Zonal Qualifiers C22-C24

Using the basic techniques developed for Zonal Qualifiers C25-C26, I applied the same to the three preceding cycles:-

• C22: Zonal Qualifiers 2004-2005 (*)
• C23: Zonal Qualifiers 2006-2007
• C24: Zonal Qualifiers 2008-2009

(*) The data format for C22, the first World Cup, is less friendly than the others. FIDE released the base data in pieces and I'm not sure I have the final edition -- many names are missing. On top of that, the data is in CSV format, which is nice for software processes, but not so nice for people. I'll try to improve the presentation for this cycle when I'm done with the initial round of data population.

2012 FIDE General Assembly : Whither the World Championship?

My series on 'Whither the World Championship?' is becoming an annual fixture, last seen on this blog in 2011 FIDE Executive Board : Whither the World Championship?, and on my main blog in Out to Ruin FIDE?. The pattern of alternating between the two blogs, depending on subject matter, has already produced four posts on the latest FIDE gathering:-

• 83rd FIDE Congress
• Agon's Paulson at the FIDE General Assembly
• The Agon Schedule
• Feller, Rybka, Arbiters, and More

Now, with the release of the 83rd FIDE General Assembly Minutes and Annexes, we're going to see another post. From the minutes of the 'FIDE Congress, Istanbul, Turkey, General Assembly, 7-9 September 2012', the kickoff topic was the traditional 'Report of the President', FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov's annual report. First he reminded everyone about the two World Championships held in the previous 12 months,

During the period after our last Congress, the two top events took place in our chess life: November 2011 in Tirana, the Women’s World Chess Championship took place. Women’s World Champion Hou Yifan has convincingly defended her title in the fight against a challenger from India – Humpy Koneru. Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev, ex President of the USSR visited the first official FIDE event in Albania, which gave additional weight to the event. I would like to thank the President of the Albanian Chess Federation Mr. Taci for the successful organization of the match.

This May in one of the most well-known places of the Russian capital – the Tretyakov Gallery – the World Chess Championship Match between Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand took place, for the prize fund of 2,55 mln USD. It was organized on the highest organization level and attracted huge attention both of chess experts and just chess lovers. During live Internet broadcast people had a chance to see not only all details of the match and hear professional chess commentary, but get acquainted with the history and masterpieces of one of the best museums of the world. At the closing of the match President of Russia Vladimir Putin met with the participants. I would also like to express our enormous gratitude to the Russian Chess Federation management led by Arkady Dvorkovich and to FIDE Vice President Ilya Levitov, the main match sponsor Andrei Filatov for the brilliant realization of the idea to unite sports and arts in the presentation of chess.

Later Ilyumzhinov branched into the qualifying events for the current cycle.

You all remember a beautiful building of the chess centre in Khanty-Mansiysk, the venue of our previous General Assembly. Last September, they hosted the 4th World Chess Cup won by Peter Svidler. I would like to note that we tried the video broadcast of the event, which now takes place in all FIDE official events. We received a proposal from ChessTV company, which is ready to invest and carry out video broadcast of our other tournaments. This company was involved in the Moscow World Championship match, and they are currently working here at the Olympiad. They think that if we both work together, it is possible to create sponsor and advertisement market, to become a serious source of income for the chess events organizers. As for Khanty-Mansiysk, they are going to host the Women’s World Championship in November and next year – World Rapid and Blitz Championships.

I would also like to note a successful organization of the FIDE Grand Prix series, and in ten days we are opening a new series by a London tournament, followed by Tashkent, and next year the Grand Prix tournaments will take place in Lisbon, Madrid, Berlin and Paris. London will also host next year in March the Candidates matches, and the prize fund has already been transferred to the FIDE account. According to the signed contract, the organization of these tournaments is undertaken by Agon. Ankara next week will host the last leg of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix tournaments.

A substantial chunk of time was later spent on Agon. I've already covered this in the post on 'Agon's Paulson' and will only mention that the minutes are nearly a transcript of the events recorded in that video.

Out with the old and in with the new? The segment on the CNC presented a distinct contrast to the promise of the Agon vision. Here are excerpts from 'CNC Project', which preceded the Agon discussion:-

Deputy President G. Makropoulos said that from the beginning of the original contract, CNC had a right to organise events and find sponsorship, and later this part was given to Agon when we signed the contract with them. So the Agreement with CNC has changed.

Mr. D. Levitansky from CNC is here to report to the Assembly. He said that it is a great honour to speak about the internet chess project, with the goal to change the situation of market capitalisation of chess websites. There is a huge demand for chess information and entertainment. There are a lot of links and non-chess portals and traffic is dispersed. They have been exploring marketing research in this situation and found it that it is necessary to join our efforts with Federations and players. They informed the CNC committee and have certain suggestions. They will launch MyFIDE.com project and will introduce new services, to make chess and FIDE financially efficient. They suggest synergy and a high level of support and promotion, to achieve a positive cash flow. [...]

Mr. Yazici said [...] We signed a contract with CNC four years ago, and he was happy to see initiative from them. We knew that according to the contract which ends in 2013, we hope to work with them and we hope that FIDE and CNC accept and we can create cash flow for FIDE. MyFIDE.com is a very nice idea to get many issues under one umbrella and to unite different sources and to get a rating which is feasible for advertisers. With a small blog you are not so interesting for an advertiser, this is promising for the future. He hoped it will not be like last four years, we want to see action as soon as possible. He hoped they will move very fast to start acting.

