Kamsky-Topalov bid still not confirmed
18 May 2008 1:23 AM | Last modified: 9:26
This week the chess media were full of the bid for the match Kamsky-Topalov, to be organized in Lviv, Ukraine with a prize fund of US $750,000. However, so far this news has been covered highly inaccurately. Quoting Chesspro, Chessbase inaccurately reports that the bid has been “confirmed”.
Last Thursday, FIDE published a bid from Kamsky’s manager Oleksandr Chernenko, including the following details:
| Event | WCC Challengers Match Kamsky-Topalov 2008 |
| Organiser | VAT ZTO Prodexport and Rondo Holdings S.A., Kiev, 03150 Ukraine |
| Date | 26th November 2008 to 11th December 2008 |
| Venue | Potockis’ Palace Lviv, 15 Copernicus st. Lvov, Ukraine |
| Prize fund | US $750,000 (+ $150,000 for FIDE and $35,000 for FIDE expenses) |
This news was quickly picked up by the chess media, e.g. Chesspro (interviewing Chernenko) and Chessbase (quoting this interview). The general message: the Lviv bid has been confirmed.
Everybody was quoting everybody here, except for Macauley Peterson, who has written an excellent piece for Chess Life Online. Macauley makes clear that both Chernenko and FIDE rebut Chessbase’s (Vasiliev’s) account that “the financial guarantees have now been received by FIDE, at their Swiss bank account.”
I reached Chernenko by phone in Accra, Ghana, who in fact stated that a wire transfer to a FIDE account in Lausanne, Switzerland, was initiated yesterday, but that the funds would not arrive until at least Monday afternoon.
“I don’t know all [the] details, because I am in Africa,” said Chernenko on Friday, “but it is definitely in the system.”
George Mastrokoukos, a FIDE official reached by phone in Athens, said that FIDE had received no information to confirm the details of the bid. “The only person we have been speaking to is Mr. Chernenko — I mean not myself personally, but the President [Kirsan Ilyumzhinov],” he said, adding, “These companies that are listed in their bid, we have not reached a point to check this because first of all we are waiting for the original documents and the bank transfer.” FIDE also does not know the name of the bank originating the funds transfer. According to Mastrokoukos, “the only information we have is that in two business days, the money will appear in our bank account.”
Veselin Topalov’s manager, Silvio Danailov, who has offered to organize the match in Sofia, has been skeptical that the funding for an alternative bid would materialize. In an interview Thursday evening for ICC’s Chess.FM, he called the additional delay, “a joke,” and “a bluff.”
all fide are criminals
thank you for your comment.
Why you blame only Topalov for Elitza! If my opponent goes constantly to the toilet I also would think something is wrong… On the chess tournaments the players usually should stay on the board or in the playing hall.
as usual, chessvibes has a careful and analytical true-to-the-fact article, while chessbase cant wait to publish anything they have gotten their hands on, and the sources reliability be damned.
VB –> a chess game can easily last 7 ours. I dont know about you, but a lot of people goes to the bathroom more often than every 7th our. these super chess players dont even have to stop calculating, they will see the position even when they go to the bathroom, so for them its not even nessecarily a break. of course Kramnik did go to the toilet a LOT. but seriously, if anything has been shown by the elista scandal, it is that YOU DONT BLAME SOMEONE FOR CHEATING, UNLESS YOU HAVE SUBSTANTIAL PROOF. Seriously. You cant talk about someone cheating unless you have evidence, until then it is wrong because all it amounts to is a strategy to make the player lose concentration. And though that isnt exactly unusual in chess WCC matches, it is hardly what you could call a nice thing.
I am quite sceptical about any FIDE match or whatever chess event until the first move has actually been transmitted. Usually I skip reading posts that this or that match will be held at some future date at some place.
@xtra: how many times do you need to go to the WC during a chess game? According to the accusations Kramnik received the call of nature a bit too often ;).
Also these matches are really a game of nerves, players are very suspiciuos about everything, Kortcnnoi-Karpov and Fischer-Spassky matches prove that. It’s impossible to say who is right and who is wrong, the result was that Kramnik became the champion.
… the funny and I guess interesting thing in spectator’s point of view is that now we have an interesting rivalry, and that makes their games twice as interesting as they were before :).
@MvE
Totally understandable. Still, I’m glad that I could draw your attention anyway.
I’m actually impressed with FIDE’s performance in the last year or two. Sure, they’re all “criminals”, and most events are played in random places (e.g., former Soviet republics), but that just shows chess is not popular enough in the West.
Great article by Macauley, and any scepticism is absolutely justified given the troubles we’ve had in the past. It’s amazing that a site like Chessbase continues to publish these dubious statements without some rigorous fact-checking of their own.
why does this matter? We will find out by the end of 2008, for certain, whether this match will be carried out.