🚀 go-pugleaf

Is this getting more ridiculous by the hour or what?  Grown men acting like
children (nothing really new to chess).  FIDE in total disarray.  Some henchman
with money running the show.  Crazy Kasparov de-throned.  Everyone and his
childhood chess coach claiming to be the world champion.  Kamsky, and countless
others, were right to get out, what a mess.  I think to some degree it all
traces back to Kasparov's nascent moves to bring FIDE down, that guy is the
worst.

CCCage wrote:

> 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