It’s a FIDE world
Hello, everyone!
It’s been long since I last wrote on my ChessVibes blog. For those who don’t follow my chess news on www.twitter.com/Ponomariov or on my Facebook page www.facebook.com/Ruslan.Ponomariov, I want to assure you that your humble servant still lives, leads an active life and still does not intend to quit professional chess 🙂
Not long ago, on a live Russian program available on this link, the editor-in-chief of Chess-news Evgeny Surov offered to start a blog on their site. To be honest, it would be easier for me to keep a blog in my native Russian language, since I usually end up writing these entries in Russian and having them translated into English, but I decided to stick to my blog on ChessVibes, where I write rarely enough as it is, and I hope chess journalists can find some compromise instead of starting a language war like the one seen lately at the Ukrainian parliament.
This entry is going to be a sort of rant about my latest FIDE disappointment, but before I start whining about my personal misfortunes, I would like to begin on a more positive note regarding the recent World Championship match.
Just like many others, I followed the Anand-Gelfand match closely. I heard and read many negative comments, about how short the games were, or the low level of play of the World Champion, etc. I agree with many opinions, but I would rather focus on the positive aspects, which are sometimes forgotten or left aside:
From my point of view, the organization of the match was superb! I think it has set an example for organizers of future events and competitions. Only the parallel live commentaries of Svidler and Karjakin, who could have themselves played in this very match, made all the rest worthwhile!
I thought it very positive that the match didn’t take place in the country of one of the contenders, but in neutral territory. This probably helped both Anand and Gelfand to feel that they were playing in equal conditions.
As a spectator, I was happy that the match went on to the rapid games, so the mystery was kept until the very end and no one was sure who would win. There was time for everyone to drink beer and make their bets! I even wish it had gone down to blitz, but it was over after the rapid games.
I admit that my support was rather for Gelfand in this match. It’s a pity he didn’t manage to win. This result would have been more interesting, because now Anand can rest on his laurels for another two years.
And from the World Championship let me move on to the World Blitz Championship, the object of my rant.
The last World Blitz Championship took place in Moscow in November 2010. Usually, as opposed to the World Championship, it is held every year, but since 2010 only now has FIDE announced the next one, to be held in Astana, which I only found out recently on the Internet.
I was honestly pissed off at the fact that nobody from FIDE contacted me on this regard and I had to get this information from third parties, despite the fact that already in February 2011 a selection was made where me and another five players were qualified to play in the World Blitz Championship. Although the games were not played on electronic boards, I managed to remember some of my games and decided to share them with you:
There has been no explanation, no apologies, and personally I wonder whether there is any logic on the part of the organizers where the selection of finalists is concerned. Apparently, they have taken into account the January 2012 rating list, but first of all, this list represents classic chess results, and not blitz; second, this is just one list, whereas FIDE usually makes an average out of several lists. For example, for the selection of players for the Grand Prix they used the lists of January 2012 and July 2011. I think it could be a better idea to consider the results from the latest World blitz championship, European blitz championship or even the Mind Games if you still don’t have ratings for blitz and rapid.
To tell the truth, fortunately I have not been financially affected by FIDE’s decision not to include me in this WBCh, since I’m playing in Dortmund, then the Ukrainian Championship in Kiev, and finally at the Olympiad in Istanbul, but nevertheless I felt a moral obligation to share this experience with you, so that these things don’t go unnoticed.
Other than that, I’m just planning to focus on my preparation and do my best in upcoming competitions!
Best wishes to all,
Ruslan
Source: http://www.chessvibes.com
Moral obligation?
Pono is one of the most whining of the top level players that there is. His world championship title is a farce and he knows he. He is not at that level (the same can be said of Khalifman and Rustam).
He’s bitter that no one took him seriously to find funding for his match against Kasparov which would have ended in a complete disaster for Pono and for chess (though Pono wouldn’t see it that way and would just have made a pay day on it).
Here’s a novel idea to all of the whining GM’s – go find sponsors yourself. You’ll see that they don’t want to deal with your whining personalities for the money they put out.
I hope Pono gets blackballed from tournaments for his whining. Organizers should take a page out of the Turkish Chess Federations recent book on excluding of whining countries and apply that to the players and publicly make it known.
ruslan gets the raw end of the deal. He wins the knockout against chucky and chucky gets mad at him bcoz he feels entitled to win against him. The same gang gets mad at gelfand who qualifed to challenge anand and not get a walkover like karpov in 97. And these guys want to run FIDE. They(KK’s) spoiled as players and spoil as organizers..
Why should the Russians invite a Ukrainian?
Playing the WCC in Russia was very entertaining no doubt, but lets not lie about it being a neutral venue, very clearly the full Russian media and majority of the russian and other Grandmasters (check the official website for their live comments) favoured Gelfand to win, since he was originally from Russia and spoke fluent Russian, their support was completely one sided. Every post match conference you could see how the Russian media loved Gelfand. I am not saying they should not have, of course they can support Gelfand.
But lets not convince ourselves that it was a neutral venue.
Not by a long shot.