President of ACP GM Emil Sutovsky discussed on Facebook why it is difficult to find the sponsorship for the FIDE World Championship Match 2014.
https://www.facebook.com/emil.sutovsky/posts/10152243539044681
I am fed up with a hypocrisy. A lot of superficial and insincere attempts to explain – why nobody is willing to put up something like 5 Million USD for Carlsen – Anand.
“We have a product to sell, but…” No, we don’t. We really don’t.
Chess always was a royal game. Also royal in a sense that it can’t do without a massive government support, that sometimes can be replaced by a wealthy individual.
What we do have – it is a rich chess history, hundreds years old tradition and powerful image. That what chess sells today – not a show, not an action, even not a sport. Wisdom, decision making, planning, concentration, self-improvement.
That explains why all the chess educational programs are so popular – not because they are good, we just use a positive image of chess.
It is also the easiest thing to sell to the governments and charity funds, that’s why all the chess politicians like it so much.
But let’s get back to the Title Match – why there is no single bid to host it? There are several reasons:
1. Such a costly event is not attractive as a commercial investment. Look at the chess history. Look at the recent matches:
Anand-Carlsen in Chennai, conducted under the patronage and actually under a huge picture of Ms J. Jayalalithaa, Honorable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (chess is a royal game, remember? Can you imagine such a huge picture of an organizer/sponsor in the West?), and the match Anand – Gefand , that was financed by Mr. Filatov, a billionaire and Gelfand’s good friend? And what about Anand – Topalov, financed by Bulgarian government? It is like that, and it is very unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.
You may recall how difficult it was for Kasparov to find the money for his own matches: at the end of the day, the match with Anand in 1995 saw one of the lowest (if not THE lowest) prize funds in modern times, the match with Shirov did not materialize at all, and it took five years (the biggest break between the matches since the WWII, if we don’t count Fischer’s forfeit in 1975) till the money was found for Kasparov-Kramnik.
Let me remind you, that were the days when nobody was talking about global crisis, and Kasparov was a great charismatic champion… It is just for a simple fact: the event is not attractive for commercial sponsors. Carlsen met with Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg , it was in the news everywhere, but we don’t hear about Microsoft or Facebook being interested to sponsor a title match.
Even such a rich country as Norway is not ready to host it.
FIDE has also further limited the options by keeping to pretend to become an Olympic sport one day (which will never happen of course). Hence the tobacco companies (like Dannemann, that sponsored Kramnik-Leko 2004), betting companies (like Unibet, that sponsors Stavanger this year), and many others are out of question. That actually rules out a rather promising part of the market – the companies, that constantly look for some global advertisement.
2. Now, who is guilty? Some say, it is purely Kirsan’s fault. He meets with Hussein-Qadaffi-Assad-aliens…what serious company would like to deal with such a president? Now, that’s true. But only partly true.
Why don’t we hear about serious transnational companies being involved in US chess or some Western countries, that has nothing to do with Kirsan and Co? Why does Intel’s experience in 1994-1995 still remain as a single example of its kind?
Whereas the place like Khanty-Mansiysk, that was hardly familiar to anyone of us before the World Cup 2005, has provided a budget over 40 Million USD for the chess activities in last decade.
Of course, I know, everyone would have preferred to have a chess Mecca in UK or Switzerland. But it only works there, when the event is sponsored by a wealthy chess Maecenas (London Chess Classic) or foreign company, that once again comes from Russia or Azerbaijan (Candidates in London, GP in London, Zug and Geneva, Zurich super tournaments…).
And, please, don’t think it is only about Russian/Azeri nouveau riches – Mr. Sinquefield in US, Mr. Grenke in Germany…
Well, that’s how it works.
Top chess and democracy don’t match well. For good or bad.
The best Olympiads of the modern times were Dubai and Khanty-Mansiysk. And among the worst ones – Torino and Dresden.
Much beloved Wijk-an-Zee tournament is under severe crisis for several years now, whereas the debut Shamkir tournament was one of the most impressive chess events ever…
3. Now, back to the pending match. First of all, the time for potential bidder was very limited, and indeed FIDE should have thought about it.
