Summary
For those of you who may not have the time to go through large amounts of
texts here is a summary of what is said in the two interviews, given in full
below.
Anatoly Karpov
-
Of course you can't say that a candidate has a 100% chance of winning
before the elections are over. Today we have two candidates for elections:
Ilyumzhinov and Kok. It's quite clear to me that this is the first time,
in the modern history of chess, since Campomanes, that there is a real
election in FIDE and teams are ready to fight for the Presidency.
-
I had an idea to team up with Kok and the European countries, but decided
to step down from the FIDE presidential race when I understoon that Kok
wanted to campaign separately.
-
It was wrongly published that the Russian Chess Federation didn't support
my candidacy. If I would have continued my campaign the board would have
had to decide between the two candidates. Since I withdrew, the board decided
to support and nominate Ilyumzhinov as the official Russian candidate.
-
The critical problem facing FIDE today are missing general sponsors for
chess activities. A professional management team should take care of this
PR and marketing job, as it can't be done by the team which runs FIDE today.
Ilyumzhinov tried to find sponsors but was unsuccessful. Most of the time
he spent his own money, which is generally is not good. One should search
for international sponsors.
-
FIDE urgently needs material and statistics to be used as PR and marketing
tools. There is a lack of interest on FIDE's part for this type of advertising.
FIDE also has a problem in communication. And this problem has become even
worse with Internet and email. A question that should be answered in 20
minutes is answered only after a few weeks!
- Fortunately FIDE has realized the mistakes of the knockout system format
used for the World Championships. They didn't change everything but at least
they have started to do so.
Veselin Topalov
-
I am satisfied with my performance and with the result of the match against
Nisipeanu. I managed to play consistently, without blunders. The audience
was huge during every game. Local newspapers reported that this match was
the most remarkable chess event in the history of the country.
-
I haven't seen such incredible interest to chess and chess players as
I saw in Mexico. And I have never received so much attention. It can probably
be compared to the popularity of a rock star.
-
I deeply respect the present head of the World Chess Federation, Kirsan
Ilyumzhinov. I think that his contribution to chess is enormous, and I
hope that this time he will win again.
-
Vladimir Kramnik is particularly good in match battles. He has proved
it by winning the match against the greatest chess player of the 20th century,
Garry Kasparov. I think that our match will be extremely interesting, in
the first place because it will be played by competitors, totally different
in style of their play. Kramnik is very good at positioning and maneuvering,
whereas I prefer sharp and tactical play. I’m sure that the audience
will not be bored.
-
I really enjoy the healthy competition between me and Anand Viswanathan.
I think the tournament in Sofia will make many things clear in our relationship.
However I am not inclined to underestimate Peter Svidler, Ruslan Ponomariov,
Gata Kamsky and Etienne Bacrot. There will be no poor players in Sofia.
Interview with former World Champion Anatoly Karpov
By Willy Iclicki
A
number of interviews with former World Champion Anatoly Karpov, have been carried
in 64, ChessBase
and more recently Chess
Fidelity, the website for the election campaign of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov,
conducted by radio journalist Sergey Korsun. This interview raised many eyebrows,
as Karpov was quoted as stating certain things about the forthcoming elections
which he fundamentally disagreed with, moreso since for a long time he had
been considering running also as a Presidential candidate.
To clarify the issue, once and forever, the Right
Move has given Anatoly Karpov the floor to explain his perspective on the
election campaign, developments and the requirements of FIDE for a new chess
world:
Q: In the recent interview published on Chess
Fidelity you were quoted as saying that Kirsan Ilyumzhinov will win 100%. This
caused quite a few raised eyebrows in the chess world since a few months ago
you said that anybody could do a better job than Kirsan. Has your opinion changed?
Karpov: I had this interview on radio with Mr. Korsun. Of
course you can't say that a candidate has a 100% chance of winning before the
elections are over. Today we have two candidates for elections: Ilyumzhinov
and Kok. It's quite clear to me that this is the first time, in the modern
history of chess, since Campomanes, that there is a real election in FIDE and
teams are ready to fight for the Presidency.
The two candidates are working very actively and both have a good campaign.
According to my knowledge at that moment Ilyumzhinov had an advantage, but
now with six weeks to go before the elections I must say surely the last few
days in Turin will be decisive.
Q: What led you to withdraw from the Presidential
race?
