05 January 2010

Don't Cross Kasparov

FIDE President Campomanes' termination of the first Karpov - Kasparov (KK1, 1984/85) match set in motion a sequence of events unparalleled in the chess world : two more matches (KK2, 1985 & KK3, 1986) to clean up the mess left by the first, the creation of the GMA, the Kasparov - Short match (1993) played outside of the jurisdiction of FIDE, the 13-year schism with two separate World Championships and their associated cycles, the PCA, the replacement of Campomanes by Ilyumzhinov, the abolition of FIDE's traditional Interzonal and Candidate qualifying events, the FIDE knockout championships, unification, and (still to come?) a new structure for FIDE's qualifying cycles. Next month sees the 25th anniversary of Campomanes' most infamous statement: 'I declare that the match is ended without decision.'

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Here in Nevada GM Larry Evans has spoken on the topic several times and I always find the topic interesting. Hopefully we see an improvement in the overall politics for players like Magnus and others. It would be sad to taint strong players who deserve the seat in championship matches to experience so much non-chess related stress.