Mr. Makropoulos said our contract has been published, CNC has a list of rights which they can activate based on a concrete project, following the approval of FIDE. This is a new idea and we would like to see a final project. At the same time, we could present a project to them and if they reject, we could choose another partner to fulfil it.

I expect that any future 'Whither' posts will have little to say about CNC and much to say about Agon. Their London Grand Prix was a definite success and the Tashkent event starts today. The London Candidate matches in March will mark a clean break between the pre-Agon and Agon eras of chess history. The Agon contract is for 11 years into the future. Looking at everything that has happened in the last 11 years, I can't begin to imagine what the chess world will look like in 2023.

History of the World Championship on Fide.com

The Official site of the match for the title of World Chess Champion, aka the 2012 Anand - Gelfand match, has a good summary of World Championship title events: Match History. Perhaps unique among 'official' lists, it includes both FIDE and non-FIDE matches, as well as the final rounds of the knockout events. The Anand - Gelfand match would be the 52nd on the list.

2011-2012 Women's Grand Prix, Kazan

I added the Kazan event to my page on the 2011-2012 FIDE Women's Grand Prix. This was the fourth of six events in the series, where the previous event was the Women's Grand Prix, Nalchik

I also added the recent 2012 Anand - Gelfand match to my Index of players for World Championship events. This corrected an oversight dating back to my post on Anand - Gelfand Wrapup.

Anand - Gelfand Wrapup

Let's have one last post on the 2012 Anand - Gelfand match. First, it gives me the opportunity to use (with permission) a couple of photos from Eric van Reem's unique record of the match from an insider's point of view.

Photos and captions from the Mate in Moscow blog:

Left: The trophy; creator of the sculpture Andrey Molchanovsky. You can recognize the crown in the chessboard. The trophy is made of gold and bronze, the chessboard of optical glass. It weighs about 8 kg. • Right: Team Anand, Moscow 2012: Peter Heine Nielsen, Aruna Anand, Viswanathan Anand, Rustam Kasimdzahnov, Radek Wojtaszek, Surya Ganguly, Eric van Reem and Hans-Walter Schmitt.

Next, it gives me a place to tie together my various posts on the match. Posts marked '(*)' are from the my main blog Chess for All Ages.

• 2012-05-16: World Championship Chess on TV; see also 2012-05-17: The Man Who Put Chess on Television (*)
• 2012-05-18: When Does the Game Start? (video; *)
• 2012-05-21: Chess Quizzes for Beginners (*)
• 2012-05-23: Anand - Gelfand, Petrosian - Botvinnik
• 2012-05-24: World Championship History as it Happens (*)
• 2012-05-28: Tiebreaks & Quizzes (*)
• 2012-05-30: Anand: 'This match could have gone either way.'
• 2012-05-31: Gelfand: 'Computers have not changed the nature of chess' (*)
• 2012-06-01: India Loves Anand (video; *)
• 2012-06-06: The Way Forward?
• 2012-06-07: Anand's Draw Offer (g.12; *)

Finally, it gives me a reason to analyze the spike in my visitor stats, as I did two years ago in Searching for Amand - Topalon.

The site gets more visitors every time a World Championship is held and I've often wondered where they come from. Since creating the simple database I described [in March 2010], I'm better equipped to do a detailed analysis.

Traffic to my site more than doubled during the duration of the match. Visitors to the page on the 2012 Anand - Gelfand match (linked above) exceeded those to the site's Index Page, which is normally the most visited page in any particular period. About 50% of the traffic came from Google, another 25% from my other pages, the index page in particular, and 5% from Yahoo and Bing each. The other 15% came from various sources. I was pleasantly surprised to see referrals from Wikipedia's page on the Tretyakov Gallery, the site of the match.

Another page that received far more traffic than usual was 1995 Kasparov - Anand PCA Title Match : Highlights. Most of the traffic came from searches on variations of 'Kasparov Anand', although Chessgames.com's page on Viswanathan Anand vs Garry Kasparov; World Championship Match 1995 (game nine) was also a significant source. Game nine was the first decisive game after eight straight draws in the 1995 match. I imagine that many of these visitors were wondering if the six initial draws of Anand - Gelfand were some sort of a record.

The Way Forward?

I added the crosstable and PGN game scores to my page on the 2012 Anand - Gelfand title match. Although I was impressed by the match organization (see Anand: 'This match could have gone either way'), I am less enthusiastic about the games themselves.

The greater the anticipation, the greater the letdown? There was so little content in the games at standard time control that most of them will be soon forgotten. Compared to the 2010 Anand - Topalov title match (see What a Match!), the 2012 edition left a lot to be desired.

Hyperdeveloped opening theory, powerful computers for further opening preparation, short matches, and draw offers -- all of these combined make for dreary chess. After the similar experience at the 2011 Candidates Event in Kazan something needs to change. Since the only element not dictated by circumstances is the draw offer, and since experience with the Sofia rules is positive, the way forward looks clear.

Anand: 'This match could have gone either way.'

