Alekhine dodged Capablanca [>1927]. Fischer disappeared instead of playing Karpov [1975]. Or was he taking a principled stand for rigorous rules? Shirov should have played Kasparov for next to no money. Or was it Kasparov who was dodging Shirov [1998]? Kramnik dodging Kasparov's quest for a rematch, or was he trying to restore a credible cycle [2001]? Kasparov skipping the Dortmund qualifier [2002], Ponomariov and Kasparov never playing [2003], and now Carlsen and, well, Ilyumzhinov [2010]. There are a dozen more we could add. • Carlsen Bails from WCh Cycle (Chessninja.com)
'Only a dozen more?', I thought. Here's a list I came up with after about 30 minutes, mostly spent on verification:-
- 1948: Fine [WCC match tournament]
- 1950: Reshevsky, Fine, Euwe, Bondarevsky [Budapest CT]; for several reasons
- 1965: Botvinnik [CM]
- 1964: Fischer [Amsterdam IZ]
- 1967: Fischer [Sousse IZ]
- 1972: Fischer [Reykjavik WCC]; will he or won't he?
- 1975: Fischer [WCC vs. Karpov]
- 1971: Huebner [CM qf vs. Petrosian]
- 1980: Huebner [CM f vs. Korchnoi]
- 1985: KK1; terminated by Campomanes
- 1986: KK3; Kasparov threatened to quit
- 1993: Kasparov - Short; played wthout FIDE
- 1996: Ilyumzhinov cancels Interzonal and replaces with KOs
- 1997: Kramnik [Groningen KO]
- 1999: Karpov [Las Vegas KO]
- 1998: Anand [WCC vs. Kasparov, declined]
- 1999: Anand [ditto, cancelled]
- 2000: Anand [ditto, declined]
There's some overlap there with the Chessninja list. I could have added more from the FIDE KOs played after 2000, but I became bored with the exercise. More challenging would have been a list of cycles where there weren't any such shenanigans. For a similar overview, see my post Troubled Matches from a few years ago. Maybe it has something to do with chess players not wanting to submit to authority.
3 comments:
What about Korchnoi-Spassky, candidates finals match, Belgrade 1977?
"Maybe it has something to do with chess players not wanting to submit to authority."
That comment struck me as very true, and I immediately associated it with the fact that the theme of Chess is regicide.
Also, chess is a single-player game. You fight for yourself and nobody else. I think that of course has correlations and consequences with how frequently chess players deny to play.
But I still think it's pretty rare that the world champion just choose not to defend his title. I think Fischer was the only one. Maybe Carlsen wanted to be part of that exclusive club :)
P.S. At the same time, chess players also somewhat paradoxically are really fetishists of rating people and creating hierarchy based on playing strength. As I think Keres once said, "If three chess players enter a room, they'll do it on order of their Elo rating."
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