FIDE Presidential Board which is in progress at Baku, Azerbaijan, today confirmed Chennai as the venue for the World Chess Championship match between defending champion Viswanathan Anand and World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen from 06-26 November 2013.
The agreement was signed today at Baku by Bharat Singh, Hony Secretary All India Chess Federation, and FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
All India Chess Federation
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
GM Carlsen should make no comment about it… and just not show up.
Haven’t the high muckety-mucks of Chess noticed that the players get a say-so in where the match is held?
What match? 🙁
I expect Magnus not to sign the contract to play in Chennai.
Breaking news everyone, FIDE deviates from the rules when it serves their interests.
I am an indian and one of anand’s biggest fans but even i think that FIDE must be transparent in their process, they were wrong last time and this time they are trying to avenge their last wrong by doing another wrong. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Its very unfortunate Carlsen would have to play in Chennai ,the worst city in India in terms of climate, food and what not.
I think Carlsen must protest and threaten to pull out forcing FIDE to adopt a transparent method of bidding for the championship.
Spraggett in his blog expects Carlsen to protest a bit more before throwing in the towel. Chess fans will be disappointed. This will only mean that Carlsen is a cock-a-doodle-doo type of guy. So afraid that if he loses the match to Anand, he will lose his aura, no matter his rating. However I hope that Spraggett and co are proved wrong, and Carlsen shows some gumption.Anand played in Sofia without a murmur and bested the ‘Bulgarian Lion’ in his own den.
This is a miscarriage of justice. Carlsen should refuse to play.
@Anonymous may5th 2:28PM
You are not a Indian. Chennai worst city? C’mon man. I am from chennai.
The Indian premier
league in cricket which attracts players from the western world at payrates
more than NBA and NFL (yeah..). All those multi-multi $millionaire foreign
players are playing an outdoor game ( your climate claim falls apart)
for the last several years without any food problem etc. Dreev played
in 91 and kamsky ( Do you know how difficut a teenage Gata was for the
organizers) in 94 when India was in the stone ages. Still they
did not have anything to complain. You are busted. I would still vote for a neutral venue.. but dont put down chennai/india.
If carlsen does not show up, Vlad should take his rightful place -afterall he won the canddidates with a better SB score..
carlsen very clearly knows that in a WC game there is nothing like cleaning up the bottom half.. which he is good at.. Match play and tournament play are different.. so it is always nice to have excuses like chennai/climate/food etc.. hey why leave out global warming as an excuse..
The truth is the FIDE apparatchiks expect players to swallow whatever they do.
Some people don’t mind having others dictate conditions without regard to their wishes….I hope Carlsen isn’t one of them.
At this point, giving in to FIDE and their deal with the Indian federation is equivalent to yielding a psychological advantage.
I would like to put forward two points:
1. Carlsen stated in an interview before Candidates 2013, “The ratings don’t lie.” Yet he found it difficult to establish a clear superiority over the field, losing to Ivanchuk and Svidler, who in spite of being clearly great players are much below Carlsen on the Elo scale. So, do the ratings tell the entire story in chess?
2. After his close shave in the Candidates, Carlsen is getting the jitters and making excuses like Chennai being a difficult place to play in, in spite of his already having poached an important member of Anand’s team of seconds. As some people have pointed out, Anand never complained about the venue of any championship event. I would like to add that, if Carlsen has to surpass the incumbent Champion, he should stop complaining also.
–br
Magnus Carlsen and the Norwegian federation are completely right, it is in the best interest of BOTH players, of chess in general, and of the FIDE to have an open bid for the location of the next World Chess Championship. Basic common sense!
FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s dodgy dealings on this matter by signing the agreement for this World Chess Championship with the obvious goal of trying to impose a fait accompli (a done deal) are shameful, inadmissible and very Communist I could say!!
Magnus Carlsen is NOT going to accept this shameful fait accompli, that I am very sure!
FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has no right to impose the Chennai venue, especially considering the fact that now Paris has offered a higher financial bid for the World Chess Championship and therefore Paris should be the winner of this bidding, not Chennai!!
MAGNUS CARLSEN, DO NOT BOW TO THE DODGY DEALINGS OF THE FIDE PRESIDENT AND YOU HAVE THE POWER TO IMPOSE AN OPEN BID FOR THE LOCATION OF THE WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP.
We are sick of the dodgy dealings made by the FIDE. Transparency and fairness should be the norm when it relates to the granting of the location of major chess events, not backdoor dodgy deals!!!
Chennai, you want the organisation of the World Chess Championship? Well, make a bid for it along with others to win it!!!! That is how it is done in the free world!!!
I agree with someone saying FIDE making another mistake to correct its previous mistake.
Someone claiming Chennai is worst is a nonsense. He must be an idiot. Top tennis playes like Boris to Microsoft Bill Gates al been there… And Carlsen is not going to stay ina slum right? Weather – Nov will be very mild.
@anonymous Sunday, May 5, 2013 at 6:49:00 PM
Idea was not to hurt you, i apologise, i Critiqued chennai only on the basis of reviews which I have read online. Nothing personal. I am from Kashmir.
At this point, if Carlsen agrees to play in India under these imposed terms and loses, many will not consider it a fair result.
A neutral site is a necessity now. Otherwise the result will be tainted.
Poor Anand, at the center of a storm created not by him, but by FIDE and his confederation. Perhaps he should now call for an open bid or a neutral site. If he’s to beat Carlsen, he wouldn’t want it to appear he had FIDE’s help in doing so.
Magnus Carlsen should not sign the contract. He’s already recognized as the world’s best player (BTW finding out who’s the best player was always the raison d’etre behind staging world-championships in the first place) while Anand is not only rated a pathetic 85 ELO points behind Carlsen, he also didn’t prove that he’s superior to Topalov and even Gelfand in the last 2 world championship matches…
Carlsen should brinkmanship FIDE into giving the WCC to Paris or – if FIDE doesn’t – then Carlsen should play an inofficial match against Candidates Co-Winner Kramnik under the old rules (24 games); he’ll surely find a sponsor for that.
Just ignore FIDE…
After qualifying for the World Championship match by winning the London Candidates I have been highly motivated for, and looking forward to the World Championship match against reigning champion V. Anand.
I’m deeply disappointed and surprised by the FIDE decision to sign a contract for the 2013 match without going through the bidding process outlined in the WC regulations, and for not choosing neutral ground. The bid from Paris clearly showed that it would be possible to have more options to choose from.
The lack of transparency, predictability and fairness is unfortunate for chess as a sport and for chess players.
My team and I will now start preparing for the match. The main thing now will be to come to an agreement with the Indian Chess Federation and FIDE regarding terms and conditions before and during the match. I really hope this process will run quick and smoothly.
Lastly, I will not let the news from Baku diminish the joy and excitement derived from playing the top level Norway Chess tournament starting tomorrow.
Magnus Carlsen
Bring in Vlad.. let the Bottom half bully enjoy his 2 hour sun in nov. Fisher vanished Taimanov, larsen and petrosian on way to WC. This guy sneaks in thru a dubious rule and claims he is great.. Buddy all the Elo points suffer from inflation of 150 points..