Congratulations to Viswanathan Anand on retaining his title as World Chess Champion. Congratulations to Boris Gelfand on believing that, despite what the pundits might say, winners and losers are never predetermined. Congratulations to the match organizers, to the sponsors, and to FIDE on showing to the world how a top-level chess match can and should be organized. Congratulations to Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam and his team of commentators on providing a constant stream of first class entertainment. It was a great show.

Anand - Gelfand, Petrosian - Botvinnik

Just as I did for the previous games, I spent my chess time today watching World Championship Chess on TV. During the commercial breaks, which tend to be much too long for my taste, I switch the sound off and work on something else related to chess. Regarding the current match taking place in Moscow, I've spotted a number of comparisons with the 1963 Petrosian - Botvinnik match.

One comparison involves the combined age of the two opponents: Are Anand and Gelfand the oldest players to have contested a World Championship? One analysis concluded Anand vs. Gelfand world chess championship 2012 oldest pair of contenders since 1886. If I were doing this, I would calculate age in terms of years, months, and days at the start of the match, but since I'm not going to do this, it's a moot point.

Another comparison involves the dullness of the match. This was a common complaint during the first six games, which were all draws. It disappeared after the seventh and eighth games, which were both decisive. The same sort of complaints were heard regarding the 2011 Candidates Event at Kazan, Russia. I'm afraid it's just a characteristic of top-level chess in the early 21st century and is not going to change unless some sort of a major change to the rules is allowed. Most of the complainers seem to think it's the fault of the players, a point of view I don't agree with.

The comparisons between the 1963 and 2012 matches prompted me to open a couple of books on the earlier match. This is always a speculative act, because it invariably gets me started on researching aspects which have nothing to do with the original question. A real gold mine was 'Botvinnik - Petrosian : The 1963 World Chess Championship Match', published in 2010 by New in Chess. Although the author is listed as Mikhail Botvinnik, the book is in fact compiled from various sources related to the match. For example, the book has a section titles 'Petrosian's view of the match'. It starts, 'I never thought that I would play a match for the world championship' and then crams all sorts of informed opinion into its ten pages. Following are two excerpts. The first is about the infamous rematch clause.

A convincing victory over Botvinnik in their second match in 1957 made Smyslov the seventh World Champion. The balance of forces in the world chess elite seemed to leave no doubt that chess had a new leader, who was capable of remaining at the top for a long time to come. But there was one obstacle, namely the ex-champions right to a return match. Admittedly, the logic or appropriateness of the return match is highly debatable, since it is really just a further barrier in the path of the challenger.

Judge for yourself -- he has to be successful in events of various calibre, win the formal right to a match with the World Champion, by winning the Candidates' tournament, beat the champion, and then... within a year, he has to meet the ex-champion again. Isn't it all a bit much? It is hard to accept Botvinnik's argument that this lengthy, multi-stage system of qualifying events, followed by a World Championship match itself, could result in the chess world ending up with a 'fluke' champion. If that is so, then the entire system of determining the challenger is at fault. (p.92)

The second is about Botvinnik's intention to play the 1963 match.

It was well known that when he emerged from the Polytechnic Museum, after beating Tal in the return match, Botvinnik had said something to the effect that, if a Soviet player won the Candidates' event, he might decide not to defend his title. Under the rules of the International Chess Federation, the conditions for the World Championship match must be ratified by the FIDE President, not less than four months before the start of the match. Given that matches in Moscow usually begin around the middle of March, Botvinnik still had quite a long time in which to consider whether to defend his title.

There were some outward signs that the chess federation of the USSR was preparing for the possibility of Botvinnik refusing to play the match. This explained the hastily arranged match between grandmasters Keres and Geller, who had shared 2nd-3rd places in the Candidates' tournament. The match was needed to determine outright 2nd place, the player concerned thereby gaining the right to play the next Candidates' tournament, but also, what is more important, the right to participate in a match for the World Championship itself, if Botvinnik did not play. (p.93)

Although it doesn't say so explicitly, that second is likely related to the first. Botvinnik hesitated to play because his right to a return match had been taken away by FIDE. It's a fact that he never won a match in defense of his title.

***

A couple of resources worth visiting and revisiting are:-

• Chessgames.com: Anand vs Gelfand, 2012, much discussion plus links to individual games.
• Chessbase.com: World Championship Moscow, an index of links to individual articles.

I haven't spent nearly as much time with these as I would like to.

World Championship Chess on TV

I'm old enough to remember the 1972 Fischer - Spassky match, when I saw chess on television for the first time. I don't remember how many times I caught the Shelby Lyman PBS show, but I vividly remember watching Spassky - Fischer, game 19, an Alekhine's Defense where Spassky sacrificed a Knight for a Kingside attack, which Fischer countered by miraculously forcing the exchange of Queens. I had already been playing for a few years, was rated around 1800 at the time, and the moves of both players seemed supernatural.

Eighteen years passed before I next saw World Championship chess on TV. It was during the second half of the 1990 Kasparov - Karpov match, played in Lyon, France. According to my page on the event, 'The match was televised by the main French station TF1, which broadcast 14 programs of 45 minutes.' Although I didn't note where I got that information, I never invent details like that so it must be right. The shows must have been aired late in the evening or I would have had competition for the remote control and would most likely not have seen any of them.

