Interview of the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov to "Sport Express"

 

Sport-Express 13 May 2001.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: "FIDE shall not follow the whims of any individuals, even the outstanding players".

During the opening of the 54th Chess Championship of Russia, FIDE President shocked many people, having said that he was ready to put his signature under the open letter of 3 Ks - A. Karpov, G. Kasparov and V. Kramnik, - and having mentioned a possibility of the match with Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand and Shirov. However, in his exclusive interview to Sport Express, Mr. Ilyumzhinov was transparent that his position remains the same: - I have nothing against an open dialogue with any chess player in the world. But FIDE is not a small private company, it is a serious organisation, and its President is a busy man. We have our Supreme Body, FIDE General Assembly, and our next Congress is this September in Greece. At this forum, every delegate shall have a right to make a speech.

Q: I assume that the authors of the letter would prefer this dialogue to take place on a "neutral territory".

A: Why should we follow the whims of any individuals, no matter if they are outstanding chess players? FIDE has its Statutes, which should be followed by all chess players of the world. I have had a recent chance to speak to the participants of the Russian Chess Championship. I was asked not to surrender to the provocation of the authors of the said letter. It is clear that chaos in the chess world is profitable to some of the so-called super Grandmasters as this issue is first of all connected with the money distribution. There is a system, well tested by the organisers of many tournaments, where the prize fund is, let's say, 10, 000 USD, and a star receives its fee of 30-50, 000 USD. We do not want to deal with "black" accountancy. Each player will earn as much as he shall win. And the authors of the said letter are not satisfied with this.

Q: Could you explain, please, your mentioning of a possibility to organise the match of 4?

A: Of course. Herewith I mean a commercial and not a "unifying" match. I think that such a commercial match will attract the attention of the chess fans and will promote the popularisation of chess throughout the world. But there has been no progress so far, except for the stage of preliminary negotiations.

Q: You do not still consider Mr. Kramnik World Champion, do you?

A: Of course, not. And I have not seen any interview of Mr. Kramnik where he would call himself World Champion. Some journalists use this title to call him and he does not object.

Q: And what is Kramnik then?

A: One of the strongest players in the history of chess, who has won a commercial match over another outstanding chess player, Kasparov.

Q: Have you had any negotiations with anyone of these 3 Ks, regarding the participation in the next World Championship?

A: The invitation for the tournament will be sent to all qualified and those with a personal right to participate, and these players are included in this category. I have no intention to have separate negotiations with anyone. If they want to prove that they are the strongest, let them play in the official Championship.

Q: And what if Kramnik or Kasparov succeeded in creating their own system of the World Championship cycle?

A: Then we would have to go 100 years back, when World Champion could pick up a challenger himself, and there were no system of the World Championship cycle, as these matches used to take place sporadically.

Q: I am citing their letter: " Drastic time control reduction is an attack against chess players and creative and scientific components of the game". Could you kindly comment on this?

A: If you speak to a hundred of other players, in particular, the participants of the Russian Championship, and you will hear an opposite opinion. In this connection, I would recommend to 3 Ks to follow the FIDE decisions more closely. The new time control is obligatory only for the World Championships. For the other tournaments this time control is only a recommendation.

Q: One more citing: "The ill-thought plans of commercialisation jeopardize traditional tournaments, which have contributed to a great extent for chess".

A: There is nothing to comment. We do not force anyone to participate in our Grand Prix, but we are trying to create the conditions where the tournament owners would profit from becoming a part of our system. The FIDE tournaments do not have any dates clashes with Linares, Wijk aan Zee and Dortmund.

Q: At the end of the letter, they write that they have given a lot for chess and also benefited from it a lot, and now they are intending to do everything possible to defend the status and heredity of their favourite game.

A: I would like to know, what have they done recently to develop chess in Russia? Maybe, they have transferred a couple of hundred thousand dollars to the account of the Federation, which has spent a lot of funds to their education, training sessions etc? The authors of the letter are strong at the chessboard. As for us, we know how to make chess a prosperous sport. Let each mind his own business.

 

Declarations of Judith Polgar to the 'International Herald Tribune' and 'El Pais'

 

  In her interview to the 'International Herald Tribune' on April 1, 2001 young Israeli player Judith Polgar made the following statement in respect to FIDE:

"The chess world is not stable now. FIDE makes crazy decisions. It's chaotic now and very complicated."

Regarding FIDE, the International Chess Federation, which is known by its French acronym, Miss Polgar said she felt "pretty negative." She said that the Federation was "on the way down", in addition to having lost two court cases, one of which was brought by her sister Susan, who was stripped of her women's championship title by FIDE because she was pregnant and was unable to defend it at the time specified by the chess organization."

