🚀 go-pugleaf

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