A few years later, I caught several TV broadcasts of the 1993 Kasparov - Short match. It must have been on BBC1 or BBC2, because we didn't receive any other BBC stations at the time. The recaps were up to BBC's usual high standards, but I wasn't able to find out ahead of time when the shows would be aired and missed most of them.

These memories all came back while I watched the first four games of the 2012 Anand - Gelfand match, broadcast live on the web from Moscow. For various reasons, live chess doesn't suit network television. While there are also some annoying aspects of the Moscow broadcasts, they are far outweighed by the sheer pleasure of seeing the most important chess event of the year in real time. Kudos to everyone responsible for the web production.

Wikipedia's World Championship

A few days ago I posted a piece on my main blog titled A Chess Popularity Contest, which looked at Wikipedia's WikiProject Chess/Popular pages. Since more than 50 of those 1500 pages deal with the World Chess Championship, I list the ten most popular below.

The first column shows the relative position of the topic out of 1500, while 'V', 'A', and 'I' stand for 'Views per Day', 'Assessment', and 'Importance', respectively. For example, the main World Championship topic ranks 29th in popularity over all Wikipedia chess pages, received 550 views per day (in March 2012), is assessed to be of quality 'B' (whatever that means), and has top importance (ditto).

Pos	Topic	V	A	I
29	World Championship	550	B	Top
43	World Championship 2012	415	Start	High
113	World Championship 1972	159	B	Top
220	World Championship 2010	68	B	Top
246	World Computer Championship	60	Start	Mid
247	Women's World Championship	60	Start	High
332	World Junior Championship	44	Start	Mid
378	List of world championship matches	38	List	Mid
387	World Youth Championship	37	Start	Mid
435	World Championship 2006	31	C	High
444	World Championship 2013	31	Start	Low

See the original WikiProject page for links to specific topics and explanations of the values in the columns. Not surprisingly, the 1972 Fischer - Spassky match is the only 20th century match to make the top-10 cut. Very surprisingly, four restricted events -- Computer, Women, Junior, & Youth -- also make the cut.

Two Big Events for 2012

The 2012 Anand - Gelfand match is fast approaching, so I updated that page to include the latest announcements from FIDE plus a link to the official site. After that match, the 2012 Candidates Event is the next big event in the lineup, and I added that page to my index for the World Chess Championship. The Candidates event deserves a blog post on it own, but details on its organization are still too unclear to do anything except speculate.

***

Later: No sooner had the ink dried (so to speak) on this post, than it was obsolete, as was the title: FIDE Announces Dates for World Chess Championship Cycles [28 March 2012].

In the revised calendar, the next World Chess Candidates Tournament has been moved to March 13 – March 31, 2013. The tournament will take place in London.

Comparing the new calendar with the old, which I documented in Overview of Four Cycles, reveals other significant changes. The 2014 Candidates event has been moved forward from November to March and the World Championship match for the same cycle, C26 using my numbering, has been moved from November 2015 to November 2014.

Even more importantly, FIDE has finally settled on a consistent two year cycle. The World Cup will be held around third quarter (Q3) of the start year of a new cycle, the Candidates event around Q1 of the following year, and the title match around Q3 of the same year. This means that the overlapping cycles we have seen over the past few years will disappear for C27. Continental championships and zonal tournaments can be scheduled accordingly.

As for the Grand Prix tournaments in major cities of the world, it remains to be seen if FIDE can execute its plan. Nothing we have seen in the past inspires confidence.

Overview of Four Cycles

FIDE's announcement for the forthcoming World Championship events, FIDE Announces Draft Dates for World Chess Championship Cycles (Fide.com), would have been more exciting if we hadn't seen it all before. The plan was nearly identical to the one announced in June 2007, last discussed on this blog in The New/Old World Championship Cycle.

Here's an overview of the schedule announced by FIDE, mapped onto the cycle numbering I use for my index page on the World Chess Championship. I sincerely hope that FIDE, with its new sponsor, will have more success following through the 2012 plan than it did in 2007.

2011			C24	C25	C26	C27
CT	Kazan	2011-05	CM
WC	Russia	2011-08		WC
2012			C24	C25	C26	C27
Chp	Moscow	2012-05	A/G
OL	Istanbul	2012-08
GP	Chelyabinsk	2012-09			*
CT	London	2012-10		*
GP	Tashkent	2012-11			*
2013			C24	C25	C26	C27
GP	Lisbon	2013-04			*
GP	Madrid	2013-05			*
GP	Berlin	2013-07			*
WC	Norway	2013-08			*
GP	Paris	2013-09			*
Chp	TBD	2013-10		*
2014			C24	C25	C26	C27
GP	TBD	2014-05				*
GP	TBD	2014-07				*
OL	Norway	2014-08
GP	TBD	2014-09				*
CT	TBD	2014-11			*
2015			C24	C25	C26	C27
GP	TBD	2015-05				*
GP	TBD	2015-07				*
WC	TBD	2015-08				*
GP	TBD	2015-09				*
Chp	TBD	2015-11			*

Chp: World Championship
CT: Candidates
WC: World Cup
GP: Grand Prix
OL: Olympiad

***

Later: See also Two Big Events for 2012 for subsequent changes to several of these events.