Karpov: I must say that I took seriously the initiative of
the USCF to be candidate for FIDE President, and I was also supported by different
countries. I wish to thanks especially two federations, the French Federation
and USCF for their clear and uncompromised support. I was working on the elections
since June 2005, and I made several trips in the world because I believe many
things should be improved in the chess activity around the world. We also had
an idea to unify teams with Kok and the European countries.
Later in January, after negotiations with Kok, I understood that he wanted
to campaign separately. This proposal was against my convictions and our chances
of success, so I decided to step down and continue my chess activities, which
don't depend on the Federations. It was wrongly published that the Russian
Chess Federation didn't support my candidacy. Let me remind you that I took
the decision to withdraw without an official declaration from the race on January
29th.
In the beginning of February some rumours emerged, that had I made a decision
to stop my campaign because the Russian Chess Federation decided to support
Ilyumzhinov. This is untrue because the Russian Federation never discussed
the FIDE elections before its scheduled meeting on February 17th, and if I
would have continued my campaign, the board would have had to decide between
the two candidates. Since I withdrew, the board decided to support and nominate
Ilyumzhinov as the official Russian candidate
Q: Although you decided not to continue with
your Presidential bid, you have undoubtedly an important role to play in promoting
chess as an icon for a younger generation. What role do you see yourself playing
in the future?
Karpov: My activities will involve developing children's
chess with the traditional Children Olympiads for team under 16 years old (there
have already been 10 competitions), developing chess education with recent
agreements with governments in Brazil and Chile, developing chess in schools
in Argentina with big activities in Buenos Aires and of course Russia and Germany
where I opened an academy ten years ago.
I believe this is the future of chess. Unfortunately, chess has become much
less popular so we must increase our activities and increase publicity to attract
chess players who play privately at home. Imagine in Germany, one of the biggest
chess Federations, only 10% of the country's chess players are members of the
federation, that leaves us with 90% of potential players to attract.
Q: What are the critical problems FIDE is facing
today and why?
Karpov: I just explained in the previous question some of
the critical problems and we are also missing general sponsors for chess activities.
Sponsors could be different for classical chess, rapid chess, children chess
or a global one. A professional management team should take care of this PR
and marketing job as it can't be done by the team which runs FIDE today.
It is clear that for the last 20 years we haven't progressed much in this
area. Ilyumzhinov tried to find sponsors but was unsuccessful. Most of the
time he spent his own money, which is not bad, but generally is not good, because
nobody should spend his own money but search for international sponsors like
25 years ago and more.
We may mention a computer company like IBM, which unfortunately was destroyed
by the strange behavior of Kasparov. Similarly a few years later with Intel.
With the activities around the continent and the increase in the number of
players, the chance to catch such awaited sponsors will be much better.
Q: What future lies ahead, in your opinion,
for the chess world and what is required from a FIDE administration to deliver
results to its members?
Karpov: Since 1980, I have been telling Campomanes and other
FIDE officials that we were missing chess statistics which reflect the number
of players, their performance and their history. We have many chess magazines
but this is not the material to give to sponsors, FIDE urgently needs material
and statistics to be used as PR and Marketing tools.
This also shows the lack of interest on FIDE's part for this type of advertising.
FIDE also has a problem in communication. And this problem has become even
worse with Internet and email. A question that should be answered in 20 minutes
is answered only after a few weeks!
Regarding chess competitions, fortunately FIDE has realized the mistakes of
the KO system format used for the World Championships. They didn't change everything
but at least they have started to do so. No doubt that the best format would
be to come back not to the old format but to a combination that will end in
individual matches or match tournament like the one that took place in Argentina
in 2005..
The chess world is missing a lot of strong world champions which the knockout
system could never deliver. I am against the knockout system for World Championship
because it mixes different rules and time controls. It's hard to imagine how
you could play classical chess followed by rapid chess and to finish with Blitz
in the same tournament. Previous champions such as Botvinnik and Spassky would
never have agreed to play in such a tournament!
Veselin Topalov: "I hope Kirsan will win again"
The
World Chess Champion declared his support to Kirsan right after the victory
in Bucharest. Bulgarian Veselin Topalov has won the four-game match against
the European Champion, Romanian Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu with the score 3:1.
Immediately after the match the “The Sport-Express Daily” Chess
observer Yuriy Vasiliev had a phone interview with Topalov.
About the Bucharest Match
Veselin, let me congratulate you on the victory!
Thank you!
Does the score 3:1 reflect the balance of forces between you and the European
Champion?
