As published on the official site
For 2 days already – from very late evening of the 29th of September, since the moment when the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov arrived in Elista – the negotiations regarding the variations of the continuation of the Veselin Topalov-Vladimir Kramnik World Championship match are taking place.
The 1st of October, the day when the 6th game was supposed to be played, was announced as a technical time-out. In the morning of the 1st of October, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov presented an official statement for the press:
* As you are aware, since 29th of September, the negotiations between the team of Topalov, the team of Kramnik and FIDE are taking place. We are moving forward with great difficulties, but there is some progress. The most important thing which can be mentioned in this connection is that both Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik are expressing their readiness to continue the match. There have been several points to be solved, and we are solving them, step by step. In order to move from the “dead point”, last night the members of the Appeals Committee submitted their resignation. Today in the morning I accepted this resignation and temporarily resumed the functions of the Chairman of the Appeals Committee – before the arrival of its new members. In this my new capacity, I held another round of the negotiations with the parties. We reached an agreement regarding the restrooms (and bathrooms). A permanent restroom will be assigned to each player for the whole duration of the match.
The representatives of each team will be provided with a possibility of a thorough check of these rooms. So right now we are heading to the Conference Hall of the Government of Kalmykia, to undertake the respective inspection. From now on the issue regarding the restrooms has been taken off our list and we are going to move forward.
–What is the progress reached in the issue regarding the score, to continue the match?
* There are some proposals. Now we are negotiating the issue. We do not stand still.
–Are there any comments regarding the situation from the players’ managers?
* The floor was given to the managers of the opponents’ teams – Danailov and Hensel, but Silvio and Carsten, without any prior agreement, said together «No comment!”
After a few minutes the FIDE President together with the representatives of the teams started inspecting the restrooms. From now on the restroom to the left (if one looks from the spectators’ position) will be assigned to Kramnik, and the restroom to the right – to Topalov. Press was not allowed to enter the rooms.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov made an announcement: “The Bulgarian team will be inspecting the rooms during two hours. The results of the inspection shall be announced at 15.00 hrs”. 
Bessel Kok on the World Championship crisis
The Appeals Committee blundered in accepting a complaint which was nothing more than declaring a suspicion of possible fraud. This was simply wrong. The Committee should have rejected this complaint immediately, stating that no proof whatsoever had been supplied. Instead of this, they accepted the complaint of Topalov’s manager Silvio Danailov, they disclosed private video images from Kramnik’s rest room, and they changed the match conditions which had been agreed in advance by both Grandmasters and their delegations.
The arbiter subsequently started a game which should have never been played in the first place, because the playing conditions had been unilaterally modified. This was a second mistake, although Geurt Gijssen will probably defend his decision by stating that he based this on the verdict of the Appeals Committee.
So my conclusions are simple:
1.
The Appeals Committee made a wrong judgment and its decision to modify the playing conditions must be declared null and void.
2.
Game five was started under playing conditions that were not mutually agreed by both players (and in fact explicitly rejected by one of them), so the game should be considered null and void.
3.
Game five should start tomorrow, Monday, October 2nd, and the match should continue under the same playing conditions as agreed before.
4.
The Appeals Committee should be dismissed and replaced by a Committee agreed by both players.
5.
In the absence of an agreed Committee, the FIDE President is responsible for the duties of the Committee.
6.
Proceed as quickly as possible with the outsourcing of all top-level chess competitions to a separate company manage by professional organisers.
Get on with it! Enough damage has been done!!
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3387
Did anyone notice that anything published on chessbase has in some way favored Kramnik?
They obviously wanted Bessel Kok elected and Kramnik to win.
I don’t pay much attention to the biased views of chessbase.
That’s because Russian President is
financially assisting chassbase behind the back, of course 😉
Regarding ChessBase favoring Kramnik, this is not true.
I read many chess-related web sites, and comments from majority of readers on _all_ of them are definitely favorable to Kramnik.
By the way, the only chess player whom ChessBase had shown their favor to in the past, was Kasparov, who can hardly be considered pro-Kramnik and anti-Topalov, if you read what he said about them during last years.
I am disgusted learning that players have rest rooms during a chess game???
Why don’t they play correspondence chess instead, if they can’t look at each other faces??