2011 FIDE Executive Board : Whither the World Championship?

FIDE Congresses are important annual events in the evolution of the World Championship, and the most recent was no exception. I've already reported on the meeting in 82nd FIDE Congress, so now I'll turn my attention to the Executive Board Minutes and Annexes, just as I did for the 2009 FIDE Executive Board and the 2010 FIDE General Assembly.

FIDE Congress, Krakow, Poland
Executive Board
20-21 October 2011

The minutes always kick off with the 'Report of the President'. After mentioning the most recent events in the Women's World Championship, FIDE President Ilyumzhinov turned to the unrestricted version.

In Kazan, on a very high organizational level the Candidates' matches have been organized. Together with the 1st President of Tatarstan, Mr. Mintimer Shaimiev, we participated in the opening and closing ceremonies. I would like to congratulate GM Boris Gelfand from Israel on his brilliant victory.

As you know that we had a tender for the venue for the World Championship match, which will take place next year. There have been two bids, from India and Russia. The Russian bid won, because of two advantage, because it is a neutral venue and the Russian Federation offered practically half a million USD more for the prize fund which means a bigger financial support for FIDE (20% is a sizeable number). I would like to thank the leadership of Tatarstan, and its President M. Shaimiev has been appointed as my Senior Adviser and he helps me a lot in the matters.

The World Cup took place this year in the new building of a Chess Academy. Now Nalchik is hosting another stage of [the Women's] Grand Prix, and the tournaments were organized in Shenzhen and Rostov. All is OK with Women's Grand Prix. But soon we will announce also men's series, after finalizing it. We found sponsors in New York, London, Cheliabinsk, Mashhad and we are looking for the last organizers.

After a short discussion of two lawsuits that have cost FIDE heavily, Ilyumzhinov turned to the 'Modernisation Commission'.

It goes without saying that we should stick to our traditions in the classical World Championship title cycle, traditions going back to 1886. But, at the same time, I cannot help noting that to date the old format is not TV attractive and is not either attractive for general public. [...]

It seems logical to introduce additional World Championships in rapid and blitz chess, with a further determination of absolute champion. Since 1st January 2012 there will be rapid and blitz official rating lists, we are also negotiating with possible sponsors of Grand Prix where top players will be participating.

FIDE will be facing a task of creating a clear and structurised qualification system for these new World Championships with eventual giving up any privileges to World Champions and rating favourites. In order to bring wider groups of middle echelon players, the main principle of new system should be the following motto –- Everyone can win.

During the rest of the meeting, other brief mentions of the World Championship were:

• registration of the trademark 'FIDE World Chess Championship' with the World Intellectual Property Organization; and
• contract for the 2013 World Cup, Tromso, Norway, to be signed at the 2012 Istanbul Congress.

A potential glitch with next year's title match...

World Championship match 2012 Anand - Gelfand, we have not signed the contract, the contract was sent to RCF [Russian Chess Federation] and the problem is with the Russians, they were silent for two months. There is a meeting on the 26 November, in Moscow, with the players and RCF. The Federation should sign the contract and they were supposed to send the money. We should press them. Kirsan will help as well. We hope the preparation will be OK. RCF said they received the money.

...was resolved satisfactorily on the date indicated: Contract on the World Chess Championship Match 2012. I've mentioned in the past that FIDE is surprisingly open about contractual difficulties. Here are a few more examples.

Women's World Championship 2012, Khanty-Mansiysk. Mr. Balgabaev has discussed the details of the contract, they are supposed to give the dates.

Women's Grand Prix: Mr. Makropoulos said there was a problem in Rostov with the finances, as no prize fund was received and so FIDE paid the prizes. • Mr. Borg said we are chasing the organiser, because the timing was short, the money was paid to the players, and they are not complaining. We are chasing the government of Rostov. If they do not send us money, we will go for a legal action. • For the cycle, we had an excellent event in Shenzhen and Nalchik, everything was paid in advance. The others are Jermuk, Kazan and Istanbul. All contracts were signed, the money should be sent.

Mr. Makropoulos said that we should avoid such situations when money is not sent. • Mr. Borg said the organisers should be chased by the FIDE office provided there is a contract. It applies to all FIDE events. • Mr. Makropoulos said that Grand Prix is a special event.

Mr Yazici said in the first cycle we made a mistake, and I hope we do not make it for the 2nd time. Closing will be in Istanbul and all organisers of the previous legs should be invited and receive some plaques and the winner of the Grand Prix should also be invited in advance.

On top of other subjects that I've written about in the past deserving a revisit -- CACDEC, the CNC Project, and the Ethics Commission (*) -- two new topics are worth special treatment. The first I've already mentioned in the context of Ilyumzhinov's report: two lawsuits stemming from last year's presidential election. There was a long discussion of the subject during the financial report. The second is a report by the 'Chess in Schools' commission.

In both the lawsuits and the chess-in-schools project, FIDE is butting heads with former World Champion Kasparov, a tenacious opponent. It sometimes seems that nothing in chess is ever accomplished without political bickering.

(*) March 2009: Chess in Africa - What Is CACDEC?, October 2011: No Nose for FIDE News, and May 2010: FIDE Ethics

Kramnik on Kramnik

In the first decade of the new millenium, three world class chess players -- Kasparov, Kramnik, and Anand -- in that order, ruled the roost. Kasparov was the dominant split-title World Champion going into the decade, Kramnik was his hand-picked heir apparent, and Anand flew FIDE's flag at the beginning of the decade gaining the unified title near the end.

