Svar fra 14. og 15. VM & Co

Reaktionen på det åbne brev fra de tre VM'ere Karpov, Kasparov og Kramnik lod ikke vente længe på sig. Nedenstående åbne brev er underskrevet af bl.a. FIDE-verdensmestrene Khalifman og Anand (hhv. 14. VM og 15. VM ifølge FIDE's regnebog) samt præsidenten for Players Council, Valery Salov.
Brevet kritiserer Karpov for inkonsekvens i holdning til VM-titlens rette bærere, og anklager Kasparov og Kramnik for at privatisere (og måske kriminalisere!) VM-matcherne. Men hvad brevskriverne egentlig mener om sagens kerne, den ny betænkningstid, står ikke ganske klart.

Men læs selv:

---------------------

/24.04.2001/

On behalf of the World Players' Council: regarding the open letter of Karpov, Kasparov and Kramnik 

After reading the letter of 3 K, we would like to accept a kind invitation of the authors and participate in the discussion regarding burning problems of modern chess. However, unfortunately, some passages from the letter make us initially comment on the letter itself. 

We have been used to the fact that V. Kramnik calls himself the 14th World Champion, but it was the 12th World Champion who really surprised us. In early 1998, having won over V. Anand in Lausanne, Karpov declared himself Champion and Mr. Kasparov Impostor. On 10 January 2001, at the same venue, Lausanne, Mr. Karpov (in front of the Commission of the Sports Arbitrage, for USD 50, 000) admitted the legitimacy of the titles of the 14th and 15th World Champions, A. Khalifman and V. Anand respectively. And now " We, 12th, 13th and 14th World Champions, are writing this joint letter..." 

Chess is not an only sport where the official International Federation has rights to organise the official World Championship. And it is obvious that FIDE has clearly more rights than for example, BGN (Cartel of Brain Games), which had invited the participant who lost the sports qualification tournament (Mr. Kramnik) for the match, the source of the financing of which is now being investigated by the British police. It is not the first time one has to be reminded that ALL top active chess players participated in the last official World Championship in New Delhi-Tehran, except the representatives of this mysterious "top level guild", i.e. authors of the open letter. 

We are ready to participate in the search for the ways to modify the World Championship cycle. But to turn the Championship into the selection process to play against Mr. Kasparov, which will in its turn, be the qualification to the match with Mr. Kramnik (or vice versa) we think unacceptable. The World Championship should finally become an honest sport competition of all the strongest sportsmen without any privileges for whoever. 

We agree that FIDE Commerce (not FIDE) has come forward with a very shallow play of Grand Prix 2002 - both from the point of view of financial conditions and the Calendar. But if the project is going to be finalised, then Grand Prix tournaments might become a valuable innovation. Here we mean the tournaments for 32 people and not for 6, like in Linares and Dortmund. Of course, besides Linares and Dortmund there are (at least in the 2001 Calendar), Wijk aan Zee, Cannes, Monaco, Astana, Merida, Leon and many other important tournaments. And this is why when the Grand Prix tournaments are not introduced, it is not going to be possible to avoid some dates clashes. And "the millions of the fans" might on some occasion, wish the top players play and not leave for the trainers' teams of "the more top ones". 

Now on the time control. Each Organiser should have a chance to choose it for his tournament himself. For instance, if the tournament in the honour of the ever alive chess classic of the 20th century V. Korchnoi, where, by the way, two from the undersigned will participate, is a rapid chess tournament, this only shows that there is an objective tradition to accelerate the tempo of the game. And nobody is going to forbid the classic time control, though the quality of the game even with such time control is likely to
be a bit inferior to the advanced chess game. 

In conclusion - a citing from the letter of 3K: "The games belongs to the world chess community". Nobody has ever thought that chess can belong to anyone. But the interests of professional chess players are still there. And they should not be subject either to FIDE, or the Messrs. Authors of the open letter. 

22 April 2001, St. Petersburg. 

GM Alexei Shirov, Vice World Champion
GM Alexander Khalifman, 14th World Champion
GM Viswanathan Anand, 15th World Champion
GM Vladimir Akopyan, Vice World Champion of 1999
Mr. Boris Khropov, Vice President of the St. Petersburg Chess Federation
Mr. Boris Kurkhinen, Chess School Manager, St. Petersburg

Participants of the St. Petersburg Championship 2001:
GM Valery Popov, St. Petersburg Champion 2001
GM Sergei Ivanov
GM Vasili Emelin
GM Sergei Ionov
GM Valery Loginov
GM Vladimir Karasev
IM Evgeny Alexeev
IM Sergei Sivokho
FM Ruslan Kashtanov
Mr. Alexei Polyaninov
Mr. Alexander Utkin
GM Konstantin Sakaev
GM Konstantin Aseev
FM Genrikh Chepukaitis
GM Valery Salov, President, World Players' Council

-------------------------

Mere om FIDE's ny betænkningstid: 
Fælles protest far tre VM'ere  (20.05.01)
Slaget om betænkningstiden  (05.05.01)
Nordisk juniorlederprotest  (02.04.01)
FIDE-kompromis om betænkningstiden   (29.03.01)
FIDE bøjer sig   (28.02.01)
Dansk protest mod FIDE   (27.02.01) 
Ny betænkningstid   (08.02.01)

------------

28/4-2001 - tr

Retur til DSU's hjemmeside