It's Official - It's Chennai

[Wayne Komer]

Re: It's Official - It's Chennai

The full text of the open letter from the Norwegian Chess Federation (from theweekinchess):

http://theweekinchess.com/chessnews/...-anand-carlsen


"Mr. President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov / Presidential board


Oslo, fredag, 3. mai 2013

Dear Mr. Ilyumzhinov / Presidential board

With reference to the discussion that for some time has been going on between FIDE and Magnus Carlsen’s representatives with regard to the venue for the upcoming FIDE World Championship Match, the Norwegian Chess Federation finds reasons to intervene in this dialogue with a formal letter to FIDE.

As you are aware of Mr. Magnus Carlsen has expressed dissatisfaction with the plans to arrange the World Championship Match in Chennai, India without having any formal competition on the venue for this match. Mr. Carlsen’s view has been presented to FIDE both in emails and in a meeting in Athens with his manager and his lawyer.

It is our understanding of the rules and regulations for the FIDE World Championship Match 2013 that any federation or sponsor may bid for being an organizer. We strongly urge FIDE to facilitate a procedure that enables other interested parties to bid for the event. Furthermore FIDE must, based on the regulation consider all bids before making a final decision. From the regulations, it is not clear that FIDE has the right to grant Chennai an option.

We maintain, as expressed by Mr. Carlsen, that it will be an advantage both for the players and FIDE to have a fair and transparent procedure and competition for the selection of the organizer and also for the reputation of chess in general.
Since the Championship is to be held in November, there will be acceptable time to consider other bids and make a qualified decision in due time prior to the event.

The Norwegian Chess Federation expects that FIDE will follow its own regulation for the World Championship Match enabling others to bid for the event as was the procedure for selection of the organizer for the 2014 Chess Olympiad.

We would like to emphasize that this is not a campaign against Chennai as an organizer; it is merely a request to follow the rules and principles of transparency and fairness.

This letter should be regarded as formal complaint on the process for selecting the organizer for the World Championship Match 2013.

Sincerely,


Jøran Aulin-Jansson


President

Norway Chess Federation

[Gary Ruben]

Re: It's Official - It's Chennai

Jean, it's interesting to read the protest. However, Norway is a wealthy nation. They have an oil bonanza and the wealth which goes with that.

Their protest would sound less hollow if they would Show Us The Money.

I doubt a country like Russia would like to hold such a match. It simply highlights to their citizens a Russian player was not strong enough to even quality to play in the championship match.

[Jean Hébert]

Re: It's Official - It's Chennai

Their protest would sound less hollow if they would Show Us The Money.

What are you talking about ? It is not about Norway organizing the match, it is about enabling those interested to bid to hold it. And for such a match there is no doubt that not only Chennai is potentially interested. FIDE's way which can only be called favouritism at best, is simply unacceptable. Anand also should condemn it because for one thing it makes him lose money.

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: It's Official - It's Chennai

From chessbase.com:

3.5.2013 - The President of the Norwegian Chess Federation, Jøran Aulin-Jansson, has sent a vigorous protest to World Chess Federation on the selection of Chennai as the host of the 2013 World Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen. Just hours after we had received his open letter to FIDE we received word that Paris is apparently placing a €3.45 million bid.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: It's Official - It's Chennai

From ChessVibes:

It's not a coincidence that Norway's open letter and the bid from Paris came today. This weekend there is a FIDE Presidential Board meeting in Baku, and one of the topics is the upcoming world title match. The arguments from the Norwegians to hold a proper bidding process and the Paris bid should, and probably will be, discussed.


2013 2nd quarter Presidential Board Baku, Azerbaijan 4-7 May 2013 AGENDA at:


http://www.fide.com/images/stories/N..._PB_Agenda.pdf

[Wayne Komer]

Re: It's Official - It's Chennai

From Chess-News.ru this morning:

Baku, Sunday, May 5, 2013

Several minutes ago Silvio Danailov, who is present at the FIDE Presidential Board meeting, has tweeted that the International Chess federation gave the right to host the World Championship match to Indian city Chennai. Thus, the World Championship match between Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen scheduled to take place on November should be held in the home country of the reigning champion.

http://www.chess-news.ru/en/node/11911

[Can you get more official than this? There appears to have been a tough fight – Ilyumzhinov in the photo, has his tie loosened.]