When the same question was asked during the press conference, Nisipeanu's
answer was affirmative. I can say that I am satisfied with my performance and
with the result of the match. I managed to play consistently, without blunders.
Some positions could have been played in a better way, but I believe that in
general I have demonstrated a good level of play.
In the first game there was a “Berlin variant" of the Spanish
game; the Romanian GM nearly disappointed you with it, didn’t he…
I’d like to point out that I play the “Berlin” pretty often
and I was preparing it for the World Championship. However this complicated
endspiel has many little details, so every half move rather than move is of
great importance. There was some little inaccuracy on my part and the competitor
could have thrown me into serious problems. However he missed his chance and
I found the forced draw.
In the second game you caught him with a variant, right?
On the contrary, I did not catch him. It turned out that he had foreseen
it during the preparation, the new move, which I made. But in the further keen
struggle I managed to outplay him and win the game.
During the third game I had a feeling that you missed the win. Is that
so?
No, it was a deceptive feeling. I had a comfortable position but he always
came up with some counter play to balance.
What happened in the final game when the black pieces somewhat rapidly
lost a pawn?
That’s when I really caught the rival with a variant and won the pawn
without any adequate compensation. I used some old analysis, which I didn’t
even hope to ever use in a game of such high level. Thus the victory in the
last game was unexpectedly bloodless.
About the Chess popularity
Did the match in Bucharest draw much interest?
The match was dedicated to the admission of Bulgaria and Romania to European
Union in 2007, and the first move in the match was made by the President of
Romania. The audience was huge during every game. Local newspapers reported
that this match was the most remarkable chess event in the history of the country.
Never before had a World Chess Champion played with a European Chess Champion
representing Romania.
The last time we met was after the Tournament in Linares, which you managed
to rescue after the failure start in Morelia. What is your opinion about the
shaped trend to explore new territories for chess: Mexico, Argentina, North
of Russia, Ural...?
I think it’s a positive and very important trend! For long time haven’t
I seen such incredible interest to chess and chess players as I saw in Mexico.
And I have never received so much attention. It can probably be compared to
the popularity of a rock star… It was strange, unusual, but damn pleasant!
It means that chess stirs ordinary people even in the most distant regions
of the world and we must take advantage of this interest.
About the FIDE Elections
The elections of President of FIDE will take place in the upcoming Olympiad
in Turin. Whose candidacy do you support?
I deeply respect the present head of the World Chess Federation, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
I think that his contribution to chess is enormous, and I hope that this time
he will win again.
About the Elista Match with Kramnik
During our conversation in Linares you said you believed that the match
between you and Vladimir Kramnik, which Ilyumzhinov intended to arrange in
Elista, the capital of the governed by him republic of Kalmykia, would indeed
take place. Do you still hold on to your belief and your intention to play
with Kramnik?
Yes and my intention and belief have even grown stronger. The match will
be played and the world public will soon be officially notified of it.
Have the controversial points, which were pronounced in Linares by your
manager and the trainer Silvio Danailov, been settled?
I only know that the negotiations are carried on successfully. But what is
more important is that Kramnik and I want to play this match, and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
wants to arrange it. It means that the match will be held.
What do you think about your prospective rival?
Vladimir Kramnik is particularly good in match battles. He has proved it
by winning the match against the greatest chess player of the 20th century,
Garry Kasparov. I think that our match will be extremely interesting, in the
first place because it will be played by competitors, totally different in
style of their play. Kramnik is very good at positioning and maneuvering, whereas
I prefer sharp and tactical play. I’m sure that the audience will not
be bored.
About Anand
You are officially FIDE World Top Chess Player. However the Indian Anand
Viswanathan is only one point behind. Do you think he will be able to draw
ahead of you in the Sofia tournament which will be opened in the beginning
of May?
I really enjoy the healthy competition between me and Anand Viswanathan. I
think the tournament in Sofia will make many things clear in our relationship...
What is the current score between you and Anand?
If I’m not mistaken 8:8 in the resulting games, but there have been
a great number of draws. By the way I have extended the gap between me and
Anand in the top list by about four points due to the 3:1 win in the match
against Nisipeanu.
Do you think Anand Viswanathan will be your major competitor in the tournament
in Sofia?
He is certainly the most troublesome rival, as usually. However I am not
inclined to underestimate Peter Svidler, Ruslan Ponomariov, Gata Kamsky and
Etienne Bacrot. There will be no poor players in Sofia.
