Chess world unity could depend on poll results

MUMBAI: Will Fide be third time lucky in bringing about a unification in the chess world? It’s difficult to say, although the World Chess Federation officials are confident that the proposed 12-game unification match between Fide champion Veselin Topalov and Brain Games champion Vladimir Kramnik will begin as scheduled on September 21.

“After months of consultations with both players, I am pleased to announce that the World Championship match Topalov vs Kramnik will be held in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia,” Fide president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov declared recently. But Fide rivals, rather Ilyuzhinov’s adversaries, question the timing, motive, necessity and also purpose of such a match.

Bassel Kok, who is contesting Ilyuzhinov at the Fide presidential elections later this month, termed it as a poll-time stunt and raised a few ‘pertinent’ questions. “Is it smart or is it stupid that the highest rated player in the world could be potentially excluded? Wouldn’t such a circumstance put the validity of the 2007 Championship in doubt? Who is responsible for creating rules that discourage unification by excluding the strongest players from competing in future Championship events?” Kok asked.

But players like Garry Kasparov —  the man, many believe, responsible for the split in the world chess — dismissed it as a wasted exercise. “There is no point of such a match because the result is a foregone conclusion.

Topalov is clearly the better player. I’m not sure if the result would be the same if it is between Vishy Anand and Topalov,” Kasparov said. For the record, Topalov is the highest rated player at 2804, while Kramnik is No 9 at 2729 in the Fide list. Anand is No 2 at 2803. Anand, however, refused to be dragged into the controversy.

“Both the players are contesting for the next year’s world championship. So I’m not affected by the match,” Anand told DNA.

This is the third attempt by Fide to bring about ‘unification’ after Kasparov pulled out of the world body and organised the championship as Professional Chess Championship against Nigel Short in 1993. It was under this umbrella that Anand had played the final against Kasparov on the 101st floor of the famous World Trade Centre in 1995 in New York.

But it was Kasparov who wanted a unification match after he lost the ‘Braingames’ championship to Kramnik in 2000. The world chess was set for unification after Fide agreed to the proposal. Kasparov was to take on then Fide champion Ruslan Ponomariov and the winner would meet Kramnik to complete the unification. Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to inaugurate the match on September 19, 2003 in Yalta, Ukraine. But the match ran into problems after Ponomariov pulled out, crying foul.

FIDE tried the unification with the next champion Rustan Kasimdzhanov and it was to be held in Dubai in January 2005. The winner of the match would have taken on the winner of a match between Kramnik and Peter Leko.

But Fide cancelled it stating the royal family of Dubai, the sponsors for the match, did not honour their commitment.

Even in the 70s, the Fide had attempted a unification matches between Anatoly Karpov and Bobby Fischer but it did not happen as Fischer was believed to have put too many conditions. It is not sure whether the latest unity attempt will succeed. If Kok were to defeat Ilyumzhinov in the Fide elections later this month, the match, who knows, may not happen at all.