Grand Slam Chess Association established
24 January 2007 9:21 AM | Last modified: 17:59
Last week in Wijk aan Zee, the Grand Slam Chess Association has been established. In September last year, the organizers of the four top tournaments in Bilbao (human-machine), Sofia (MTel), Linares and Wijk aan Zee already got together to discuss their plans. The main goal of the GSCA was then formulated: “The four top players in the world ranking must play in all four of the events or they won’t be allowed to play in any of them.”
PRESS RELEASE
The Grand Slam Chess Association (GSCA) has been established today in Wijk aan Zee. The Corus tournament (in Wijk aan Zee), Linares, M-tel Masters Sofia and Bilbao will set up this great classical chess circuit, from 2008. The winners of Wijk aan Zee, Linares and Sofia 2008, and a fourth player to be determined will play the Masters in Bilbao (autumn 2008).
Several meetings along the last months have been necessary to reach this basic and fundamental agreement. Each of the four founder members will preserve its identity and independence. The next meeting will be in Linares (March 8th and 9th). The main targets for that meeting are the legal constitution, the official presentation and the publication of much more details. The Grand Slam is open for the incorporation of new members at any time.
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has been informed immediately, and the Chess Players Association will receive an official
letter. It is the GSCA’s wish to establish a cordial and fruitful cooperation with both bodies.In Wijk aan Zee,
January 17th 2007Signed by:
Andoni Madariaga (Bilbao)
Dolf Vos (Corus Chess Tournament Wijk aan Zee)
Juan Fernandez (Major of Linares)
Silvio Danailov (M-tel Masters Sofia)
Is Dortmund geen Toptoernooi meer? Vroeger was het toch altijd Wijk aan zee/Linares/Dortmund?
GSCA (Linares, Corus, Bilbao and Mtel Sofia organizers) announcement is interesting. Just note the condition that the top 4 ranked players must participate in all 4 or none. It is another way of Danailov (oraganizer of Mtel Sofia) trying to disrupt Kramnik’s plans, who would like to skip Sofia tournament where the environment could be very hostile for him (Kramnik).
Rumors about this arrangement have been around for a while. Theoretically, it is great to have more exciting tournaments in classical chess; this will hopefully indicate to FIDE necessary corrections for the future of chess.
However, the circumstances are quite dubious. It doesn’t help that Danailov acts both as organizer of Sofia and patron of Topalov. For the same reason, also Dortmund (closely connected with Hensel and Kramnik) wouldn’t be a neutral tournament.
First of all, ist there any reliable source for
the main goal “The four top players in the world ranking must play in all four of the events or they won’t be allowed to play in any of them.â€?? I simply don’t read this in the release.
Secondly, such a goal would be utter nonsense. Top players should show up in elite tournaments, but there may be serious reasons to skip just one. Or, what if a single organizer doesn’t want a player to show up? It is easy to make conditions inacceptable.
It dosn’t even make logical sense: One has to qualify for the fourth tournament. What if one of the four doesn’t qualify? Does it mean that he is retroactively expelled from the past three tournaments? Nonsense.
By the way, which top four? The rating list will usually change during the tournaments.
Bilbao (with the negligible man-machine-shows) und Sofia are by no means classics like Linares or Wijk aan Zee. There is no guarantee that there will be a Sofia tournament in some year when the Topalov/Danailov era is over.
This association seems to be directed against a specific player. I am not a big fan of Kramnik, but such tricks would be a shame for classics like Linares and Corus.
The source, CBRz.
Thanks, I missed this drafts in September. However, several points from the announcements back then are left out in the press release (like the top four rating clause, the existence of a common sponsor) - hence, it is not fully clear if they are still part of the plans.
Utter nonsense to me. The qualification to Bilbao is good though.
It could be interesting, to watch a game between Bobby Fischer, and Magnus Carlsen.
They have both being wonderchilds.
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