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Press Release
Calvia, 30 October 2004
On 29 October you have seen the Open Letter of Mr.Garry Kasparov on ChessBase Web site about the World Championship Match Kasparov-Kasimdzhanov.
As the Turkish Chess Federation, with the support of the Turkish Republic, we are very interested to organise this match in Turkey. Our interest became very high-level on the last three weeks. Since Dubai has been declared the venue in a Moscow Press Conference by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, we have waited in standby position till the FIDE Congress in Calvià to see further developments.
The President of the Turkish Chess Federation, and one of the
most active chess organisers in the world, Ali Nihat YAZICI
During the FIDE Congress I have participated in a World Chess Championship Committee meeting (it may be seen in the minutes of the meeting). I expressed our interest to Chairman George Makropulos, and to members Israel Gelfer and Zurab Azmaiparashvili. They agreed that there must be a deadline for Dubai, and then Turkey shall be given an option to seek government guarantees for the match. This was Mr. Gelfer’s idea to get a concrete decision in General Assembly for a deadline and then a ten days option for Turkey, since he considered this match very important for reunification process of chess.
Before the General Assembly on 27th October, Mr. Garry Kasparov sent me the letter which has been published. I delivered to letter to Mr. Israel Gelfer for distribution in General Assembly.
However, on 29 October, the Chairman of GA, Mr. Makropulos refused to distribute this letter in the GA, since it would be “insulting to the FIDE President”.
The letter included a proposal to give Dubai a deadline, and in case the fulfilment of conditions of the match failed, then an option to Turkey for ten days. Personally I do not believe that the letter is insulting to the President. I believe in that the world champions are not ordinary people and we should not disregard what they are saying.
In the General Assembly, the Chairman mentioned that to give a deadline to Dubai would be a very big risk of losing the match. I have made a motion, as delegate, and insisted that a deadline must be given and as the highest authority of FIDE a concrete decision must be taken by the GA. The Chairman refused my proposal, since the President was not in the GA. He claimed that if they took a decision it would be very risky that FIDE would lose the organiser of match.
As everybody may appreciate we now have only 70 days to fulfil the FIDE announcement dates for the match. I think it will be very late for a responsible organiser to arrange sponsors and conditions for this match if we wait any more. For the players I cannot believe how they can be ready in such as short time. Therefore as the Turkish Chess Federation we think that without the decision of the GA it would be a repetition of the same old stories again. We know the Ponomariov-Kasparov match failed twice, while at the time there were other candidates to organise the match.
I hope that the match will be organised in Dubai. I want it very much to happen, for the sake of chess, and I would be very happy if it did. But I want to ask everyone: who will take the risk if the match is not in Dubai? Of course we are assuming that the guarantee or the money for organising this match will be minimum US $1.2 Million, excluding organisation costs.
For Turkey this match would be very important, due to our economical and historical relations with Uzbekistan and Russia. Now without a GA decision we may not be sure what kind of problems we will face if Dubai fails. For the Turkish part it is very difficult to organise the match without a GA decision, because the FIDE executive management on this issue is floating in the air.
On behalf of my federation, I officially demand that in case the match does not take place, the responsible people in FIDE should resign their positions. If the match is organised as planned, I will be very happy and appreciate the work done by FIDE.
Gens Una Sumus
Ali Nihat YAZICI
President of Turkish Chess Federation
International Organiser (FIDE)