Over the past few months, we've been treated to a steady stream of Kramnik interviews, most of them posted on the relatively new site Whychess.org. In No Nose for Navigation on my main blog, I criticized the site for technical reasons, but there's no question that content is its strong point.

After the 2011 Candidates Event, we listened to the top players sound off in Interviews Past and Present, where Kramnik was eliminated in the semifinal round. A little later he won the annual Dortmund tournament, and has been holding forth ever since. Here he talks mainly about Dortmund and a little about Kazan (links to Whychess.org unless otherwise noted).

• Kramnik: "It’s unlikely I can compete with Carlsen long-term", 4 August 2011
• Video interview Vladimir Kramnik, 3 August; Chessvibes.com

He was less successful in the Russian Championship Superfinal, finishing in a tie for 3rd-5th.

• Kramnik to retire in four years?, 16 August
• Kramnik: For me chess is a great love, 18 August

Then, in the longest interview I can remember him giving, he touched on many subjects, including three important title matches: 2000 vs. Kasparov, 2006 vs. Topalov (unification), and 2008 vs. Anand. His comments on the Topalov match brought responses from both Azmaiparashvili and Makropoulos, central figures in FIDE's bungled handling of the cheating accusations.

• Kramnik on chess, Anand, Topalov and his future, 31 August
• Azmaiparashvili responds to Kramnik, 31 August
• 30 years after, 27 October; 'Makropoulos responds to Kramnik’s accusations'

Later he had much more to say on the 2000 Kasparov match.

• Kramnik on the Shirov and Kasparov controversies, 13 October

He then won the Univé tournament in Hoogeveen, and came back to the subject of the current World Championship cycle.

• Kramnik: "I’m a little more concerned about ratings just now", 25 October

That's a good show for a man who has often been indifferent in his attitude toward the chess public. It's clear from the comments to many of those intervews that he remains enormously popular with chess fans.

Two Upcoming Title Matches

Which is worse - no press release or a bungled press release? We saw the first scenario, regarding the 2012 Candidates Event (or will it be in 2013?), in FIDE's Got a Secret, and the second scenario, regarding two upcoming title matches, in the recent announcement World Championships Matches - Press Release [Fide.com]. According to TWIC, in Moscow's winning World Championship bid,

A premature FIDE press release that appeared on Monday was not signed by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and there are claims that the final decision wasn't made until Tuesday. It does seem that the final specific venue is a source of dispute. Ilyumzhinov insists upon Skolkovo a small Moscow Science Park whilst the major sponsor Andrey Filatov and the Russian Chess Federation say that it should be the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.

I updated my page, 2012 Anand - Gelfand Title Match, to document the new information on that match, and added a new page for the 2011 Hou Yifan - Koneru Title Match. FIDE's ongoing incompetence in its relations with the press reminds me of those old slapstick movies where one of the characters gets his foot stuck in a bucket and then stumbles around trying to get it off. The difference with FIDE is that it happens again and again and again.

FIDE's Got a Secret

Q: How do you pack a four stage qualifying cycle into three years? • A: You hold one stage per year and let the first stage of a new cycle overlap the last stage of the previous cycle. This is how the World Championship was organized from 1950 until 1990, when the title match for cycle X was held in the same year as the zonals for cycle X+1. This worked for 14 cycles.

Q: How do you pack a four stage qualifying cycle into two years? • A: No one seems to know. • FIDE's solution: You schedule the second stage of the cycle, aka the 'World Cup', every two years, preferably at Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. This fixes the schedule for the first stage -- the zonals and continental championships -- during the months before the World Cup. As for the third and fourth stages, you issue regulations and bidding procedures whenever you think the time is right and hope that someone is paying attention (or maybe you hope that no one is paying attention, thereby sparing you any criticism).

According to Google, the Rules & Regulations for the Candidates Matches of the FIDE World Championship cycle 2011-2013 were published on 16 May 2011. They were unaccompanied by any of the usual marketing nonsense like a press release or a news item on Fide.com. Why let your light shine when you can hide it under a bushel basket?

Why all the hush-hush? One reason might be that we are once again faced with that situation peculiar to today's FIDE that I call Two Overlapping World Championship Cycles. This guarantees that no one can follow the events except FIDE insiders, of whom there are few; it helps them feel important. Another reason might be that we are faced with the exact same format that bored everyone and was roundly criticized in the recent 2011 Candidates Event at Kazan, Russia. Yet another reason might be that FIDE can make changes to the 'Rules & Regulations' whenever they fancy, then claim, 'But it wasn't official!' Still another reason might be the chronic incompetence that plagues FIDE leadership.

I suspect it's all of the above and then some. Come on, FIDE, you've had six years since Kasparov handed you exclusive ownership of the World Championship. It's time you start acting like professionals. Do you really want to be the world's largest *amateur* sports organization?

Interviews Past and Present

The completion of a major milestone in a World Championship cycle always brings a spate of interviews with the players involved and the recent Kazan Candidate matches continued the tradition. Chessbase.com ran a three part interview by Shay Bushinsky (developer of a former World Computer Champion) with GM Gelfand, Anand's future challenger.

