TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
Russian Chess Federation Letter (World Championship Changes)
Russian Chess Federation ask for World Title Changes
Mark Crowther - Saturday 24th July 2010
According to a report in kommersant the Russian Chess Federation (RCF) in two letters signed by presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich has written to FIDE asking for significant changes to the next World Championship cycle both for Men and Women.
Nor are they the only critics. Emil Sutovsky has proposed Changes to the current Candidates cycle. He wishes to separate the Final of the Candidates from the Quarter and Semi-Final stages.
Veselin Topalov has made it clear that he objects to playing in Russia at all, but most particularly if he is to play an Russian opponent (in this case Kramnik is the only Russian in the event). http://letters.chessdom.com/topalov-candidate-matches
Proposals:- Move the Candidates tournament from Baku to Kazan. They cite the fact that due to the poor relations between Azerbaijan and Armenian it will be impossible for Aronian to play in Baku.
- The players in the Candidates are: Levon Aronian and Teimour Radjabov - [top two FIDE Grand Prix series], Veselin Topalov [lost to Anand] American Gata Kamsky [lost to Topalov], World Cup winner Boris Gelfand. However three more places: Top rated players not qualified likely Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik and the local organiser's wild card (although Russia say they will not try and claim this for themselves and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov has signed a contract). I think they may also be asking for an adjustment to the way these players are paired.
- Pairings according to regulations should be:
- Veselin Topalov - Gata Kamsky
- Magnus Carlsen - Teimour Radjabov
- Vladimir Kramnik - Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
- Levon Aronian - Boris Gelfand
- Propose €420,000 Prize Money for Kazan and better playing conditions.
- Change to the method of determining the women's champion to a match tournament. They wish the winner of the World Cup (currently this will actually be the World Championship), Grand Prix and top rated player meet the champion Alexandra Kosteniuk who they think doesn't have the advantages she should get as World Champion.
- I think the article has its dates mixed up. According to the FIDE calendar the Women's World Championship will be a KO in Hatay, Turkey in December this year. I believe they're proposing to downgrade this to a World Cup and have the winner qualify for their Match Tournament. I presume then the match tournament will be in 2011. (The article quotes 2011 for the World Cup and 2012 for the World Championship so its not that clear)
FIDE are thought to be against changing the rules half way through a cycle.
None of this should come as a surprise however. In his very first nomination of Ilyumzhinov, Arkady Dvorkovich (before all the challenges and controversy) said that whilst they appreciated the work Ilyumzhinov has done they still think "serious changes" need to be made. These changes included moving the FIDE headquarters to Moscow, a "rotation" of the members of the executive of FIDE, "streamlining the world championship cycle" which is currently a "lottery". These changes should be made "prior to the re-election of the Congress of FIDE".
