Lausanne, 4 January 2001To all members of the Executive Board To all National Federations
Dear Friends,
As a follow up to our last press release dated 26 December 2000, in relation to the meeting of the Presidential Board of FIDE in Tehran, it has become necessary for FIDE to clarify the basis for the decision of the Presidential Board to introduce the new time control to be used in all FIDE events and where applicable, in all title tournaments.
As was clearly stated in the press release of 26th December 2000, the Board acted in full compliance with the directive of the General Assembly in Istanbul requiring it to examine the opinion of a cross section of the players and to finalise on the new time control for FIDE events. As Grandmaster Alexander Matanovic of Chess Informant wrote in his book Chess is Chess, "A century ago, players at tournaments had five hours to make 40 moves. In those days, games began with the first move... Today, seven hours will see a person from Europe to America and good theoreticians play by rote until the twentieth move and only then really begin to play."
The Board realises that it is now incumbent on FIDE to move with the reality of our changing world. It is no longer rea- listic to expect that in the modern world of today where with the advent of computers and advanced soft wares, the professio- nal chess player cannot in all reality claim that he does not have the assistance of these appliances in the preparation for his matches. Therefore the Board resolved in the larger inter- est of the game and its future to heed the advice of the vast majority of the top 100 players of the world present in New Delhi to revise downwards the current time control for FIDE competitions. This decision has the added advantage thatspon- sors and organisers will consume less time to organise their events and with less costs.
Finally, what the Board has done is merely to lower the barrier for the time controls. At the same time, it realises that there are many federations and chess organisers who may not have the resources to apply the cumulative time control of an additional thirty seconds from move one. Therefore, there is no compulsion involved here for organisers to use this mode in the transitio- nal period so long as there is substantial compliance within the limits set out by the Board.
As to the technical questions regarding the World Championship, a Committee chaired by Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos will meet in Lausanne within the next week to clarify all tech- nical issues related to the questions of the zones and conti- nental competitions, as well as other issues of interest to players and National Federations.
Meanwhile, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our FIDE friends a Happy and prosperous New Year!
Emmanuel Omuku Executive Director
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8/2-2001 - tr
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