• The homecoming: Boris Gelfand is back Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Here are some excerpts.

Q: You are in the cycle for a long time now. Did you actually believe you would reach this stage challenging the World Champion? • A: Yes, and I reached it! I had chances in the early nineties, when Kasparov thought that I was the favourite. But I didn’t succeed then. [Gelfand lost to Short in the quarter finals of 1993, and to Karpov in the semi-finals of 1996]. Then, for ten years, there was no proper cycle. When it reappeared I had two excellent results: I qualified for the World Championship in Mexico, and there I tied for second place. And now I reached the final. So I think I showed that in this system very few people can compete with these results. I must emphasize that unfortunately a lot of excellent players never reached this stage. Players like Keres, Geller, Polugaevsky and Larsen never made it. So I consider myself really fortunate to have managed to get this far. I see it as a privilege and I will do my best to seize the opportunity.

Q: How do you explain your recent success, especially at these elite knockout tournaments? • A: Throughout my career I was in all possible situations – must win with black, must draw with black etc. You know that I’m pretty experienced, having participated in previous candidate cycles. It was probably in the early nineties when I managed somehow to store somewhere all these experiences, and apparently I can retrieve them now, when similar moments occur. It is all unconsciously stored in my brain.

Q: Let’s talk about your age – do you feel its effect on your game? • A: No. The only thing I feel is that it takes me a little longer to recuperate between games, and perhaps it is a bit more difficult for me to achieve consistency, compared to past years. However, by no means do I feel any decline in my tactical ability. When I play I am in full concentration, a condition I attribute to the healthy life style I lead.

Q: How do you assess your chances against Anand? • A: Vishy and I played a lot in the 90’s. I must say that in the first half I had a big advantage, while in the second half he prevailed. If my memory doesn’t fail me it is +1 for him out of the 34 classical games we played, which is by no means a big advantage. During the last decade we played no more than six or seven games, so to be able to play twelve games in one month against such a player will be very interesting… I think that my chances are decent. This opponent is of course extraordinarily strong, but I showed that I can play matches well against the strongest opponents.

Plus much more. An interview with GM Ponomariov, FIDE World Champion in the time period 2002-2004, was posted a few months ago on ChessInTranslation.com and crossposted on Chessvibes.com. I give links to both because Chessvibes generally receives more comments from chess fans.

• GM Ruslan Ponomariov answers your questions: Part I • ChessInTranslation.com: Part 1, Part 2 • Chessvibes.com: Part 1, Part 2

The interview is excerpts from more extensive material at Crestbook.com, KC-Conference with Ruslan Ponomariov: Part 1. On this last link, the most interesting section to me was '5. The Kasparov Match', with details on the aborted 2003 pre-unification match.

Q: Why didn’t the match come off? • A: I’m not entirely clear myself what the real reasons were for Ilyumzhinov suddenly announcing the cancellation of the match in Yalta. Did he consult Kasparov and the match organisers before taking that decision, or didn’t he? I don’t know.

Plus much, much more.

Insiders' Guide to the 2011 FIDE Candidate Matches

Pre-match

• Fide.com: Rules & Regulations for the Candidates Matches of the FIDE World Championship cycle 2009-2011 • Official site
  
• CB: (Chessbase.com) FIDE Candidates Matches 2011 start on Thursday • Pictures from the opening ceremony
  
• CN: (Chessninja.com) Kazan Candidates 2011
  
• CV: (Chessvibes.com) Candidates matches start in one week – who’s your pick? • Aronian clear favorite to win Candidates
  
• CM: (Chessmind.net) The Candidates Matches Start Next Thursday
  
• CT: (Chessintranslation.com)
  
• CD: (Chessdom.com) Schedule; Preview • Logo, preparations, Kazan • Dvorkovich on the Candidates Matches • Venue • Kazan might be the revenge for Elista, says Danailov • Candidates matches opening day LIVE!

R1 G1, 5 May 2011

• CB: Fighting chess but no knockouts • GM commentary on Aronian-Grischuk
  
• CV: Candidates matches start with four draws
  
• CM: Candidates Quarterfinals, Day 1: Four Draws
  
• CT: Shipov’s live commentary on Candidates QF, Game 1

R1 G2, 6 May

• CB: R1G2: Kamsky strikes first • Caruana annotates game two
  
• CV: Kamsky beats Topalov
  
• CM: Quarterfinals, Day 2: Three Draws and a Kamsky Win

R1 G3, 7 May

• CB: R1G3: Gelfand rolls six pawns to win
  
• CV: Gelfand beats Mamedyarov
  
• CM: Quarterfinals, Day 3: Three More Draws, Plus a Gelfand Win

R1 G4, 8 May

• CB: R1G4: From Topa to bottom
  
• CV: Kamsky eliminates Topalov, Gelfand also through
  
• CM: Day 4: Four Draws, Gelfand, Kamsky Advance

R1 TB, 9 May

• CB: R1 Tiebreak: Aronian out; Kramnik saved by the clock!
  