[John Coleman]

Re: It's Official - It's Chennai

The site might be confirmed, but maybe the players are not.

Canada's estranged oracle Kevin Spraggett has posted:

In a provocative display of support for besieged FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, this weekend's meeting of the FIDE presidential board has set the stage for a dramatic EXIT by Norwegian chess star Carlsen Magnus. As my readers are fully aware, Carlsen's team has refused to accept the dictactorial decision by Kirsan to award India the right to host the upcoming match with Anand for the world title later this year.

Now it is expected that the Carlsen team will consult with lawyers before formally throwing in the towel and declining the upcoming match. This is expected to take place sometime Tuesday. FIDE is slated to confirm Kramnik's participation later that day.

http://kevinspraggett.blogspot.ca/

[Mathieu Cloutier]

Re: It's Official - It's Chennai

The site might be confirmed, but maybe the players are not.

Canada's estranged oracle Kevin Spraggett has posted:

For all we know, Carlsen is happy to have a convenient excuse to avoid this match.

It's not like he has ever expressed any serious interest in playing a world championship match.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: It's Official - It's Chennai

Monday, May 6, 2013

Carlsen’s statement today:

After qualifying for the World Championship match by winning the London Candidates I have been highly motivated for, and looking forward to the World Championship match against reigning champion V. Anand.

I’m deeply disappointed and surprised by the FIDE decision to sign a contract for the 2013 match without going through the bidding process outlined in the WC regulations, and for not choosing neutral ground. The bid from Paris clearly showed that it would be possible to have more options to choose from.
The lack of transparency, predictability and fairness is unfortunate for chess as a sport and for chess players.

My team and I will now start preparing for the match. The main thing now will be to come to an agreement with the Indian Chess Federation and FIDE regarding terms and conditions before and during the match. I really hope this process will run quick and smoothly.

Lastly, I will not let the news from Baku diminish the joy and excitement derived from playing the top level Norway Chess tournament starting tomorrow.


http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/ca...tart-preparing

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: It's Official - It's Chennai

Knowing that the second player in a line is Kramnik, everything might happen :D











(those who did not get it: check the history Shirov/Kramnik vs Kasparov)

[Gary Ruben]

Re: It's Official - It's Chennai

Five or Six years ago I appealed a decision of the ICCF congress regarding the correspondence world championship cycle. It went nowhere. The head of the appeal commission would not even accept the appeal.

The International Federations do what they want and those who won't accept the decisions become statistics or answers to trivia questions.

It should be noted my appeal was from an organizational perspective. Although the appeal was turned down, instead of starting up to 5 Championship finals in one year (if you can imagine how ridiculous this is), they started 2 on Dec 31, 2007 and 2 in 2009. They had too many qualifiers because a player is allowed to defer an entry. Some players have too may games in play and are allowed to defer.

Once they make up their minds it's hard to get a change. Progress in chess comes slowly. Too many agendas.

[Kerry Liles]

Re: It's Official - It's Chennai

Monday, May 6, 2013

Carlsen’s statement today:

After qualifying for the World Championship match by winning the London Candidates I have been highly motivated for, and looking forward to the World Championship match against reigning champion V. Anand.

I’m deeply disappointed and surprised by the FIDE decision to sign a contract for the 2013 match without going through the bidding process outlined in the WC regulations, and for not choosing neutral ground. The bid from Paris clearly showed that it would be possible to have more options to choose from.
The lack of transparency, predictability and fairness is unfortunate for chess as a sport and for chess players.

My team and I will now start preparing for the match. The main thing now will be to come to an agreement with the Indian Chess Federation and FIDE regarding terms and conditions before and during the match. I really hope this process will run quick and smoothly.

Lastly, I will not let the news from Baku diminish the joy and excitement derived from playing the top level Norway Chess tournament starting tomorrow.


http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/ca...tart-preparing

Carlsen's statement certainly seems to be a lot different than the speculation from Spraggett... "My team and I will now start preparing for the match" is a far cry from launching a lawsuit with FIDE and letting Kramnik step up for the match.

