In March 2003, utterly polite Vladimir Kramink agreed to answer the questions of the Sport-Express journalist on the unification of the chess world a year after the summit in Prague.
“Apparently, the unification will not happen the way it was designed in Prague. The main obligations that FIDE assumed (the core one – the establishing a new structure headed by Bessel Kok, aimed at organizing the world championship and raising money) were not met. Nevertheless, I still hope, that a new unification can be reached, provided that all parties involved are interested in the final outcome.”
“I should admit, though, that all these groundless cavils by FIDE at the entire classical chess championship cycle and me should be regarded as unwillingness to make real progress. I can only reiterate that my position remains the same – I am ready to make some efforts and to compromise in order to ultimately reach unification.”
World Championship 2004 (from WE)
Begin of 2004 FIDE announced that instead the winner of the next FIDE knock-out championship would play against Kasparov in a match to be held not later than July 2005 (Kramnik and Lékó played their match in September-October 2004). Therefore, as well as the championship determining who was to be the next FIDE world champion, it would also determine who would play Kasparov in what was effectively a semifinal match for the unified championship.
Format and location
One source of criticism, in common with when it has been used for previous FIDE championships, has been the event’s format. In particular, the relatively quick time controls have been controversial. (90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 15 minutes till the end of the game and an incremental time of 30 seconds per move from move one.) Nigel Short claimed that “If you took the top 100 players and survey their opinion you would probably find around 75% are against this time control“.
Perhaps the greatest criticism has concerned the choice of Libya as venue. Claims of human rights abuses, and state sponsored terrorism have caused some consternation, but on a more practical level the country’s history of not allowing entry to citizens of Israel has been of some concern, as three Israeli players (Boris Gelfand, Emil Sutovsky and Ilia Smirin) had either qualified for the championships or were high on the list of reserves (in the event of qualifiers choosing not to play). Additionally, a number of players have joint Israeli and American citizenship, and so were also expected to be not welcomed.
With this in mind, FIDE originally announced that a parallel event in Malta would be held alongside the one in Tripoli to ensure that Israeli players could take part–Sutovsky sent his entry form back on the condition he would play in Malta. This parallel event was cancelled, however, following a press release from the Libyan authorities that “The Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya will pleasantly provide entry visas to all the qualified participants of this great Championship”, which was taken by most (including FIDE) to mean that all players, including Israelis, would be welcome to take part. This appeared to be contradicated by a statement from Mohammed Qadhafi, chairman of the Libyan Olympic Committee that “We [the Libyans] did not and will not invite the Zionist enemy to this championship.”
Several prominent figures have criticized FIDE over this matter, and many of the top ranked player where telling their willingness to boycott the event.
On May 13, the Anti-Defamation League wrote to FIDE from New York, saying it was “troubling” that Libya should be hosting the championships, and urging FIDE to ensure that Israeli players were treated equally. The letter raises concerns over the Libyans not allowing the coaches and families of Israeli players into the country. Similar concerns were expressed in an Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) open letter of May 26.
FIDE has maintained throughout that Israeli players would have been issued with visas upon their arrival in Libya. This assurance was never put to the test, after the turn down of Kramnik, Kasparov, Anand, Svidler, Gelfand, Sutovsky, Leko and Polgar, Gulko, who has joint American and Israeli citizenship, withdrew from the event after initially indicating he would play (fellow Americans Shabalov and Onischuk also withdrew in sympathy with the concerns of Gulko). The only player in the final list of participants with an Israeli passport–Vadim Milov, representing Switzerland–never travelled to Libya: he complained that his official invitation to the event had arrived so late (on the day of the opening ceremony, one day before the first game) that it was physically impossible for him to get to Libya with it in time. Milov claims that this constituted a deliberate attempt by FIDE to exclude him. In response, FIDE said that the delay in sending Milov’s invitation was due to Milov not sending them his passport details until a deadline had passed, and that even with this delay, Milov could still have arrived in Tripoli in time for his first game, which they had offered to postpone if necessary. Milov took his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne which found that FIDE “undertook extraordinary efforts to make sure that Claimant [Milov] could participate in the WCC 2004 although such efforts could and should have been made earlier” and ultimately cleared FIDE of any ill-intentioned effort to exclude Milov, concluding “there is no ground for Claimant to claim damages from Respondent.” It was also reported (on June 17) that the Israeli chess federation was considering suing FIDE “for compensation for the damages incurred by our exclusion from this tournament”.
Strength
As a result of these and other factors, many of the players who were invited to take part in the declined. The lineup was weaker than previous championships, with only three of the world’s top ten accepting the invitation to play, and only two of those actually turning up to the event. This weakness has itself been a cause of controversy, with claims that any tournament with so many top players missing should not be considered a World Championship at all.
On June 11, 2003 FIDE Deputy President Makropoulos was interviewed in Sport Express
Mr. Makropoulos, the refusal to participate in the forthcoming FIDE World Chess Championship in Tripoli of many strong Grandmasters has seriously damaged the prestige of this event. It seems that the claims of the players are reasoned and easily satisfied. Why, for example, the FIDE leadership itself did not sign the contract offered for the players? Was this only because of the fear that the players can sue FIDE in case of a conflict as Mr. A. Karpov mentioned during the recent press conference in Moscow?
