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Date: 02 Dec 2008 06:42:02
From: [email protected]
Subject: Most top players despise FIDE
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GM ALEXEI SHIROV ON FIDE
(Press release quoted on Chessbase)
I don=92t know how many times I have said to myself that it makes no
sense at all to keep getting involved in chess politics and that I
should just concentrate on my work etc. But the recent FIDE
=93developments=94 possibly made many late great champions turn in their
graves. That means the living chess players should speak out.
According to the Russian totally non-free chess journalist Yuri
Vasiliev (fortunately not the most reliable one whom we know for
bringing up the ghost of Alexander Chernenko) Ilyumzhinov has already
stated that Vasily Ivanchuk might get severely sanctioned for the
doping test refusal after his game against Gata Kamsky.
Can we believe such news? A player who has been in the very top for
more than twenty years since winning New York Open in the beginning of
1988, an absolute record from currently active players, gets banned
simply because he wanted to calm down after a lost game? Boris Spassky
has already given his opinion about the situation, but it=92s not
published anywhere. Suddenly Ilyumzhinov wants to say that the rules
are the rules.
But the rules don=92t seem legal to me unfortunately. IOC has never
guaranteed that chess would become the Olympic sport, so the FIDE
policy in licking their posterior is at least questionable. After the
success of Intellectual games festival in Beijing it=92s time to STOP
trying to get into the Olympic movement. I personally feel guilty for
participating in the Olympic exhibition in Sydney 2000, but at least
then it seemed that the chessplayers were going to be welcome with
open heart. As it hasn=92t happened we have our way and we cannot lose
our best representatives like this.
If FIDE and Ilyumzhinov don=92t stop destroying our intellectual sport
something should be done. At least step by step. I hope Mr. Hans-Arild
Runde would not mind to keep calculating Ivanchuk=92s results, so any
organizers who still respect our game should deal with him and no
longer give the official rating reports to FIDE. In fact the rating
reports are generated automatically nowadays, but somebody should
still control that they are not changed by cancelling results.
The second part of this press-release will include some of my
thoughts about the latest changes (nothing unusual, of course) in the
World Championship system. Of course, with Ivanchuk ban the whole
system loses its sense but there is still a chance that his case will
be resolved. In fact I don=92t think the idea of the Candidates
tournament is as negative as some people think, adding the second
place in the Grand Prix and the World Cup is a nice compensation for
changing the format as long as the tournament is attractive for
players and chess lovers. But giving the direct seed to the loser of
Topalov-Kamsky match seems totally senseless as long as the player can
prove his strength in the next World Cup or qualify by rating. He
should be replaced by the second highest rated player in my opinion.
Unfortunately this opinion cannot even theoretically be supported by
the ACP board as one of their leading forces, Emil Sutovsky, is the
manager of Kamsky and the most of the rest are his cronies!
Ok, time to stop writing. Let others express their opinions on this
FIDE news.
Alexei Shirov
Riga, 02.12.2008
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Date: 02 Dec 2008 08:58:00
From: Mike Murray
Subject: Re: Most top players despise FIDE
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On Tue, 2 Dec 2008 06:42:02 -0800 (PST), "[email protected]"
<[email protected] > wrote:
>GM ALEXEI SHIROV ON FIDE
>(Press release quoted on Chessbase)
A typical instance of FIDE bullying the players in the interest of
Kirsan's pipedream of getting chess into the Olympics.
A related example is his new rule forfeiting a player who is even a
few seconds late to the board. Couple days ago, I had an exchange
with another member on the USCF forum, who said:
>I like his [Kirsan's] rule on late players, even if it is hard on out
>of town players traveling to small events. If you have the potential
> to be late, get a bye.
I replied:
A crackpot dictator, who has earlier testified to personal
communication with space aliens and who is taxing the living daylights
out of the poor citizens of his little "republic" to build a "chess
city" in the wilderness, decides by fiat to overturn a century's
tradition regarding tournament administration. And why? Evidently
because some IOC bureaucrat chided him at the Karpov-Anand match, �You
tell me chess is a sport? Can you imagine if a boxer turned up in the
ring ten minutes late?�, and we all know how much Kirsan craves
getting chess included in the real Olympics.
This rule offers nothing much to the players, except, as Canadian
Master Jonathan Berry has noted, a convenient way to throw games. It's
all about giving the organizers prestige photo ops when an event
commences. Who cares if one's opponents show up late, so long as their
clocks are started?
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Date: 02 Dec 2008 14:18:36
From: SAT W-7
Subject: Re: Most top players despise FIDE
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I think that builds tenson in the air , your opponents clock is ticking
off his time and he is not at the board yet ..The guy who is not there
thinks your going to be easy to beat and he does not need that extra
time....
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Date: 02 Dec 2008 20:44:50
From: help bot
Subject: Re: Most top players despise FIDE
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On Dec 2, 5:37=A0pm, Mike Murray <[email protected] > wrote:
> On Tue, 2 Dec 2008 14:18:36 -0800, [email protected] (SAT W-7) wrote:
> >I think that builds tenson in the air , your opponents clock is ticking
> >off his time and he is not at the board yet ..The guy who is not there
> >thinks your going to be easy to beat and he does not need that extra
> >time....
Obviously, there are numerous other possible
reasons for being late to the board.
> You're probably right, but I have a better chance with extra time on
> my clock than without it. =A0It's the same with a (stronger) opponent
> who deliberately gets in time pressure with an equal or worse
> position, hoping *his* pressure will rattle *you*. =A0If you keep your
> head, the extra time is to your advantage. =A0
Not always. I traveled a long way several
times and ended up observing games in which
a few well-known players outright cheated--
and their behavior matched the descriptions
given by others of their behavior in decades
past (though it was always dismissed as a
mere peculiar quirk).
One such player held his head and sort of
rocked back and forth; another waved his
arms about and leaned over the board. The
result was simply that their opponents could
not concentrate, and thus, fumbled their
positions. As for that extra time? It was of
no real use under these conditions.
One thing I've noticed is that although a
multitude of wannabee journalists will try in
vain to "coach" interviewees in the direction
of wantonly attacking FIDE, many have
quite simply declined. So then, the dim-
witted thread title, "most...", seems to be as
much a pipedream as the idea of getting
chess to become an olympic sport.
One thing that puzzles me is why they
would select the loser of a game to test for
drug use; was it suspected that he might
have won otherwise? Generally speaking,
the drugs have /failed/ unless you at least
get a draw, so people like me should not
be bothered, except on rare occasions... .
-- help bot
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Date: 02 Dec 2008 14:37:51
From: Mike Murray
Subject: Re: Most top players despise FIDE
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On Tue, 2 Dec 2008 14:18:36 -0800, [email protected] (SAT W-7) wrote:
>I think that builds tenson in the air , your opponents clock is ticking
>off his time and he is not at the board yet ..The guy who is not there
>thinks your going to be easy to beat and he does not need that extra
>time....
You're probably right, but I have a better chance with extra time on
my clock than without it. It's the same with a (stronger) opponent
who deliberately gets in time pressure with an equal or worse
position, hoping *his* pressure will rattle *you*. If you keep your
head, the extra time is to your advantage.
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