TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
FIDE Candidates 2012 (London)
London Candidates tournament officially announced
Mark Crowther - Monday 5th March 2012
Agon have announced that the FIDE Candidates tournament will be in London October 24 - November 12, 2012. This was published on the FIDE website and follows an Agreement of FIDE with CNC and AGON. There was a plea by the organisers of Bilbao to hold the Candidates in early 2013 rather than within 10 days of their own event in Bilbao and Sao Paulo, They say "It is very difficult to persuade any top player to play the Masters Final in two continents, and then the Candidates with only ten days in between." See Bilbao press release below in which they enlisted the support of Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik (will they withdraw from the Candidates, or Bilbao, or play both?). The players in the Candidates are set to be Carlsen, Aronian, Kramnik, Svidler, Grischuk, Ivanchuk, wildcard Radjabov and the loser of the Anand-Gelfand World title match in May. This will be the first major FIDE event in the UK since Speelman v Short, Candidates 1st Round Match, 1991. President of the European Chess Union Silvio Danailov has objected to the whole process by which Agon has been given this contract.
AGON: Chess Candidates Tournament to Take Place in London from October 24 - November 12, 2012
Athens/Moscow - March 3, 2012 - After consultations with FIDE, Agon, the World Chess Federation's new partner for organizing the World Chess Championship Cycle, is pleased to announce that the Candidates Tournament will take place in London, UK, from October 24 - November 12, 2012.
Andrew Paulson, General Director of AGON, said, "I am glad to be bringing one of the main Chess events to London and hope that both players and spectators will enjoy it."
Contact: Agon Ltd. info@agonlimited.com
Plea by Bilbao organisers not to hold Candidates in October - November 2012.
THE GRAND SLAM MASTERS FINAL BILBAO CONSIDERS ESSENTIAL FOR THE FUTURE OF THE PROFESSIONAL CHESS TO AGREE ON A CALENDAR BETWEEN FIDE AND THE PRIVATE TOURNAMENTS
02.02.12 Bilbao. The organization of the Grand Slam Masters Final in Bilbao proposes a meeting between FIDE and the organizers of the main private tournaments to elaborate together a calendar of competitions for the coming years, as it happens in other professional sports. The Bilbao organizers, who are working on th fifth Masters Final, emphasize "the great contribution of the private tournaments, which are doing so much, year after year, to promote chess all over the world".
FIDE and the top tournaments should work together and harmoniously to decide the tournaments yearly calendar. We are already in March, and FIDE has still not announced officially the dates for the Candidates Tournament. In this respect, several Grand Masters, like current number one Magnus Carlsen and former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, have already declared his preference for playing the Candidates in the first half of 2013, when there are enough dates to place it without affecting the top tournaments.
Although the Candidates has not been officialy announced yet, the FIDE president, Kirsan Iliumzhinov, said in a recent interview that it will be played between October 23 and November 13 in London. It is true that those dates would not coincide directly with another very relevant chess event. However, the Bilbao organizers announced months ago that the V Grand Slam Masters Final will take place between September 24 and October 13. Sao Paulo, almost with complete certainty, will host again the first half, as in 2011. It is very difficult to persuade any top player to play the Masters Final in two continents, and then the Candidates with only ten days in between.
The organization of the Bilbao Grand Slam Masters Final considers not realistic to block three entire and consecutive months (October, November and December) for the Candidates, like FIDE did in his announcement on November 2011. According to that argument, Bilbao, Moscow and London should be forced to move their traditional dates (as, actually, Moscow did) to some time before the Olympiad in August. It is not so easy to do that, and for Bilbao is just impossible, because if you want to play the Masters Final you have to qualify first by winning one of the Grand Slam tournaments. It is also true that FIDE has changed (delayed) its dates announcements a lot of times during the last 20 years.
The Bilbao Grand Slam Masters Final Bilbao offers its best cooperation spirit in order to place the very top FIDE tournaments (World Championship, Candidates, World Cup and Chess Olympiad) on the best possible dates along the coming years. And expects the same spirit from FIDE to solve the current problem, regarding the 2012 Candidates Tournament.
More information
Gerardo Fernández Llana/ Ziortza Beristain Grupo PROYECCIÓN proyeccion@proyeccion.tv 94 479 0880
