(According to the regulations the final decision on changes to the regulations is the responsibility of the FPB – and not the General Assembly – but we have been informed by several FIDE executives that the Presidential Board will endorse the GA decision shortly if necessary.)
The purpose of this e-mail is to comment upon the recent news about FIDE changing the Regulations for the 2008 -2009 Grand Prix cycle and to request your comments to our questions pertaining to this change.
Chess as a sport, chess as an attraction to sponsors, the situation of top chess players in general and the Chess World Championship cycle, are in our opinion best and only served by a system which is transparent, fair and predictable.
Despite a less than impressive FIDE track record over the past 15 years, the implementation of the Grand Prix 2008 – 2009 did seem to offer such a system.To our surprise and disbelief we have been informed that the FIDE General Assembly has supported a proposed change of the Regulations of the ongoing cycle to the detriment of the Grand Prix players. The planned match of the winner of the Grand Prix and World Cup winners will be replaced with two spots available from each event into an 8-player world championship qualification tournament or 8-player candidate match cycle, and that this will be decided on the next Presidential Board meeting.
We are currently considering alternative measures in response to this highly significant change, which includes legal action and the withdrawal from the cycle.
Below please find some questions which you will hopefully respond to in order to shed some light on the current and future rights of players taking part in FIDE events.
Is it your understanding, that § 1.4 in the “Regulations for the 2008 – 2009 Grand Prix”, in the middle of the cycle, gives the FIDE Presidential Board the right to change the regulations in a way clearly detrimental to the players as represented by the stipulations described in § 2 in these same regulations and also in the “Players Undertaking”?
– If the answer is no, how do you explain the planned change, and how do you justify the harm inherent to the Grand Prix winner?
– If the answer is yes, do you agree that the agreement in effect between the players and FIDE is highly biased with regard to rights, in the sense that the players have no real rights whatsoever (that cannot be set aside by the FIDE Presidential Board) while having to stick to the conditions agreed to in the Players Undertaking and also additional adjustments made by the FIDE Presidential Board?
And if so, do you consider this a viable policy for future agreements between FIDE and world championship cycle participants?
Lastly we would like to mention that our criticism of the latest change of regulations is not directed at the change itself. Long term this may be a viable alternative to the current match planned between the Grand Prix and World Cup winners. But changing the rules dramatically in the middle of a cycle is simply unacceptable, and this is something that should be rather obvious to anyone involved in business or high level sports competitions.
We look forward to your urgent response to these questions.”
Thank you once again for your letter.
The main point of the changes is that instead of qualifying one player from the Grand-Prix for the next stage (semi-final match against the winner of the World Cup), now two players (possibly three in case there is no player to be qualified by rating) will qualify for an 8-player semi-final tournament. This change has been based on article 17.3 of the regulations and it is necessary as sponsors from Qatar and Montreaux have withdrew from organising two legs of the Grand-Prix (an unforeseen situation), which puts in danger the system if it leaves the Grand Prix with less than 6 legs and no clear winner.
Kindly also note that the agreements between the players and FIDE are of course not biased at all. The player’s undertaking refers to the Regulations for the 2008-2009 FIDE Grand Prix which can be amended according to its wording (Art. 1.4). In addition as already said, there are clearly objective and important reasons to amend these regulations in order to save the whole cycle.
We are really expecting your understanding and we are looking forward to even more exciting chess by Magnus.
Well done… -kt
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This is great news! Thankfully, Magnus has the sense and the will to tell FIDE they are irrelevant.
I wish more GMs had the stones…
Now, if we can only get rid of IllusionOF and his cronies and get some real leadership…
The Carlsens really have style!
Magnus is by far the biggest chess show in town; he doesn’t have to give in to this FIDE fuzzing around.
In one years time he will be the undisputed No1 player in the world and he will get a match for the WCC for free…I’m quite sure about that.
great news for Wang Yue too, one less person to stop his winning streak
Bad news for Orange Juice sales.
WELL DONE MAGNUS!!
Hopefully this will be the thin end of the wedge that gets rid of Ilyumzhinov.
Let us hope that other players that are being disadvantaged by FIDE such as Aronian, Ivanchuk, Radjabov, etc show a similar level of guts.
Time, too, for Anand to show some leadership. He himself has been screwed around by FIDE, having to play a match against Kramnik he shouldn’t have had to.
He could tell FIDE to get stuffed with their idiotic and ever changing WC systems and offer to defend his title from a fair qualifier he could design.
Who is this guy who represents FIDE? Is he elected?
If just an employee then the response should go under some senior official’s name or at least be that of the Executive Director.
This won’t get rid of Ilyumzhinov. It will just create chaos which was about to be cleared up from the past.
But it is the right decision. Grand Prix is not what it was anouced and promised.
What a spoiled little brat.
If the GP sponsors are not sponsoring, FIDE has to take action to continue the cycle.
Let’s see Henrik finding GP sponsors instead of sitting here with his hand held out for other peoples money.
Such a shame that after a well run and covered World Championship and excellent Olympiad that we have this mess. Who ran the WC and Olympiad (same people)? Can’t they take over top level chess for us?
– Tickly
Magnus Carlsen is not superstar and his withdrawal will not be sadly missed.There are plenty more up and coming players of his calibre.
That cycle is over now. Without Carlsen, Ivanchuk and Morozevich in it, and with FIDE distributing free invitations to friends, it has no real meaning. It only takes a word from Anand, and the whole building will collapse. (and, yes, that includes the stupid Kamsky – Topalov match too)
In an earlier blog I wrote that after finally unifying the chess world title, the FIDE immediately started to work on splitting it again.
Carlsen’s exit proves that and I am nearly certain that it will be followed by others. This is really crazy.
Why is this so difficult? Dozens, hundreds of sports have well organized world championships. Why can’t FIDE just pick one of the well tried methods and implement it in chess? Can anyone name me any other sport or activity, where the question who the world champion really is, perpetually challenged? Perhaps boxing, which did the same stupid things chess did. What other sport? Can anyone name another one?
Susan, if you read this by any chance, and interested in my input, drop me an email.
Gabor
The incompetence of the folks running the FIDE organization is hurting our sport today as nothing has ever done before. The FIDE president should resign immediately.
Carlsen is the only transformatively exciting player around who could capture the imagination of the public beyond our limited circle of chess enthusiasts. But even for Magnus this is only an outside possibility.
FIDO will get Magnus into the 8-player candidates’ tournament one way or another. So his withdrawal from the Gran Prix has less impact that it might at first seem.
Fide ? Malafide !
As I said earlier…Carlsen is the biggest show in town and he will get his chance some way …
When Kramnik and Topalov don’t have to qualify for shots at the World Championship so why should he?
When he manages to keep up his rating among the top 3 players, then he can be pretty sure that FIDE will offer him the wild card for the 8-player candidates tournament
I would like to hear Susan Polgar’s opinion on this. After all, she was a professional chess player some time ago, so she should know what it is like to be dependant on FIDE’s plans.