Three against the Federation

THE two maverick K's of the chess world have been joined by a third K to speak out against the World Chess Federation (FIDE) on the latter's policy changes to the time controls used in official chess events and their treatment of the history and tradition of the world chess championships.

In an open letter to the global chess community last month, Anatoly Karpov and Gary Kasparov, the 12th and 13th world champions, and Vladimir Kramnik, the self-proclaimed 14th world champion, claimed that the world's top chess players have been denied a voice in FIDE's decision-making processes.

The trio said that any changes to the time-honoured traditions and rules of classical chess should only be made after such plans are studied and debated in an open forum between FIDE, the national federations and the professional players.

The three players also voiced concern over FIDE's claim to the world chess championship. They said that the championship had existed long before FIDE was founded and a century of tradition could not be wiped away. It was unacceptable to them that FIDE were claiming rights to the world championship while at the same time working to destroy the structures upon which the tradition was built.

The letter brought a swift response from FIDE which insisted that they had always welcomed dialogue with members of the world chess fraternity. According to FIDE, policy decisions were often made after consultations with a cross-section of administrators, players and sponsors.

It was in this same spirit that the FIDE presidential board accepted a compromise solution in March on the new time control after it noted the concerns of some European chess federations on the issue.

Last December in Teheran, Iran, the FIDE presidential board had approved a new time control of 40 moves in 75 minutes, 15 minutes for the remainder of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move from the first move, which would be mandatory for all chess events effective from January this year. In the compromise solution, this time control would be mandatory for the world championship events which would include the zonal and continental championships, and optional or recommendatory for other FIDE and international rating and title tournaments. For tournaments using analogue chess clocks, the time control of four hours for the duration of the whole game would be recommendatory for title tournaments.

On the issue of the world chess championship, FIDE maintained that they had well-documented historical facts on how FIDE had begun the steady implementation of the qualification systems to the world chess championship titles since 1947.

As such, the Teheran declaration last December had only served to reiterate FIDE's clearly established role as the only custodian of the world chess championship titles.

As custodian, FIDE would have the right to bestow the world championship title on any individual who has participated and won an event solely organised by FIDE for this purpose. This would include a fair and democratic qualification process approved by the FIDE members and not subjected to abuse by any individual or group.

Since 1947, this process had produced world champions in Mikhail Botvinnik, Vassily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosian, Bobby Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Alexander Khalifman and Viswanathan Anand.

Interestingly, the independent World Players' Council (WPC) were also quick to voice their opinion. Saying that chess was not the only sport where the official international federation has the rights to organise the official world championship, the WPC stated that it was obvious that FIDE has more rights than any other body.

The WPC singled out Braingames which had invited Kramnik, a loser in a qualification tournament, to play Kasparov in a match last year.

The WPC also reminded the three K's that all the top active chess players, except for themselves, had participated in the last official world championship in New Delhi and Teheran in December.

"We are ready to participate in the search for ways to modify the world championship cycle but to turn the championship into a selection process to play against Kasparov, which will in its turn be the qualification to the match with Kramnik, we think is unacceptable," the WPC declared. "The world championship should finally become an honest sport competition of all the strongest sportsmen without any privileges for whoever."

On the issue of time control, the WPC said each organiser would have a chance to choose whatever appropriate time control suitable for his own tournament. Nobody, according to the WPC, was saying that the classic time control could not be used.

Taking a parting shot at the three K's open letter, the WPC said Karpov's action was really surprising. In early 1998, after having beaten Anand in Lausanne, Switzerland, Karpov had declared himself as the champion and Kasparov as the imposter. Then, in January this year, Karpov, when facing the Commission of Sports Arbitrage in Lausanne, had admitted that the titles of the 14th and 15th world champions belonged legitimately to Khalifman and Anand.

Quah Seng Sun can be contacted at ssquah@schach.pc.my while his previous columns are archived at http://chesscolumn.20m.com. Join Malaysia's only chess mailing list by sending an empty e-mail to pg-chess-subscribe@egroups.com or alternatively, visit http://http//www.egroups.com/list/pg-chess.

UP NEXT

11th Dell KDU Penang chess league starting soon

THE northern region's biggest chess event, the annual Dell KDU Penang Chess League, kicks off on June 10 at the premises of Kolej Damansara Utama (KDU) in Penang. The tournament, now in its 11th year, is organised by the Penang Chess Association and co-sponsored by both Dell Asia Pacific and KDU.

The championship will be played on consecutive Sundays (except July 8 and 15) and is scheduled to end on Aug 5.

Only teams representing the public and private sectors, institutions of learning and registered associations, societies and clubs are allowed to play in the league. A guest player may be included in each team, but the other players in the team must strictly be employees, students or members of the organisation which they represent.

Players who are unable to join as guest players in any team are requested to contact the PCA immediately. If the response is encouraging enough, the PCA will consider grouping them together to play under the association's banner.

Provision has been made for a maximum participation of 30 teams, and each team is allowed up to eight players. However, only four players from each team will play in any one round.

This year's event will again be split into three divisions. The third division will comprise teams of mainly novice players, while the first and second divisions will be made up of the more regular teams that have been taking part in previous chess leagues.

The entry fee is RM150 per team and cash prizes are guaranteed for the top teams in each division.

For more details, contact Chan Kim Beng ( 012-451 8811 / e-mail: Kim_Beng_Chan@Dell.com), Goh Yoon Wah ( 04-645 5362 / e-mail: yoon@caissa.pc.my) or Ung Tay Aik ( 017-477 5418 / e-mail: taung@alumni.uwaterloo.ca).

BPM national allegro

The next two legs of this year's Bank Pertanian Malaysia-sponsored national allegro chess circuit will be played in Malacca on May 13 and in Kuantan on May 20.

Each of these legs will be held over six rounds with a 30-minute time control for each game. However, if the number of participants is more than 100, the tournaments will be played over seven rounds using a 25-minute time control.

Entry fees are RM10 for ladies, Bank Pertanian employees and members of the state chess association organising their respective legs, RM5 for players below 12 years old, and RM15 for all other participants.

The prizes for the open section will be RM300 for the winner, RM200 for the second-placed, RM150 for the third, RM100 each for the fourth and fifth, and RM60 each for the sixth to 10th. The best Bank Pertanian player will also win RM60 while the best players in the other categories will get RM50.

To register for the two events, contact Ishak Ahmad ( 06-283 5878) for the Malacca leg and Wan Abdullah ( 019-916 3824) for the Kuantan leg.

The remaining legs in the series are in Perlis on June 9 (Bahari Baharom; 019-568 6256), Kedah on June 10 (Sohaimi; 04-730 7288), Penang on July 15 (Ooi Kiem Boo; 04-226 2209), Perak on July 22 (Dr Yee Meng Keong; 05-546 4530), Negri Sembilan on Aug 12 (Charles Chan; 06-631 7971), Sabah on Aug 12 (Sylvester Asai; 088-764 305), Sarawak on Aug 19 (Lim Kian Hwa; 082-427 772) and Labuan on Oct 28 (Sebli Hassan; 087-463 471).

Perak grand prix

The Perak International Chess Association will hold their grand prix event on May 12 and 13 at the Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman in Ipoh.

The two-day Category A event for players with PICA ratings of above 1,700 will be held over two days while the Category B event for players with no PICA ratings or with rating points below 1,700 will be held on May 13. Both events will be conducted over six rounds but with different time controls. For more information, contact W.K Wong ( 05-366 1692).