THIRTEEN years ago, the chess crime of the century was committed. Gary Kasparov and Nigel Short committed an unthinkable crime when they hijacked the world championship match and took it outside of the World Chess Federation (Fide). Since that watershed event in 1993, the world championship crown had gone two separate ways.
Fide claimed that the world chess title was still theirs to organise legitimately. In response to the split, it sanctioned a match between Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman, which Karpov won.
Then the format of the world chess championships changed and in quick succession, the title passed to Alexander Khalifman, Viswanathan Anand, Ruslan Ponomariov, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Veselin Topolov.
On the other hand, Kasparov could choose and select whom he wanted to play with and as a result, preserved his hold on his so-called world chess crown until 2000 when he lost it to Vladimir Kramnik.
During these 13 years, there had been several attempts to reunify the two titles but all were subsequently aborted because the players disagreed over the terms of the unification attempts.
However, the latest attempt to bring the two crowns together has now succeeded.
Even as you read this, the fifth game will be played today between Kramnik and Topalov in Elista, the capital city of the autonomous Kalmyk Republic in Russia where the Kalmyk president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, doubles up as Fide’s president.
So it was with a great sense of anticipation last Saturday that I joined thousands of people around the world to watch the games unfold on the Internet. It would be a great match between two great players who are quite evenly matched. Who would prevail?
Common sense tells us that when you have two very experienced and world-class players playing one another, it will be a very tough but even match. In a 12-game match, maybe we’ll see either Topalov or Kramnik scraping through with something like only one or two points difference.
But what happened?
On Saturday, the first game was evenly matched. Though Kramnik was a pawn ahead, Topalov could have easily forced a draw with his more active pieces. But he chose not to and he lost his way and the game. Score: 1-0 to Kramnik.
The second game on Sunday was full of fireworks. Topalov took the game to Kramnik and went for a kingside attack. At one point, he could have pressed home the advantage after Kramnik blundered but he overlooked it. There was no second chance and Kramnik steered the game into another win. Score: 2-0 to Kramnik.
I fear the unification match is well over, even at this early stage. I do not see Topalov recovering from this disastrous start to a world championship match. He is no Bobby Fischer or even a Kasparov. There will be no miraculous recovery.
And Kramnik is no novice in the game. Remember, he beat Kasparov to be where he is today. Having taken Topalov’s measure, he will hunker down and consolidate his play, offering his opponent little chance of recovering lost ground.
Topalov will be forced to take even more risks in his play because every single draw will take Kramnik closer to winning the match. By taking more risks, he will self-destruct and be punished mercilessly by Kramnik. Of course, Kramnik may crack under the intense pressure too, but I really doubt it.
At the end, this unification match will be a momentous event for chess – a personal triumph for Fide and Ilyumzhinov – but it will go down in history too as a big success for Kramnik and a disaster for Topalov.
Before this match began, Kasparov was asked in an interview whom he thought would be the winner. Interestingly, Kasparov hinted that Topalov was not the favourite that many people had assumed him to be.
He made a very astute observation: “Kramnik has a more profound understanding of the game while Topalov has energy and confidence on his side.”
Another hint of the players’ relative strengths can be gleaned from the fact that prior to this unification match, Kramnik and Topalov had faced one another 39 times between 1994 and 2005, with Kramnik having won 10 times and Topalov five times, with the other games drawn. In their last encounter a year ago, Kramnik emerged the victor.
The games from Elista are scheduled to start at 7pm today, tomorrow, next Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and also Oct 8 and Oct 10. It is prime time viewing for us at various chess sites such as chessbase.com, playchess.com and even fide.com.
About the author
Quah Seng-Sun has been contributing chess articles to The Star newspaper in Malaysia since Aug 1980. This article originally appeared in the Lifestyle section of the newspaper on 29 Sep 2006.
28 Sep 2006
Uh-oh … the unification match is in trouble. Topalov’s team is casting suspicion on the behaviour of Kramnik during the games, claiming that he was retreating to his private bathroom for way too many times. In, out, in, out …
I was floored by this paragraph in the Topalov press statement:
“The logical question arises: How many times during a game does a player need to go to the bathroom and with what regularity? The logical answer is: between 5 -10 times at the most, but not 50 as the statistics from the games played so far shows.”
Topalov’s team demanded that the use of the relaxation rooms be stopped for both players and there should only be one common bathroom for them. The organising committee was asked to resolve this problem by 10am on 29 Sep 2006 or otherwise Topalov would reconsider his participation in the unification match.
Hours after the complaint, the Appeals Committee took a look at the video recording of the relaxation rooms (not the private bathrooms) and said that the complaint was rather exaggerated.
