Dear chessfriends,
I would like to make the following
clarifications concerning the article published on the ChessBase website on
Nov 16 about the 57th Russian Championship Press Conference.
GM Garry Kasparov was very accurate about points
1 and 2 of your summary (his source of information and lack of bank guarantees).
In point 3, concerning the proposal of the
Turkish Chess Federation, it is obvious that Garry isn't fully informed about
the real facts. The President of the Turkish Chess Federation, Mr Ali Nihat
Yazici, requested from the FIDE General Assembly in Calvia to issue a deadline
to the Dubai organizers for the completion of all procedures and the delivery
to FIDE of all necessary financial guarantees. In case the Dubai organizers
would not be able to keep the deadline, then FIDE would have to terminate its
efforts to organize the World Championship match in the United Arab Emirates
and give a period of 10 days to the Turkish Federation to provide an
alternative solution together with all financial guarantees.
The Turkish Federation was of course in no
position during the FIDE General Assembly to guarantee that it would indeed
succeed in securing sponsorship. The only guarantee on the table was the
optimism of Mr Yazici that he would succeed and the fact that he is a serious
president of a very active federation which would never engage FIDE in an
adventure from which we would lose all potential sponsors.
The FIDE General Assembly did not reject the
Turkish proposal and decided to request from the FIDE President, Mr
Ilyumzhinov, that he himself will set the deadline since Mr Ilyumzhinov is the
only person having complete knowledge about the progress of negotiations with
the Dubai organizers. Mr Yazici was not satisfied with this decision and he
informed me that under these hazy conditions the Turkish Federation will not
be able to organize the match in any case.
Consequently, GM Garry Kasparov did not lie
during the recent Press Conference in Moscow but instead he was speaking based
on the only information he had. It is also his irremovable right, as with all
chessplayers, to publicly express his opinion about all matters which concern
himself or the general structure and the further development of our sport.
FIDE and the whole international chess community
should express its satisfaction with the efforts and the patience shown by GM
Garry Kasparov for the realization of the Prague Agreement.
Sincerely,
Georgios Makropoulos
FIDE Deputy President
