05/22/2004
Ponomariov’s
latest proposal calls for a 48-style championship tournament
consisting of Anand, Kasparov, Ponomariov, Kramnik, Leko and the new FIDE
Knockout winner.
I see no reason
to include two FIDE Knockout winners. One is enough. There are players
more deserving of consideration, namely Topalov (top 5), Svidler (top 6),
and Morozevich (top 7). I
think that Kasparov should refrain from a 48-style tournament. There seems
to be so much Anti-Kasparov sentiment, I would worry that the players
would conspire against Kasparov. This occurred to Bobby Fischer in the
Curacao tournament in 1962. The top soviet players agreed to friendly
draws against each other, while playing tough games against Bobby Fischer.
There is no way
Kramnik or Leko would put their title up for grabs in such a tournament.
Kramnik and Leko are fighting for the real title, the title of
value, which can be traced back to Steinitz.
Ponomariov claims
that many problems could have been avoided, if there were clearer rules.
Well this whole mess could have been avoided if Ponomariov had simply signed
the contract and agreed to play Garry Kasparov at stand time controls.
Ponomariov was to be seeded into the next few World Champion processes. He
simply blew the chance of a lifetime.
Ponomariov asserts
that there is no ideal model for world championships. I could not disagree
more; the process that selects a world champion should be evaluated by
whom each model produces as a world champion. A good process should strive
to find the best classical player. The model FIDE perfected in the 60’s,
consisting of zonal tournaments, interzonals tournaments, candidate
matches, culminating in a world championship match, was best. It produced
the following world champions: Spassky, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov. The
FIDE Knockout process has produced Khalifman (top 40), Anand (top 3),
Ponomariov (top 7) it is not hard to decide which method is best. If chess
gets serious about world championships, it needs to return to the method
perfected in the mid 1960s’. FIDE should return to the forging
of iron into steel.
Ponomariov
supports Khalifman idea of a double knockout system. Each player would
have to lose two matches to be ousted. However, I would much rather see an
Interzonal, double round robin tournament. Each player plays 2 games
against each other. I like to see how top players stack up against each
other. The major problem w/FIDE knockout is that most knockouts occur in
blitz/rapid part of the match. This is no way for a classical world
champion to be determined. There are
numerous
other problems with the FIDE knockout process.
I have the
following proposal for this year’s reunification. Lets have Kasparov and
Ponomariov play candidate matches against the semifinalists of the Tripoli knockout.
The last man standing plays the winner of Kramnik vs. Leko.
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