and will have to reconsider their dates. And Kramnik – Aronian has nothing at stake,just a fun match up ( and lucrative for the players ). Kramnik – Carlsen would have been interesting though.
With almost a month between Nov. 12 and the prospective start of the Classic (Dec. 8–16 intended?), I don’t see why this is too close together, either for players or the chess public. Wouldn’t having two nice events in a row, while the country is still in post-Olympic glow, be good?
Makes sense to me Ken. If I played chess for a living I`d make all the events. But the problem was probably well illustrated when poor Mr Kamsky had to play both PCA and FIDE cycles at the same time..Of course it was impossible to be at his best. (And of course he cracked…gave it a pretty damn good run though if I remember correctly.) I think that`s the crux of the issue.
You can`t play at your best jumping around from tourney to tourney like a rock concert in every town every night. Maybe I`m not assessing it correctly but in my view the WCC deservesa little more respect and venerance than it`s being treated as these days.
The London Classic is a GREAT tournament. I hope it survives. Nobody cares about another world champion we`ll never remember. And with all proper respect to the multiple winners of the Fide crown in the 90`s…I don`t think we want to revisit that scenario.
Mike