[Ken Craft]

Re: It's Official - It's Chennai

How can you doubt KS,KL?

[Peter McKillop]

Re: It's Official - It's Chennai

Carlsen's statement certainly seems to be a lot different than the speculation from Spraggett... "My team and I will now start preparing for the match" is a far cry from launching a lawsuit with FIDE and letting Kramnik step up for the match.

I'm kind of disappointed that we haven't heard from Vishy yet. He's always come across as a man of integrity. I thought he might have something to say about FIDE's nonsense.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: It's Official - It's Chennai

FIDE - World Chess Federation

Baku 06.05.2013

Press release

World Championship Match



Since the Candidates’ Tournament ended, and GM M. Carlsen became the challenger of the coming World Championship Match there have been several developments, mails exchange between all parties (Carlsen, Anand, FIDE), questions asked, and also speculations.



FIDE would hereby like to put forward the current situation regarding this event.



Directly after the 2012 match was awarded to Moscow, FIDE agreed to grant an option to Chennai. The PB and its meeting in Armenia in January decided that FIDE and AGON, who holds the rights for organizing the whole cycle of the World Championship, were advised that India would take up its option organize the World Championship match. This was done on January 24 in Athens, where both parties agreed not to open a bidding procedure, but to grant an option to India, as requested.

We should emphasize that according FIDE rules the World Championship cycle is not included in the list of events, for which FIDE is obliged to do so (like Olympiads, for instance). This has been deliberately done, because in many cases FIDE, having the priority in mind to secure the match and the cycle, was ready to give an option or even to grant the match if the proposal was attractive enough.



Consequently three of the last matches were given to an organizer without a bidding procedure.



On March 15th India asked to extend the option until April 10th and FIDE agreed to it because it was clear that the bid would be accepted and just needed an approval of the Tamil Nadu State Parliament, a session which took place on April 8th.

One could ask why was the extension given to a date when the name of the challenger will be known already, and the simple answer is that FIDE, being convinced that the positive answer was just a matter of technicality, did not want to lose this bid for an alternative that gave no guarantee for a better result or any result at all.



When the approval of the bid by India was published and FIDE representative was called to formalize it, on April 8th, GM Carlsen’s manager contacted FIDE and asked to have a meeting to discuss this matter before a formal move is done with India.



Carlsen and FIDE’s representatives met in FIDE office on April 15th, when all claims were brought up by Carlsen’s representatives and were answered by FIDE. Among the points raised and answered we would like to emphasize one and this is the issue which was also raised in media – the question of neutrality.

Unfortunately it has always proved difficult to find a sponsor to such a match when the name of the challenger is not known yet. Therefore most of matches in the past were organized in one of the participant’s countries. Consequently both World Champions Anand and Topalov played in their opponent’s country – a natural result of the situation.



On that day both parties signed a paper whereby it was agreed to give Norway an option to come up with an organizer for half of the match, provided that India would accept such a solution.



FIDE tried its hardest to convince India to split the match, but they refused India wanted to fulfil what has been approved by the government of the Tamil Nadu State and FIDE had to keep its obligations, and consequently an M.O.U was signed in Chennai on April 19th.

One day later, the FIDE President visited France, where he got a proposal to organize the match in Paris. Mr Ilyumzhinov promised to bring the proposal before the Presidential Board. The French proposal was higher than the Chennai one, with more contributions offered. However, the Board decided (unanimously with one abstention) that FIDE must respect its obligation and thanked the French federation and the city of Paris for their proposal, hoping that there will be another opportunity to have a big event in Paris. 



FIDE has acted with full transparency during the whole process, trying its best to secure the match and standing by its obligations and reputation. FIDE will do everything to secure equal conditions for both players and also will try and still trying to increase the prize fund for the match. 



FIDE wishes these two great players a successful match, and is sure that India, the homeland of Chess will bring to the world a fascinating event.



Gens Una Sumus.

http://www.fide.com/component/conten...s-release.html