Translated material
Another myth
FIDE has proposed a new option for identifying a single world champion
Last weekend in Tbilisi, the FIDE Presidential Council made, according to the head of world chess, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a “historic” decision: the Prague agreements to identify the world champion as part of the unification cycle were canceled and a match-tournament of eight participants was appointed, played in two rounds with a classic seven-hour control of thinking time. The finalists of the “classical” line are invited to it: world champion Vladimir Kramnik and challenger Peter Leko, finalists of the 2004 FIDE knockout world championship - world champion Rustam Kasimzhanov and Michael Adams, as well as four grandmasters with the highest ratings in the rating list FIDE. As of January 1, these are Garry Kasparov (No. 1), Viswanathan Anand (No. 2), Veselin Topalov (No. 3) and Alexander Morozevich (No. 6). Note that six of these players play in the current Linares.The super tournament in Linares at the end of the last century (when Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand played at the same time) was often called the unofficial tournament world championship. During the chess interregnum, this seemed quite logical. But in recent years, chess politics has introduced its own nuances: Anand abandoned the game in 2004, and Kramnik this year. The 2002 FIDE Prague Summit attempted to restore order in the world hierarchy with the identification of a world champion already in 2004. However, the subsequent actions of FIDE, to put it mildly, can hardly be called productive: if everything is clear with the “classical” line (a challenger has been identified who played a match with the world champion), then along the FIDE line the matches of Kasparov with Ponomarev, and then with Kasimzhanov were disrupted.
The idea of a match tournament has been expressed for a long time and discussed in the pages of the chess press, and we must wait for balanced statements from the main characters. In the meantime, the Vremya Novostey correspondent asked for the opinion of four-time USSR champion Alexander Belyavsky, now defending the colors of Slovenia, experienced both in this kind of competition and in chess politics. Belyavsky assured that in the current conflict situation, the idea of a match tournament makes sense only if all the key figures in world chess (and above all Kramnik, Kasparov and Anand) agree to take part in this match tournament. To do this, in addition to the banal condition of a large prize fund, you also need to come to an understanding of the fairness of the system itself for identifying the world champion within the framework of a match tournament. After all, history has precedents for holding such competitions both to identify the world champion in 1948 (Alexander Alekhine died in 1946, and the chess world was left without a king) and candidates for this title (the last of them was held in 1962). Since this type of competition was subject to extensive criticism due to doubts about the objectivity of their results, they were abandoned in favor of holding matches where all kinds of “alloys” are excluded. And the fact that such a match-tournament is planned for October 2005 is yet another FIDE myth.
Against the backdrop of these events, the fifth round of the current Linares also revealed the most authoritative leader - Garry Kasparov, who, after an uncertain game at the start (he stood worse against Leko and released Kasimzhanov), won two games in a row. He won, albeit not with the same brilliance as in previous years, but confidently using the flaws of his opponents. The latest victim was Adams, who risked playing with Black to follow in the footsteps of his game with Topalov from the first round. The favorite played from the old memory of his exhibition blitz match with Kramnik in 1998 and received a stable advantage. Adams, trying to play actively, gave up a pawn and was technically outplayed. The leader has three points in four games, and judging by the last two tournaments, this is quite enough for both first place and maintaining the rating. However, in the current chess-political situation, the 13th world champion is unlikely to limit himself to this. The memory of the super final of the Russian Championship, where Garry Kimovich swung to “plus five”, is still fresh. His closest pursuer, Anand, has one less win (in this round, Vishy was limited to a draw with Francisco Vallejo) and 2.5 points out of four. Kasimzhanov has the same number, making five draws (the last one with Topalov). Leko, Topalov and Adams have two points each. And Vallejo closes the table with a single point.