08/17/2004
Here is an
interview
with Alexander Morozevich conducted at the Biel tournament in 2004.
Alexander won this tournament, he also took the Amber blindfold and
combined tournament earlier this year. At Amber, Morozevich beat
Anand in two games. Alexander has climbed his way back into 4th place on
the July, 2004 FIDE rating chats. I was disappointed in the fact Alexander
did not play in the FIDE KO in Libya. It was long ago that Alexander
wanted to quit chess. He was upset about the state of affairs with the
world championship.
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Excerpts :
Question: And what about your preparation?
Morozevich: I really didn’t make that much preparation. That’s
maybe why I like to play so much, to fight at the chessboard. I play each
game to win it. This is how I consider chess competition. If it entertains
the public, that’s fine. But I like taking risks, I appreciate being
creative and winning games on the chessboard, not only through home
preparation.
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Hangin's take: Morozevich says :" I play each game to win
it"
nuff said. I am a fan.
Here's the Fischer equation
Great Sponsorship (big dollars)
= (Players Reliability) * (Players Ability) * (Players desire to
win).
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Question: What about the World Championship that was held in
Libya one month ago?
Morozevich: You cannot call this a World Championship. It’s just a
strong international competition. It was very understandable that most of
the top players decided not to go there.
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Hangin's take: Well I can't argue with that. But that's all the FIDE
KO has ever been. It's a strong international competition. Even if all the
top players participated, such as Kasparov, Kramnik, and Anand. It would
not be worthy of world championship selection. There are numerous
problems with the KO. The test is not tough enough to decide who the
world champion is. This year in Libya, the top 27 seeded player in the
tournament, Rustam
Kasimdzhanov won it. He was rated top 54 in the world prior to the
tournament. He did it by defeating the 4 top seeds.
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Question: Anyway, Rustam Kasimdzhanov is the new FIDE world
champion. What could happen now?
Morozevich: The most important question is the following one: when and
where will his match with Kasparov take place? Rustam needs a lot of time
to prepare in order to have a chance. But I heard it could be organized
already around next January. If so its too early, he will be slaughtered
like a chicken.
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Hangin's take: Actually I think Kasparov is at his weakest right now.
He has been busy with his book series, My Great Predecessors. Kasparov is
also very involved with world politics and
Russian
politics. He has formed a group that will challenge Putin in 2008.
Kasparov had showed his
rust in Linares in
2004. He failed to make full
points in a few promising positions. I got to wonder if Kasparov is trying to
work behind the scenes to
help
Bobby Fischer. So with so much on his mind, I think Kasparov is
at his weakest right now. Kasimdzhanov has 5-6 months to prepare. That's a
long time. Kasimdzhanov had a great run during the
Libya
KO. He defeated all 4 of the top seeds. So I think Kasimdzhanov
is an unknown product right now. Does his results represent a big increase
in playing strength? Kasimdzhanov is only 25 years of age. Kasparov is 41
and showing the signs of slowing down. Even though Kasparov is still
number one player in the world. He has not been impressive as of late. For
Kasimdzhanov the time to strike is in January of 2005. With so much
going on in Kasparov life right now, you have to wonder if he can find the
time to sufficiently prepare for this match. You also have to figure that
Kasparov feels he can easily defeat Kasimdzhanov, that could be a fatal
mistake. Kasimdzhanov showed his great tenacity at Libya.
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Question: Any opinion about the forthcoming Kramnik-Leko
match?
Morozevich: Both of them seem well prepared. The quality of chess
should be quite interesting. I will follow this with interest. No specific
preference. Or, maybe, Kramnik, because he is Russian
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Question: You seem very pessimistic about the future of the
chess?
Morozevich: I don’t believe in a real reunification.
It’s fake. Too many players or people only take their own interests into
account. They make money and that’s all. Well, if there will be a unique
World Champion after the matches Kramnik-Leko and Kasparov-Kasimdzhanov
and among the winners, it could be seen as real progress. But look at the
current situation. Kasparov almost stopped playing chess. Kramnik, Leko or
others play less now. A world champion has to play, not just to use his
title.
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Hangin's take: Well it's unfortunate a lot of players decided not to
play in the Libya KO. I think Anand and Morozevich made mistakes by not
playing and not contributing to the reunification. The chess world would have
benefited from their participation. However the reunification has 3 of the
top 5 players in the world playing matches for the world championship.
That's not bad.
Back
in December 2003, I saw no hope for a reunification. But now things
are looking up, major issues have been solved. When the winner of
Kasparov vs. Kasimdzhanov faces the winner of Kramnik Leko, we will have
reunification and a true world champion. A world champion everyone can be
proud of.
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