Radjabov: I won't be tilting at FIDE windmills

Time line

We jog your memory: back in June 2007 FIDE introduced a new Grand Prix series and a new world championship cycle. After the withdrawal of Magnus Carlsen and Michael Adams from the Grand Prix FIDE decided on a new Candidates format, split the event in two venues (Azerbaidjan and Armenia). After a protest and boycott threat by Veselin Topalov, it was moved to Kazan, Russia and scheduled for May 3 to 27, 2011. On November 5th 2010 the world's highest ranked player, Magnus Carlsen, withdrew from the tournament, and was replaced by Alexander Grischuk from Russia. This brought on a protest by Azeri GM Teimour Radjabov, who pointed to FIDE’s own regulations which stated that if a player withdrew after a certain set date, then his opponent would advance directly to the next round. You can browse through the details of all these developments in our link list below.

In the meantime all eight players of the 2011 Candidates have signed their contracts and the last protester has relented. In an interview with the Azeri news portal Extra Time says he has decided not to tilt any longer at the FIDE windmills but go ahead with the Candidates matches; at the same time he backed Carlsen's decision to withdraw. We take the highlights of this interview from Colin McGourty's very useful site Chess in Translation.

Radjabov: “I didn’t take on the role of a chess Don Quixote, tilting at windmills.”

I have nothing but respect for Grandmasters Magnus Carlsen and Alexander Grischuk. I’ve known them for many years and we have a good relationship, which I hope will be maintained in future. The approach of certain FIDE officials to this professional question struck me as a little amateurish. However, the silence and agreement of all the championship cycle participants to the endless changes in the regulations for the Candidates Matches prompted to me to stick to the principle that “one’s as good as none” [lit. “alone on a battlefield you’re not a soldier”]. Therefore I didn’t take on the role of a chess Don Quixote, tilting at windmills.

I think that Magnus Carlsen was absolutely right to act as he did. He’s number one on the world rankings, he’s won a large number of super-tournaments (often with a big gap over second place), so he has the image of the strongest chess player in the world. The FIDE regulations mean that he’d have to expose his image to great risk, playing only four-game matches against strong opponents, paired off not according to the actual strength of the players at the current moment in time. In such four-game matches the element of chance is dramatically increased. I think it would be fairer to hold a double round-robin Candidates Tournament, in which the randomness of the result would be reduced to a minimum. I think Carlsen would play in such a Candidates Tournament.

Well, it’s already 99% clear that my opponent will be the Russian Grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik. I prepared for Magnus Carlsen, and now I’ll have to prepare for Kramnik. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more changes and they gave me another opponent. I’m not planning on any special study of the style of my opponent or on determining his strong and weak points. As the eleventh world champion, Robert Fischer, said: “I don’t believe in psychology. I believe in good moves”. I’m of the same opinion.

Of course that’s my goal, but in recent years it hasn’t been so easy to dramatically increase my rating. The thing is that when I’ve played for Azerbaijan and for club teams I’ve had the black pieces in a majority of those games, in the interests of the team. Playing as Black against strong grandmasters means more intense preparation and a reduction in the chance of winning. My opening repertoire with Black isn’t based on calm equalising systems, but on complicated and risky forced variations aimed at seizing the initiative. All of that demands great expenditure of energy. Look at how many games I’ve played with Black in team events in the last three years, and how many I’ve played with White. The ratio’s about 3 to 1. I think a considerable number of top grandmasters would have suffered heavy rating losses if they’d played so many games with black.

Besides, I don’t consider ratings an absolute indicator of strength. In my opinion chess ratings are less important than the World Championship title, the number of super-tournaments won, the number of wins against super-grandmasters, and so on. Another indicator of a player’s strength, of course, is consistently being in the top 10, the top 5 or the top 3 in the world rankings. At the moment, however, we’re witnessing a high degree of rotation in the world top 10. A sportsman briefly makes the top 10, but then only a month later he’s down to the top 30 and someone else takes his place. So the correlation between the true strength of a player and his live rating is now quite blurred. That’s how I understand ratings. Many average chess fans, and tournament organisers, are in thrall to the magic of ratings.

Kasparov says that Magnus Carlsen's decision not to participate in the current World Championship cycle is the wrong decision. "At his age and with his development he should fight – on the board." When asked whether he understood the motives of his former charge Kasparov said:

Garry Kasparov (right), with his former student Magnus Carlsen

So what did Kasparov think when he first heard that Magnus was withdrawing?

When he led the world rankings Kasparov used to lose an average of one game per year, the newspaper says. In the last three months Carlsen lost seven. What is the reason for that?

Kasparov says he cannot imagine coaching Carlsen again.

• Full article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine (in German)

ChessBase reports on the Candidates Tournament