Rest rooms??? With beds, sofas, demonstration boards? What is this???
Chess is not for humans.
Have you ever tried to brainstorm for 6-7 hours without break?
If we demand the highest quality chess from tham, we have to accept the most comfortable conditions they can be provided with.
OK, so now what do we do about the Game 5 issue? By forfeiting game 5 and putting the continuation of the match in play, Team Kramnik has forced Kirsan to come back from Sochi and has apparently won a complete victory on every other issue including the resignation of the appeals committee. Now they want to get the gambit pawn back as well. It seems – although I haven’t actually counted heads – that the majority of online kibitzers and posters would support this, agreeing as they do with the proposition that the Kramnik side has been 100% right throughout the controversy, and the Topalov side has been 100% wrong.
On this assumption, it is completely reasonable for Team Kramnik to hold out for the unconditional surrender of FIDE and of the Topalov side and to refuse to make the slightest concession in the matter of the score. If Mr. Ilyumzhinov does not agree, many would be ready to crown GM Kramnik the world champion right now on the basis of a 3-1 victory in the 4-game match. If Mr. Ilyumzhinov agrees but Team Kramnuk refuses to continue, the Kramnik fans would accept this as a just and well-deserved victory for Team Kramnik as well.
GM Topalov should probably feel himself fortunate that Team Kramnik hasn’t thought of demanding that he conduct a penitential pilgrimage by going from Elista to Moscow on his knees in sackcloth and ashes, because in the current state of public opinion this idea would clearly get a lot of support.
Given the unpalatable options, FIDE and Team Topalov (whose interests are not entirely the same; FIDE arguably has some interest in not encouraging every future GM to use the forfeiture gambit as a weapon in every future dispute) may have no better option than to give in and agree to proceeding from the start of Game 5. However, assuming that there is SOME possibility of compromise, what might some of these compromises be?
(a) – the forfeiture stands but the match is longer: this was a non-starter from the beginning; you give Topalov MORE time to recover from a one-point deficit? Like THAT was going to appeal to Team Kramnik (sarcasm sarcasm!) Instead, how about:
(b) – the forfeiture stands but the match is SHORTER: each player gets a half-point bye for game 6 and maybe for game 7 as well. Topalov has LESS time to get his point back. Maybe that would sweeten the pot for Team Kramnik?
(c1) – Give GM Kramnik back HALF a point and make the score 3 to 1.5. Or, if that looks too strange, how about:
(c2) – Give GM Kramnik back the full point but give GM Topalov draw odds, doing away with the tie-break playoff. By the way, this is actually the same as idea (c1).
But if you don’t like any of those, and have the true gambler’s spirit, or have a lot of faith in GM Kramnik’s powers of defense, how about:
(d) – Continue the match from game 6 and leave the question of game 5 unresolved for now. Maybe it has to be replayed, maybe it doesn’t. And maybe it won’t matter. If either player gets to 6.5 points before 11 games have been completed, then game 5 never has to be counted.
On the other hand, if GM Topalov gets between 4 and 5 points out of the next seven games, leaving GM Kramnik with 5/11, 5.5/11, or 6/11, then of course the question of whether the forfeit stands or game 5 has to be replayed will be of incalculable importance. Since everyone knows this now, of course it explains why everyone is being very intransigent.
Are there other possible ideas that I’ve missed?
You must be joking? Chess and rest rooms??? Don’t you see this is the root of all problems?
Live audiences not seeing the players who are hiding in their rest rooms during the games, with only arbiters spying on them with cameras?
What quality? They will play better if they dose off every 10 minutes??
What’s next? Manicure in the restrooms? Taking showers? Reading a good book.
And after these, someone dares to fault them for being suspicious or walking around, or having more towels in the bathroom??
Oh boy, have they gone astray.
“OK, so now what do we do about the Game 5 issue?”
What do you mean what? Kramnik lost that game, too bad for him.
He’ll probably win anyway, as his restroom has a bigger demonstration board, with which he can dream of better moves, while sleeping in his bed, waiting for the arbiters to wake him up, each time it’s his turn to play.
Do arbiters have rest rooms too? And who is watching over them?
Can the players kick each other under the table, as some other they did in some match many years ago, when they made new tables, with foot protection?