President of FIDE Kirstan Illumzhinov told Sport Express correspodnent Juri Vasiliev at the Presidential Committee meeting of the International Chess Federation FIDE yesterday in Dubai that he had just signed three important contracts.
The first two were with World Champion Vesselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Classical Chess World Champion Vladimir Kramnik on their match for the world chess crown. This will take place from September 21st to October 13th in the Kalmykian capital of Elista.
"The third contract I signed with the Government of Mexico, which wants to stage the next FIDE world championship in Mexico," Ilyumzhinov said. "This will be a tournament of eight, like the San Luis Championship. The Mexican organizers are ready to transfer the prize fund of 1.5 million dollars to the FIDE bank account. Sport Express is the the first news outlet to inform the world about this."
Ilyumzhinov revealed further details: the match Topalov-Kramnik will be held over twelve games, with classical time controls. In case of a draw there will be four games with shorter time control – 25 minutes per side. The prize fund of one million dollars will be split equally between the participants, regardless of the outcome of the match. This was decided in order to show the equal status of both participants in the unification match.
Sport Express says it means that what has been up in the air has become a reality, the match for the title of world championship has been officially announced, the contracts with all participants have been signed.
An important point is that the winner of the Topalov-Kramnik match will play in the next FIDE World Championship, which will be held in Mexico City. The loser, even if it is the current title holder Topalov, will have to start from scratch and play in the World Cup. Classical chess world champion Kramnik will play in the next "Tournament of Eight" in Mexico if he wins the match against Topalov. If he loses he will have to play in the World Cup. These conditions have been agreed in the contract and signed by both participants of the Elista match.
In the opinion of the Sport Express correspondent Yuri Vasilyev this spells the end of the double reign in chess.
