Schacksnack

Henrik och Magnus Carlsen

Schacksnack skrev i går under rubriken ”Vilken röra” att Magnus Carlsen funderade på att hoppa av FIDE Grand Prix som skall börja spelas i Elista i Sibirien den 13 december. Nu har det blivit verklighet han hoppar av, inte bara turneringen i Elista utan hela den fortsatta GP serien framgår det av ett brev till FIDE undertecknat av hans far och manager Henrik. Svaret från FIDE finns också med i bifogad sida.

Dear Sirs,
The purpose of this e-mail is to comment upon the recent news about FIDE changing the Regulations for the 2008 -2009 Grand Prix cycle and to request your comments to our questions pertaining to this change.
Below please find some questions which you will hopefully respond to in order to shed some light on the current and future rights of players taking part in FIDE events.

Lastly we would like to mention that our criticism of the latest change of regulations is not directed at the change itself. Long term this may be a viable alternative to the current match planned between the Grand Prix and World Cup winners. But changing the rules dramatically in the middle of a cycle is simply unacceptable, and this is something that should be rather obvious to anyone involved in business or high level sports competitions.

We look forward to your urgent response to these questions.”  

And if so, do you consider this a viable policy for future agreements between FIDE and world championship cycle participants?

- If the answer is yes, do you agree that the agreement in effect between the players and FIDE is highly biased with regard to rights, in the sense that the players have no real rights whatsoever (that cannot be set aside by the FIDE Presidential Board) while having to stick to the conditions agreed to in the Players Undertaking and also additional adjustments made by the FIDE Presidential Board?

Is it your understanding, that § 1.4 in the ”Regulations for the 2008 – 2009 Grand Prix”, in the middle of the cycle, gives the FIDE Presidential Board the right to change the regulations in a way clearly detrimental to the players as represented by the stipulations described in § 2 in these same regulations and also in the ”Players Undertaking”?

Chess as a sport, chess as an attraction to sponsors, the situation of top chess players in general and the Chess World Championship cycle, are in our opinion best and only served by a system which is transparent, fair and predictable.

Despite a less than impressive FIDE track record over the past 15 years, the implementation of the Grand Prix 2008 – 2009 did seem to offer such a system.To our surprise and disbelief we have been informed that the FIDE General Assembly has supported a proposed change of the Regulations of the ongoing cycle to the detriment of the Grand Prix players. The planned match of the winner of the Grand Prix and World Cup winners will be replaced with two spots available from each event into an 8-player world championship qualification tournament or 8-player candidate match cycle, and that this will be decided on the next Presidential Board meeting.

We are currently considering alternative measures in response to this highly significant change, which includes legal action and the withdrawal from the cycle.

- If the answer is no, how do you explain the planned change, and how do you justify the harm inherent to the Grand Prix winner?

”Dear Mr Carlsen,

Thank you once again for your letter.
The main point of the changes is that instead of qualifying one player from the Grand-Prix for the next stage (semi-final match against the winner of the World Cup), now two players (possibly three in case there is no player to be qualified by rating) will qualify for an 8-player semi-final tournament. This change has been based on article 17.3 of the regulations and it is necessary as sponsors from Qatar and Montreaux have withdrew from organising two legs of the Grand-Prix (an unforeseen situation), which puts in danger the system if it leaves the Grand Prix with less than 6 legs and no clear winner.