– As for the absence of the number of the top players at the Tripoli World Championship, its roots have to be sought for in the Prague Agreement 2002. Unfortunately, there in Prague, these top players who are now boycotting the World Championship, were silent or simply ignored the chess summit. I was the only one who proposed a totally different variation of the chess world unification. I was proposing to organize the tournament with the participation of Kasparov, all FIDE World Champions and also finalists and semifinalists of the last FIDE World Chess Championship. It would have been an excellent tournament with the participation of Ponomariov, Anand, Karpov, Khalifman, Svidler, Ivanchuk… This variation did not suit Kasparov. He was supported by Yasser Seirawan, who, as you remember, was the main ideologist and initiator of the Prague Agreement, the essence of which is not only to bring Kasparov back to FIDE and organize the unification match, where he could meet with the winner of the classic branch Kramnik-Leko. Seirawan proposed a beautiful perspective of creation of the professional structure in the world chess.
Yes, I remember very well, how Gary Kasparov was carried away with this idea and he was very inspired when talking to me about it after the Praguea’ s meeting. Why did this project die before being born?
– In Prague Seirawan said that he would propose to FIDE a business plan of the creation of such professional structure. Bessel Kok who organized the meeting in Prague, promised to actively participate in the realization of these initiatives, to attract sponsors. But I had my great reservations, and I shared them with the FIDE President K. Ilyumzhinov. In the presence of Z. Azmaiparashvili and A. Orlov I said: “Kirsan, I do not believe that either they will prepare the business plan or that they will find sponsors with money. I will be happy to be mistaken, but if I am right then we shall found ourselves in the situation when we shall have to spend much more money and you, Kirsan, will have to pay for all of this”.
Before we would like you to tell us about some peculiarities of the Tripoli Championship, I would like to hear your reply why there is no signature of any FIDE high official on the contracts sent to the players. At the afore-mentioned press-conference, this problem was also part of the declared statement of the Russian Chess Federation.
Anatoly Karpov stated at this press-conference that FIDE does not want to put its signature under the document because of its so-called fear to lose in the court in the case of the conflict. These words put everything upside down. FIDE is not a commercial organization and cannot offer any contracts to the players. I do not know why, but either Karpov or those who share his point of view did not think that FIDE, which looks for the money for the players, is on their side. If the Championship’s organizers violate the agreement, that the Federation, together with the players, will sue such Organisers. We are the same side of the barricades!
Recently I interviewed Vishy Anand, outstanding Indian Grandmaster, who said directly why he would not play in Tripoli. Vishy believes that it is not fair to give privileges to one player (meaning Kasparov). In fact, this Championship is a qualification tournament to play against Kasparov, and the person who shall win in Tripoli, shall have the title of the FIDE World Champion only for half a year, if of course, he will not succeed to win over Kasparov?
– I have no single doubt in the sincerity of Anand, whom I deeply respect. He does not play with his words, says what he thinks and acts based on his idea what is correct. But a number of the strongest Russian players, as we came to learn from unofficial meetings, are sharing the position of Anand but are afraid to say it straight and make up various absurd reasons of their non-participation similar to the absence of these notorious signatures. These people were silent in Prague, and now they chose the tactics of the boycott, as they are not courageous enough to name real reasons of their refusal. As for the privileges given to Kasparov, everyone perfectly realize that the participation of this chess historical’ s greatest player is like a magnet for the sponsorship money. And those top players who do not want Kasparov to have a chance to return to FIDE, do understand this very well. In Prague I was also proposing to consider the World Cup, which would have taken place in India, as qualification for the top players, who were participating in it. But this proposal did not receive any support. I can understand the position of Kasparov, who did not want to complicate the situation. But I cannot understand these top players who were silent in Prague, and now are trying to discredit FIDE in any possible way.
So, you are sure that the real reason behind the refusal of a number of the top Grandmasters to play in Tripoli is that they are not happy with Kasparov’ s privileges?
I have no doubt in it. In Prague they did not want to speak straight about it, as they were afraid to be seen by the public as enemies of the chess world unification. Now they also do not state real reasons of their refusal, and try to shift responsibilities to other people’s shoulders.
However, I can give you a different kind of an example. Recently a very respected Grandmaster Boris Gulko, ex USSR Champion and USA Champion, called me from New Jersey. He told me that he had already purchased a ticket to Tripoli, but had to return it after the scandalous statement of Mohammed Al Gadhafi, the World Chess Championship Organising Committee Chairman and son of the Libyan leader Moammar Al Gadhafi, where it said about aˆ?Zionist enemiesaˆ? who want to aˆ?filteraˆ? to the territory of the Arab state. According to Gulko, after this statement, discriminating the citizens of Israel, he thinks it impossible for him to play in Tripoli. We can understand Boris Gulko as a person of faith, who also has an Israeli citizenship. The speech at the above-mentioned Moscow press-conference of Peter Svidler is to the same tune. Some other players’ interviews also have some hints to the aˆ?Israeliaˆ? problem. What would you say to this?
