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Candidates, World Title Match in the United States?
October 4, 2015
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is in Baku for the final of the World Cup and at an interview hinted that the Candidates and World Championship Match may be held in the United States.
There are three cautions here:
1) I have translated the relevant parts of his interview but I may have misinterpreted some of them. If your Russian is strong go to:
http://chess-news.ru/node/20199
2) Kirsan has made promises before that were optimistic and never saw fruition
3) He may be just getting other places, such as Russia and Azerbaijan, to up the ante to hold the matches in their countries.
But, it would be great to have the matches held in Chicago (say) where many Canadians could attend!
________
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: two weeks ago I was on a visit to the United States of America, in New York, met with potential sponsors of the match for the world title, which will be held next year. The exact time and venue is October 2016 onwards in the United States of America. And once we passed the information on that we're going to hold a match in the United States, there has been a lot of proposals. I met with five or six sponsors, already several cities offered their services on the venue of the match - New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, that is all very good.
E. Surov: You have a wide selection in front of you!
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: Yes, and now we think we may even do a dual proposal. I told them at a meeting that maybe we will give two events to the United States. The first is the candidates tournament which will be held in March, as a "warm up". That is, let's say, eight top players will play in New York, and the world will take place in Los Angeles or Chicago. I was in Chicago, in which chess is very popular. So, I think, in the near future we will solve something.
The United States is a great fit in terms of promotion of chess, their PR, because we haven't conducted tournaments in America recently; the last time we conducted the World Cup knock-out back in 1999, in Las Vegas, where Alexander Khalifman became world champion. So America has missed great chess. Whether the world will be held in the States is not yet debated, but the candidate tournament can go there or maybe not, 50 to 50.
Because, now the contender tournament doesn't include many of their leading chess players. And we have a rule: eighth place in the tournament is given to a player selected by the hosting country. Countries, whose representatives are the strongest chess players (say, Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and others), now also have the chance to apply.
E. Surov: and who are these potential sponsors in the United States? You can call them?
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: They are working with our company, the representative of which is now Ilya Merenzon. He constantly flies there. By the way, some of the sponsors are coming October 9 to Berlin, where we will hold the world blitz and rapid chess championship. Of course, there are all the categories, the representatives of the United States will also fly there to look at it. But now I can not give you specific names because we haven't signed contracts. More negotiations on the amount and on the venue. So, choosing the place, will solve sponsor.
_______
WK – Note - Ilya Merenzon’s company Agon was the organizer of the 2014 World Championship between Anand and Carlsen.
An article in chess.com said this about Merenzon:
He is from Russia, but his accent (or rather, lack of) suggests that he has lived in the U.S. as well. “I studies economics in New York, where I lived for 15 years,” confirms Merenzon, who is a new name in the chess world but in fact has been around for a while. He knows FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, and he has worked with Andrew Paulson, the former owner of Agon.
Merenzon knows Ilyumzhinov via Press Release Group, his media company with locations in New York, London and Moscow, where it's called Public Space. “I knew him from the [2010 Presidential] elections when he asked me to arrange a couple of interviews with western media. He felt his message wasn't being heard, so I helped him. Assisting Russians and others with PR and contacts with western journalists, that's what my company does.”
For the whole interview see:
http://www.chess.com/news/an-intervi...d-carlsen-4530
October 4, 2015
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is in Baku for the final of the World Cup and at an interview hinted that the Candidates and World Championship Match may be held in the United States.
There are three cautions here:
1) I have translated the relevant parts of his interview but I may have misinterpreted some of them. If your Russian is strong go to:
http://chess-news.ru/node/20199
2) Kirsan has made promises before that were optimistic and never saw fruition
3) He may be just getting other places, such as Russia and Azerbaijan, to up the ante to hold the matches in their countries.
But, it would be great to have the matches held in Chicago (say) where many Canadians could attend!
________
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: two weeks ago I was on a visit to the United States of America, in New York, met with potential sponsors of the match for the world title, which will be held next year. The exact time and venue is October 2016 onwards in the United States of America. And once we passed the information on that we're going to hold a match in the United States, there has been a lot of proposals. I met with five or six sponsors, already several cities offered their services on the venue of the match - New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, that is all very good.
E. Surov: You have a wide selection in front of you!
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: Yes, and now we think we may even do a dual proposal. I told them at a meeting that maybe we will give two events to the United States. The first is the candidates tournament which will be held in March, as a "warm up". That is, let's say, eight top players will play in New York, and the world will take place in Los Angeles or Chicago. I was in Chicago, in which chess is very popular. So, I think, in the near future we will solve something.
The United States is a great fit in terms of promotion of chess, their PR, because we haven't conducted tournaments in America recently; the last time we conducted the World Cup knock-out back in 1999, in Las Vegas, where Alexander Khalifman became world champion. So America has missed great chess. Whether the world will be held in the States is not yet debated, but the candidate tournament can go there or maybe not, 50 to 50.
Because, now the contender tournament doesn't include many of their leading chess players. And we have a rule: eighth place in the tournament is given to a player selected by the hosting country. Countries, whose representatives are the strongest chess players (say, Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and others), now also have the chance to apply.
E. Surov: and who are these potential sponsors in the United States? You can call them?
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: They are working with our company, the representative of which is now Ilya Merenzon. He constantly flies there. By the way, some of the sponsors are coming October 9 to Berlin, where we will hold the world blitz and rapid chess championship. Of course, there are all the categories, the representatives of the United States will also fly there to look at it. But now I can not give you specific names because we haven't signed contracts. More negotiations on the amount and on the venue. So, choosing the place, will solve sponsor.
_______
WK – Note - Ilya Merenzon’s company Agon was the organizer of the 2014 World Championship between Anand and Carlsen.
An article in chess.com said this about Merenzon:
He is from Russia, but his accent (or rather, lack of) suggests that he has lived in the U.S. as well. “I studies economics in New York, where I lived for 15 years,” confirms Merenzon, who is a new name in the chess world but in fact has been around for a while. He knows FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, and he has worked with Andrew Paulson, the former owner of Agon.
Merenzon knows Ilyumzhinov via Press Release Group, his media company with locations in New York, London and Moscow, where it's called Public Space. “I knew him from the [2010 Presidential] elections when he asked me to arrange a couple of interviews with western media. He felt his message wasn't being heard, so I helped him. Assisting Russians and others with PR and contacts with western journalists, that's what my company does.”
For the whole interview see:
http://www.chess.com/news/an-intervi...d-carlsen-4530
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