no transfer has been made to the FIDE bank account
Tuesday, 04 November 2008
Announcement of the FIDE President concerning the match Topalov – Kamsky
Dear chess friends,
Yesterday 3 November 2008, FIDE received the following message from Alexander Chernienko, the manager of GM Gata Kamsky:
“Due to technical reasons (copy of the banking letter re delay of the transfer was sent by me on the 1st of November 2008), the payment of 935,000 USD according to the BID for the organisation of the Kamsky-Topalov match to the FIDE account, will be effected on the 5th November 2008.”
As we have been receiving such letters by Mr Chernienko for a long time now, with yet no transfer made to the FIDE bank account (and we are only one month before the start of the event), this will be the last extension accepted by FIDE as all possible time limits, in order to assist Mr Chernienko with his bid, have been exhausted.
If the amount of 935,000 USD is not transferred to the bank account of FIDE by Wednesday 5 November 2008, FIDE will re-open negotiations with the Bulgarian Chess Federation, the original organiser awarded to hold this match.
FIDE is obliged to take all necessary steps in order to ensure that the Challengers Match shall indeed take place and a worthy challenger for World Champion Vishy Anand will be established. We are all looking forward to this exciting match!
Gens Una Sumus,
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
FIDE President
And a guarantee?
Back in June, during the FIDE Presidential Board in Athens, Mr Ilyumzhinov announced that he personally guarantees for the prize fund proposed by Mr Chernienko. Since then, we have been unofficially told on several occasions (last time in October) that FIDE President was still waiting for money transfer from Ukraine, hesitating to activate his own guarantee. Finally, after Chernenko delayed the match that long and with all kinds of incredible stories, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov decided to revoke the support for this bid.
BCF is next to move
Now the ball is back in the yard of the Bulgarian Chess Federation. They are probably equally surprised, as only few days ago an official expressed a fear that FIDE President would propose another match in Elista. The BCF will announce its notion on the press conference on Thursday. According to Mr Zhivko Ginchev, the match will most probably take place in the second half of January 2009 and with different prize fund.
