Pre-Universiade chess testing 03.08.2010
Last week the chess world was shocked by the news that the tournament to determine challengers for the 2011 World Chess Championship would be held in Kazan
The FIDE Presidential Council announced their decision in Troms, Norway. The eight challengers are: Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Magnus Karlsen (Norway), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Levon Aronyan (Armenia), Teymur Radzhabov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan),Boris Gelfand (Israel) and Gata Kamsky (USA).
World about us
Initially the tournament was supposed to be held in Baku. That’s the reason why Azerbaijan got the wild card and was able apart from Teymur Radzhabov to register Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. But it was Levon Aronyan who became the stumbling block. Only a know-nothing can be absolutely unaware of the Azerbaijan-Armenia strained relations. FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhanov explained, “We’ve been trying to solve the issue with staging the Challenger event in Baku to the utmost. I’ve been negotiating with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serge Sargsyan in the hope of reaching a compromise. But when it became clear that we had to divide the tournament we had started to seek another way out. The FIDE Presidential council acclaimed enthusiastically the offer of the Russian Chess Federation to hold the matches in Kazan. Besides it’s Kazan that is to host the World Summer Universiade the program of which includes chess events. And since the next World Championship will be held in London, the capital of the 2012 Olympics, it comes out that the most significant events – the Challenger event and the World Championship – will be staged in the capitals of the World Universiade and the Olympic Games. On top of that Kazan has good chess traditions – the international chess academy is to be opened there.”
Why Kazan?
The FIDE President explained more than clearly the political reasons of holding the Challenger event in Kazan. Nevertheless it should be noted that Kazan was no chess terra incognita before this Championship. Such events as the first half of Alisa Gallyamova vs Xie Jun final match in 1999, European Champions Club’s Cup final, unofficial «Russia vs Rest of World» tournament in 2002, Russian Women’s Chess Championship Superfinal, Russian Men’s Chess Championship and two Russian team championships took place in the capital of Tatarstan. Moreover the matches were held in the Kazan national cultural centre, in Basket-Hall and in the Kazanskaya Yarmarka (Kazan Fair) Exhibition Centre and of course in the chess school named after R. Nezhmetdinov. The tournaments ran faultlessly. Besides Kazan was hospitable even on the chessboard – our grandmasters didn’t win any home matches. Apart from the above mentioned events Kazan hosted the men’s Russian Cup, the first Summer Spartakiad in 2003, the first Summer Spartakiad in 2008, youth Russian championships. The only victory that Kazan celebrated was in the friendly match between Artem Timofeyev from Kazan and Viktor Korchn from Switzerland.