   FIDE has responded to these allegations on April 10 by the open letter of its lawyer Mr.Reymond to the 'Herald Tribune' which we reproduce below:

"Dear Sir or Madam,

I inform you that I am the lawyer of the Fédération International des Echecs (FIDE).

I refer to the article published in the International Herald Tribune of March 31st - April 1st, 2001 and to the interview of Ms.Judith Polgar. Her statements being inaccurate, my client requests the right to make the following counter-statement to be published in your newspaper.

The Fédération International des Echecs (FIDE) hereafter uses its right to make a counter-statement pursuant to Art.28g et seq. of the Swiss Civil Code following the interview of the chess player Judith Polgar reported in our edition of March 31 - April 1, 2001:

GM Judith Polgar indicates that FIDE "lost two cases, one of which was brought up by her sister". This statement is absolutely inaccurate. It is true that GM Zsuzsa Polgar introduced court proceedings before the court of arbitration for sport (CAS) in Lausanne. She was asking the arbitrators to rule that she was still Women's World Chess Champion and that FIDE had to pay her damages amounting to at least CHF500.000 (five hundred thousand Swiss francs). At the hearing held on March 20, 2001, the parties settled their dispute. Mrs. "Polgar unreservedly withdrew all of her claims, including the claim to be reigning Women's World Champion" FIDE accepting to pay to her the sum of US$25.000 - "without prejudice to either party's contentions as to the merits of the dispute between them".

GM Anatoly Karpov was party in the second "court case" also brought before the CAS. He claimed damages amounting to "no less" than CHF2.000.000 (two million Swiss francs) plus US $100.000 (one hundred thousand Dollars) and disputed the validity of the 1999 World Chess Championship held in Las Vegas. At the hearing held on January 9, 2001, the parties also settled that case. Mr. Karpov declared that he had no objection to FIDE's conferring of the World Championship title to Alexander Khalifman in 1999 and to Viswanathan Anand in 2000. [Obviously by April 19 he had thoroughly forgotten his own signed declaration]. In the interest of goodwill, FIDE accepted to pay to Mr.Karpov an amount of US $50.000. We leave it to the appreciation of your readers to decide whether both cases represent a settlement in court ot a decision of the court based on the merits of both cases.

In the same article, Ms. Polgar moreover criticises FIDE and its recent decisions. The following must be recalled: FIDE is the recognised international federation in the domain of chess, which was founded in Paris in 1924. It is recognised by the International Olympic Committee as the supreme body responsible for the game of chess and its Championships. The purpose of FIDE is the diffusion and development of chess among all nations of the world as well as to support a close international cooperation of the chess devotees in all fields of chess activity. FIDE and its organs endeavour to promote chess and the international role and place of FIDE. It goes without saying that, although the measures taken give satisfaction to the great majority of the chess players, the changes provoked by these efforts cannot please all of them".

I thank you to inform me when this counter-statement will be published.

I remain,

                                                                        Yours sincerely,

                                                                        Jean-Marc Reymond, av.

 

Probably not quite content with the impression produced by her inaccurate declarations to the 'Herald Tribune', Judith had repeated them (almost verbatim) one month later in her interview to 'El Pais' on May 7, 2001 with Leontxo García - one of the most corrupt and unreliable chess journalists ever. She has accompanied them by the following statement:

Polgar se mostró sorprendida por el apoyo que el indio Viswanathan Anand, campeón del mundo oficial, prestó a última hora a la carta de réplica contra las tres ‘K’, firmada por el español Alexéi Shírov (subcampeón oficial), los rusos Alexánder Jálifman (campeón en 1999) y Valeri Sálov (presidente del Consejo Mundial de Jugadores), y el armenio Vladímir Akopián (subcampeón en 1999), entre otros. "Me parece normal que Anand esté de acuerdo con algunos puntos de esa carta, pero no que coincida en todos y que una su firma a la de Sálov, dado que el prestigio de éste y el del organismo que preside son cada vez peores", agregó.

Of course, there is no guarantee that these exact words were pronounced by Judith. It may well be yet another example of ventriloquism from the cesspit known as "chess column of El País". Quite a few chessplayers have already been unpleasantly surprised by the interpretation that their opinions sometimes receive in the hands of the malevolent skinhead from El Pais.Leontxo Garcia But if this is the rare case of a perfect criminal accord between "the beauty and the beast" our duty is to kindly warn both of them of the grave consequences that their defamatory statements will inevitably bring along with them. No crime will remain unpunished, no attempts to besmear the reputation of the WPC and its President will be tolerated, the times of journalistic impudence are over.

 

Home