• CV: Grischuk & Kramnik through, Aronian & Radjabov out
  
• CM: Quarterfinal Tiebreaks: Grischuk, Kramnik Advance
  
• CT: Kramnik and Radjabov’s post-match press conference • Grischuk and Aronian’s views on their match
  
• CD: Kramnik - Radjabov tiebreak video (inluding blitz) • Radjabov speaks about the match with Kramnik

Intermission

• CN: Kazan Candidates 2011 R2
  
• CB: The battle resumes tomorrow
  
• CM: Semi-Final Preview

R2 G1, 12 May

• CB: Semis G1: Gelfand and Kamsky draw
  
• CV: Semi-finals start with two draws
  
• CM: Semi-finals, Day 1: Two Draws
  
• CT: Shipov’s live commentary on the Candidates SF, Game 1

R2 G2, 13 May

• CB: Semis G2: White wins both games!... Almost
  
• CV: Candidates: two more draws
  
• CM: Semi-Finals, Day 2: Two More Draws
  
• CT: Kramnik: I thought of banning castling before the 10th move • Shipov’s live commentary on the Candidates SF, Game 2

R2 G3, 14 May

• CB: Semis G3: Blood, sweat and tears
  
• CV: Two more draws on third day Candidates semi-finals
  
• CM: Semi-Finals, Day 3: Guess the Result!
  
• CT: Shipov’s live commentary on the Candidates SF, Game 3

R2 G4, 15 May

• CB: Semifinals G4: Blood, sweat and real tears this time
  
• CV: Again two draws, tie-breaks on Monday
  
• CM: Semi-Finals, Day 4
  
• CT: Shipov’s live commentary on the Candidates SF, Game 4

R2 TB, 16 May

• CB: Semis Tiebreak: G-Day for the Ks
  
• CV: Gelfand and Grischuk reach Candidates final
  
• CM: Semi-Final Tiebreaks: Grischuk, Gelfand Advance
  
• CT: Gelfand and Grischuk’s press conference

Intermission

• CN: G-Man Shootout in Candidates Final
  
• CM: A Preview of the Gelfand - Grischuk Match

R3 G1, 19 May

• CB: Finals: First game drawn after fight
  
• CV: First game Candidates final drawn
  
• CM: Final: Game 1 is Drawn

R3 G2, 20 May

• CB: Finals G2: Grischuk close to win against Gelfand
  
• CV: Gelfand and Grischuk draw second game Candidates final
  
• CM: Final: A Narrow Escape for Gelfand in Game 2
  
• CT: Shipov’s live commentary on the Candidates Final, Game 2

R3 G3, 21 May

• CB: Finals G3: Strong novelty... quick draw
  
• CV: Game 3 also drawn, after 14 moves
  
• CM: Final, Game 3: A Short but Savory Draw
  
• CT: Shipov’s live commentary on the Candidates Final, Game 3 • Gata Kamsky: I can’t play like Grischuk and Kramnik • God created man, but the Queen’s Gambit made them equal

R3 G4, 23 May

• CB: Finals G4: Another short draw
  
• CV: Candidates final: game 4 also drawn
  
• CM: Game 4: Dr(y)awn
  
• CT: Shipov’s live commentary on the Candidates Final, Game 4

R3 G5, 24 May

• CB: Finals G5: No winner in trenchwar
  
• CV: Candidates: game 5 also drawn
  
• CM: Game 5 is...Drawn
  
• CT: Shipov’s live commentary on the Candidates Final, Game 5

R3 G6, 25 May

• Fide.com: Boris Gelfand is challenger for World Championship
  
• CB: Finals: Gelfand wins right to challenge Anand in 2012!
  
• CV: Gelfand beats Grischuk, wins Candidates
  
• CM: Game 6: Gelfand Wins Game, Match, and the Right to Face Anand in 2012
  
• CT: Shipov’s live commentary on the Candidates Final, Game 6 • Gelfand and Grischuk’s final press conference

Post-match

• CB: Accusations by the ECU and FIDE over Kazan • Feedback on Kazan – how should the Candidates be conducted? • Kramnik: Reflections on the Candidates Matches
  
• CV: Kazan: the aftermath • Gelfand & Grischuk post-final interviews • Skill and luck in high-level chess competitions
  
• CT: Grischuk: I was worried I’d forgotten how to play chess • Boris Gelfand: A completely happy man
  
• CD: Pros and cons of the Candidates matches system and organization

2011 Kazan Candidate Matches

I updated my page on the 2011 Candidates Event to include the results and the PGN game scores. I also added links for the eight competitors to my Index of Players. It's a great result for GM Gelfand, who earned a shot at World Champion Anand in 2012. According to Chessgames.com's Overall Record, the two players first met in 1989 and since then 'Viswanathan Anand beat Boris Gelfand 16 to 6, with 43 draws'. It promises to be a great match.

News from the Catwalk

While most of the other top GMs have been slugging it out (so to speak) at the Shazam Candidates, vying for a crack at World Champion Anand, what has Anand's heir apparent, Magnus 'Catwalk' Carlsen, been up to?

Photographs by Anton Corbijn

He's been plastered all over London!

Movie making may have filled Corbijn with a renewed sense of adventure, but photography remains his primary medium. His portraits of actress Gemma Arterton and chess champion Magnus Carlsen are plastered across the London underground in a new advertising campaign for fashion brand G-Star RAW and his latest musical collaboration is with Canadian band Arcade Fire, who he shot for a sixth time last November.

From Shadowplay: An interview with Anton Corbijn.