information confirmed by FIDE office (updated)
The FIDE office has given the latest information for Chessdom.com, “As of today, May 29, there is no money from Lviv in the bank account.” The several days extension, given by FIDE to Mr. Chernenko, has expired last week. As stated in the official rules, if no other bid makes it by April 11, the match will take place in Bulgaria. So what happens from now on?
Gata Kamsky has unofficially denied on several occasions to play the match in Bulgaria. After January he has not spoken much and Chernenko, his manager, has taken care of the matter. Chernenko was trying to find money in Ukraine and on several occasions received extensions from FIDE. The last one has expired in the beginning of this week. If there is no other candidate, the match should be played in Bulgaria. However, Kamsky does not seem very eager to play a match at Topalov’s home. The rules in that case are clear, if he does not want to play the WCC challengers match, he has to be substituded by the runner up in the World Cup, Alexei Shirov. This has been confirmed one more time by Silvio Danailov in an interview earlier this week. Shirov’s patience is obviously finishing and he started looking for his rights by publishing an open letter.
The whole matter will be discussed during the FIDE Presidential Board meeting in Athens this weekend, 31 May – 1 June 2008. Stay tuned with Chessdom.com for the latest updates!
Open letter by Alexei Shirov
With this short press release I would like to bring attention to the following facts:
1. In spite of having passed all the possible deadlines, FIDE still has not announced the venue of the match Topalov-Kamsky. That means that the match should normally take place in Bulgaria because the Lvov offer seems not to have been materialized.
2. Mr. Gata Kamsky has declared that he does not wish to play in Bulgaria. According to the match regulations he should be replaced by me in this case.
3. It is absolutely clear that the silence and uncertainty should end and the firm decision about the forthcoming match should be taken. Nobody can wait forever and this concerns the reserve players as well.
Alexei Shirov
Tarragona, 29.05.2008
(Letter source: TWIC)
FIDE President to guarantee prize fund for Lviv
It appears that once again FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov will intervene (with his own money?) to save the match. As posted by Yuri Vasiliev, Ilyumzhinov will announce his decision during the FIDE Presidential Board that takes place this weekend in Athens.
