My slightly abridged letter was published in Chess Today - issue ct
142(1291). Friday May 21, 2004.
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I going to respond to some of the counter arguments
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Chess Today:
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Kasparov
campaigned against FIDE for years, so it looks weird that now FIDE now
gives him great privileges;
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Hangin's take :
Well most chess players and fans have been unhappy with FIDE for a
quite some time now. I think FIDE realizes that it was a bad decision to
keep the greatest world champion in chess history at arms length for over
10 years. FIDE should have repair this rift back in 1993. Maybe a few
"I am sorries" could have fixed this. Maybe I am being very naive,
but this split should have been repaired years ago. I'm a chess fan, who
caught the chess bug watching a great world championship match back in
1972. It pains me to see what FIDE has done to the world championship. Reunification is about
forgiveness.
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Chess Today:
- Kasparov was not declared the winner of
the Ponomariov-Kasparov match, that match was cancelled!
And Ponomariov was not disqualified, he is still (according to FIDE) the
World
Champion! So, the system when the champion has to start from stage 1, when
the challenger (no matter how great
a player he is!) is seeded into the final, is out of this world
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Hangin's take:
The match was cancelled because Ponomariov refused to
sign the contract to play in it. Ponomariov has changed his demands on
numerous occasions. First it was the time control issue, then it
became the I want to keep my title until the reunification is complete.
Now it's I want to play from round one in a knockout tournament. If the Kasparov vs. Ponomariov
match was ok, why isn't the Kasparov vs. New FIDE Knockout winner ok
? All true world champions, upon losing their titles, have had
either automatic rematch clauses or were seeded into the candidate process
of the next championship cycle.
Kasparov is only one match removed from
his title. Kasparov has been a great champion in every sense of the word.
He's been very active in tournaments, winning most. He has defended his
title on numerous occasions against the best in the world. He's been a
great ambassador to the game of chess. He's done a great job promoting
this game around the world and introducing new fans to chess. Kasparov
is not being seeded into the final match of reunification, he is being seeded into the
semi-final match. In order to regain the world title, he must defeat the winner of the Kramnik vs. Leko World
Championship. I did not like the Prague agreement. I accepted it. So did a lot of players
and chess leaders at the time. The best chess minds worked on
Prague. Lets stay the course.
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Chess Today:
- Kasparov is a
great player, but we are talking about a sporting contest
here, so
he still has to prove that he is stronger than the discussion – while
people talk
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Hangin's take:
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We are not talking about just a sporting event. It's about the process that
chess uses to determine the best player. The goal of a world
championship event is to find the best classical chess player in the world. A
player who can be measured up against the former champions such as
:Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal,
Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik. The last three
FIDE knockouts have only produced one player worthy of consideration of
being placed with the group above. The problems
with FIDE knockout are numerous. Yasser Seirawan said it best,
the FIDE knockout is one of the worst processes for choosing a world
champion. Yasser calls it a lottery system. He's right. It's a
blitz crazed, grab bag process, that only produces Shampions, that's right
- SHAMPIONS. This process has no business being used to determine
who is best at classical chess. When chess professionals
support this process, they only devaluate their sport and themselves as athletes.
Chess needs to go back to the glory days of world championships, when
champion and challenger were both forged
into steel by the process. Kasparov became a champion back in
1985. Kasparov's
road to the title was much harder than Ponomariov's
road to his title. Professional chess players should not stand for
this. These players should also ask them self, how do I measure up against
the FIDE Knockout Champions? If dozens can claim, hey I'm
better, then we have serious problems. Chess should not devaluate it's
rich tradition, it will only cheapen the sport. Chess players don't have
to like their champions, but they should be proud of them or at least
respect their abilities.
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