One can’t rely on assumptions like: “Aronian or Kramnik will win the Candidates, and then Armenia or Russia will easily find the money”.
It is likely to work, but you must have some plan B.
There was no such a plan, and now some hard decisions have to be taken.
Finally, back to chess as a product. We can have an empiric evidence to this statement: let’s try and stage one global event using pay per view system. That will provide you with much more information, than all the polls, where the flattering results of 605 million people playing chess worldwide appear. Let’s see what the reality is, even if it is harsh. Only then we can build some strategy in order to improve the “product”.
Last, but not least, with all the politics involved and justified criticism – let’s not forget, that it is our responsibility to move our beloved game ahead, and refrain from ruining its future for a sake of political gain.
Chess IS a royal game, remember? Noblesse oblige!
Pay per view is an excellent idea.
And games should be sold too, rather than made available for free.
Selling idea only works for events that are universally or nationally popular. Chess – may yet to reach that point. I think pay-per-view is a poor idea – as it limits chess’s growth and serves no good purpose.
Sorry, I read three times, don’t understand what he tried to say? Is he member of the committee charged with finding money for Carlsen and Anand?
Of course pay per view is good as long as the most of money (51%) goes to the players and not into other peoples pockets.
If India bid again, Team Carlsen would have cried foul. Even the earlier attempt they said they preferred Paris as if Paris had sent the Bank Guarantee check. Where is the Paris bid now. If it was good then it should be good now. Tantrum throwing guys like Topalov, Kasparov etc made sure that sponsors would not touch it.. Remember Kasparov foul mouthed IBM, Intel and the likes of Ken Thompson. Topalov made a issue out of nothing.. Defintely this question is on everyone’s mind.. Norway? huh what rich country.. show it. Hold atleas one championship where your player is playing then we can talk..
Is he calling Kasparov a liar?
Does anyone want to acknowledge that spectating classic time control chess is pretty boring as paid for entertainment goes?
This man, and all those, calling for pay per view assume that the whole world loves Chess the way they do. Well, surprise – No! Those who do not play chess do not find it interesting enough to watch the WCC.
And then, majority of those who do play Chess, and like watching it, cannot afford to watch it on pay per view, esp when they are well aware that they can find the game/video later on for free.
If WCC were so good that pay per view could work, it would already have a massive fan base to not put the selection of WCC venue in jeopardy.
And someone rightly pointed out, when Chennai was selected last year, many tried to throw in their requests, though their bids did not match, where are they now? Or the Norwegians (including Mr. Carlsen) who were crying foul at the selection of Chennai as the WCC ’13 venue? Let them choose Oslo, I am sure no one will raise any objection.
However, I would strongly suggest the FIDE admins to contact NIIT, the ones who sponsor Anand, to dish out some money in part in return for a right to select a venue (other than India). If they are wise enough, they would pay up some part nearing 50%, and select some well known city in the U.S. and market themselves over there. Given the massive Indian fan base in the States, it should be very successful, irrespective of the results, and NIIT will get huge returns on every penny it spends.
Or, may be they (FIDE) should contact Tata Sons Inc. They have a long history of philanthropy and they like helping out such people and organizations in need, and in that too, they rarely look for marketing opportunities. It will only be a matter of requesting them. And I specifically mean the Tata Sons because they have a pretty good experience at conducting Chess Tournaments.
Even then, if nothing works, the FIDE should rather appeal to the Chess enthusiasts around the world to donate money online, as do Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger (they collected $20 M in two weeks, surely FIDE can manage $5 M in a month), and give them (those who donate) the right to vote for a venue for the WCC ’14, in turn making it the first democratic Sport ever!
If such an initiative were undertaken, I have absolutely no doubt this problem would be resolved in every aspect. However, for people like Kasparov and Kirsan, such an initiative would surely mean curbing their powers, and will be indigestible.
Patrick.
New Delhi.
Also the host sometimes is insulted..on top of putting in few millions of dollars.. they need seperate chefs, seperate elevators, private parks etc.. – you think the host is gonna even attempt a invite next time? it is the norway chess fed’s responsibility to rope in pvt or state money and host the match..