Nevertheless, the Appeals Committee – comprising FIDE Deputy President IM Georgios Makropoulos, Continental President for Americas FM Jorge Vega and FIDE Vice-President Zurab Azmaiparashvili – decided that both private bathrooms would be closed and an alternate one will be made available to both players.
Don’t hold your breath. It’s not the end of the story yet.
Two hours after the Appeals Committee met, the Topalov team issued a second press statement saying that their player continued to be outraged by the behaviour of his opponent.
They claimed that nothing had changed since Kramnik could still move in and out of the common bathroom at will. And actually, according to the press statement, it is the bathroom where Kramnik “takes his most significant decisions”
Wow. Toiletgate. Is this a hint that Kramnik may be bringing something into the bathroom to help him analyse his game during play?
And in the meantime, Topalov is willing to continue with the match but he would no longer shake hands with Kramnik.
29 Sep 2006
Kramnik’s side now issues a public statement rejecting the decision of the Appeals Committee and demanding that this committee be replaced because of its bias towards Topalov.
The statement explained that Kramnik likes walking and since the relaxation room was small, he also used the space of the bathroom as well.
Having said that, Kramnik’s team said that Topalov’s protests were disgraceful and it infringed on their player’s privacy.
The statement ended on an onminous note: “…Kramnik will stop playing this match as long as FIDE is not ready to respect Mr. Kramnik’s rights, in this case to use the toilet of his own restroom whenever he wishes to do so.”
29 Sep 2006
It is 3.22pm in Elista (7.22pm in Malaysia) and match arbiter Geurt Gijssen has started the clock for the fifth game. The game was delayed by some 15 minutes to “sort out some technical problems.” Topalov is seated at the board but he faces an empty chair. Where is Kramnik?
Apparently, he is in his relaxation room, patiently waiting for his bathroom door to be unlocked. And it is very clear that it is not going to be unlocked soon. So, he refuses to come out and play unless he can use his bathroom.
Childish? You tell me. It’s the shift to psychological warfare. Protest and counter-protest. Whoever blinks first loses. Caught in the middle is FIDE. If both players refuse to budge, will it be FIDE that blink? I doubt so. Fide will stick to the rules worked out with both players.
So, there is an unusual situation being played out in Elista. To many non-chess players, this is more interesting that the four games that have been played. Tomorrow for sure, we’ll have the mass media reporting on this.
Well, it is confirmed. Gijssen has announced that Kramnik has forfeited the fifth game of the unification match.
Kramnik appeared in front of the press corp, mumbled something about the bias of the Appeals Committee, demanding its members replaced and that he would be willing to play the fifth game tomorrow. Then he walked away.
You think there will be a fifth game tomorrow? I don’t think so. It is “Goodbye, Unification Match”. See you next year, maybe.
In the meantime, the lawyers of both players must be already sniffing the air. They sense work to do. There is a lot for them to accomplish.
2 Oct 2006
So I was wrong….
The unification match has resumed but not without a lot of negotiation for a compromise solution by Fide president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov with both Kramnik and Topalov over the preceding days.
The main outcome of the negotiation was that the Appeals Committee has resigned, the bathrooms in the relaxation rooms are reopened and the match will resume with a 3-2 score in Kramnik’s favour. Kirsan managed to coax Kramnik to come back to the board with an appeal: “You are playing for the entire world.”
At 3pm in Elista (7pm Malaysian time), the whole of the chess world watched with baited breath as Topalov shook hands with Kramnik. Was there even a fleeting smile between them? Then they sat down to play the sixth game. Kramnik’s solid play ensured that there would be no fireworks and the game was soon drawn after about three hours.
But about half an hour before the start of this game, Kramnik issued a strong protest about the 3-2 score. He said that he agreed to proceed with the match but his further participation would depend on the clarification of his rights regarding the fifth game.
Kramnik: “By deciding just a couple of hours ago I had to assess between my personal interests and the interests of the entire chess world. It is very difficult to play under these circumstances. But I came to the conclusion to proceed under protest because I do not want to disappoint the overwhelming majority of the chess fans which are hoping for the unification since so many years.”
Needless to say, Kramnik’s decision was lauded by all chess players … well, almost all aince, I suppose, the Bulgarians would be supporting their compatriot, rightly or wrongly, through the thick and thin of this saga.
3 Oct 2006
There is now a new Appeals Committee made up of Continental President for the Americas Jorge Vega, Continental President for Europe Boris Kutin and the Delegate of the Azerbaijan Chess Federation, Faik Gasanov. Vega was also part of the original Appeals Committee but is not perceived by the Kramnik camp as biased.
Its first action was to consider – and reject – Kramnik’s protest, saying it had no power to over-rule any decision taken by the former Appeals Committee.
In a reaction to this decision, Kramnik’s team has now said that their player will follow the strong advice from his lawyer to sue Fide after the end of this match.