Understanding the messy championships

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

THE whole mess started in 1993 when then world champion Garry Kasparov broke away from Fide together with Nigel Short in what he accepts now as “the worst mistake of my career and a serious miscalculation” on his part.

Since then, there has been no undisputed champion until last year when Vladimir Kramnik defeated Veselin Topalov in their Unification Match in Elista, Kalmykia , Russia.

Kramnik (2769) will be facing the top seven players in a double round robin format in the World Chess Championship 2007 in Mexico (WCCT 2007) starting today up to the 30th of the month. The winner, will in the meantime, be accepted by everybody including Kramnik and Topalov, as the undisputed world champion.

The players are Viswanathan Anand (2792, India), Alexander Morozevich (2758, Russia), Peter Leko (2751, Hungary), Levon Aronian (2750, Armenia), Peter Svidler (2735, Russia), Boris Gelfand (2733, Israel) and Alexander Grischuk (2726, Russia). Prize fund is $1.3million.

Also on Sept. 18 to 30 this month a Continental Elimination tournament will be held at the Cebu International Convention
Center to determine the 10 Asian qualifiers to the World Cup.

The World Cup is a 128-player knockout contest and will be staged in Khanty, Mansiysk Russia on Nov. 23, this year.

Fide has instituted a scenario where the interests of Kramnik, Topalov and the winner of the World Cup will be respected.

The scenario favors both Kramnik and Topalov and the other top players are very vocal against it, especially Anand, who is
now rated numero uno.

Fide apparently appreciates the victory of Topalov in the 2005 World finals in San Luis , Argentina and his unfortunate exclusion in Mexico.

According to Fide, the following are the guidelines for the 2007 to 2009 World Championship Cycle. “The winner of the
World Cup will advance to the next stage of the World Championship cycle 2007-2009 and play a match against an opponent to
be determined depending on the final results of the World Chess Championship Tournament (WCCT 2007) in Mexico.

“If the winner of the WCCT 2007 in Mexico is any player other than Kramnik, then a World Championship match of 12 games will be held within the period May to September 2008 between the reigning World Champion (winner of WCCT 2007) and the then previous World Champion Kramnik (match A). The minimum net prize fund will be $1,000,000.

“At the same year 2008, and after match A, the winner of the World Cup 2007 will play a challenger’s match of eight games against Topalov with a minimum net prize fund of $150,000 (match B).

“In 2009 (within the first six months) a World Championship match will be held between the reigning World Champion (winner of match A) and the winner of match B.

“If the winner of the WCCT 2007 in Mexico is Kramnik, then a World Championship match of 12 games, Kramnik vs. Topalov, will be held within the period of May to September 2008. The minimum net prize fund will be $1,000,000.

“In 2009 (within the first six months) the winner of the World Cup 2007 will play a World Championship match of 12 games against the winner of the World Championship match 2008 between Kramnik and Topalov.

“In case a player wins the WCCT 2007 in Mexico, the World Cup 2007 in Khanty-Mansiysk and the 2008 World Championship Match, then the challenger’s match will be organized as the World Championship Match 2009.”

Whew! Basically in the future, the winners of the World Cup and the Grand Prix will play a match to determine who will challenge the world champion.

CEPCA NEWS. Our September tournament will be this Sunday at the Deep Blue Café SMCity starting at 1 p.m.