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Chessville
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Justice Triumphs
Let me digress with a brief history lesson. during the mid 1980's and early 1990's , FIDE under its corrupt then president Florencio Campomanes, continuously broke its own rules to obstruct the path of the young genius Garry Kasparov. Indeed, Campomanes was later to be indicted by the anti corruption court the SANDIGANBAYAN in his home country of the Philippines.
In 2000 in London Kasparov lost to Kramnik, and the genuine succession of champions, extending back to Steinitz in 1886, passed to the young Russian, then 25 years old. Kramnik defended his title against Peter Leko of Hungary four years later in Switzerland, but in 2005, Kasparov, still ranked number one, retired from chess to boldly go into the bear-pit of Russian politics. His rewards so far have been a couple of physical assaults (he has been hit over the head with a chessboard by a political opponent) and very few votes. Be that as it may, Kasparov's withdrawal from the chess arena made it possible after 13 years of schism to stage a meaningful contest for the unified title between Kramnik and FIDE's own champion, Vesselin Topalov of Bulgaria. The venue, Elista, the capital of Kirsan Ilumzhinov's Kalmykia and the epicentre of the empire of the FIDE president himself.
In spite of the tsunami of sentiment in his favour, Kramnik collapsed in games 8 and 9, having suffered the further strain of unprecedentedly having to defend with black three times in a row. Fortunately Kramnik emerged from his selva obscura, won game 10 and then clinched the title in the playoff. FIDE now expects Kramnik to enter their world championship tournament in Mexico next year. After his experience in Elista, I doubt Kramnik will want anything more to do with this revolting crew and will prefer instead to go for a match which upholds the ancient traditions of the chess championship, perhaps against Anand or even our own Michael Adams. What is Kramnik's position amongst the pantheon of champions after this success? He has survived three title matches and en route defeated the highest ranked player in the history of the game. He will be champion for at least 8 years. In my opinion he is now in the same league as Botvinnik, Petrosian, Capablanca and Karpov, having already surpassed the achievements as champion of Euwe, Smyslov, Tal, Fischer and Spassky. If he fulfills his potential he may even go on to rival Alekhine, Steinitz, Lasker and Kasparov himself, the most outstandingly successful of the great champions. World champion Vladimir Kramnik fought back to take game 10 of the match in Elista and then led by three decisive games to two in games played. However Kramnik's forfeit from game five had still not been rescinded by FIDE the world chess federation, and Kramnik announced his intention of suing FIDE after the match in the court of international sports arbitration in Lausanne. FIDE has already lost one case there to the former women's world champion, Susan Polgar. Fortunately this necessity for a lawsuit, though justly deserved by FIDE and it's corrupt officials, has receded, since Kramnik went on to win the play-off. Here are my notes to Kramnik's best win of the mail match: Kramnik - Topalov
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Vladimir
Kramnik's victory in the reunification championship will be welcomed by 99%
of chess fans. The vast majority have been outraged by the false
allegations of cheating with a computer during restroom breaks, hurled
against Kramnik during the contest by the Bulgarian delegates. Fans
have also been horrified by the blatantly biased stance of FIDE, the world
chess federation. Disgracefully, the organising body, led by its
spaceship traveling president, Kirsan Ilumzhinov, who doubles as president
of Kalmykia itself, bent over backwards to support their own champion,
Bulgarian grandmaster Vesselin Topalov. This included unilateral
alteration of match regulations during the contest, and appointing to the
appeals committee the representative of a federation, Azerbaijan, which had
openly come out in support of Topalov!
Before
the match , most commentators had dismissed the eccentric Kalmykian
president as a basket case. I, uniquely amongst chess commentators,
had perceived a glimmer of hope that his billions might still be put to good
use in the promotion of chess, and articulated that view. However, the
pessimists were right and FIDE proved yet again that it is not fit to stage
anything as important as a trip to the zoo, let alone the world chess
championship.
When
Britain's Nigel Short qualified to challenge Kasparov for his title in 1993,
FIDE's disregard for its own rules became so blatant that the duo broke away
from the world body's jurisdiction to arrange their own match for supremacy
in chess. Since then the world championship has been split, with
Kasparov recognised as champion by the world at large, but with FIDE
promoting its own anemic version of the title, at one time held
incongruously by a player ranked number 40 in the world.
Kramnik
could hardly have imagined the weight of official force which would be
mustered against him when he agreed to play under FIDE's jurisdiction.
When he moved into an unexpected lead, as if by pre-arranged plan, Topalov
sprang into action with a whole series of allegations, all of them patently
groundless, which, however, were ratified by the stacked appeal committee
appointed by Kirsan. Kramnik forfeited game five under protest but was
never given this stolen point back. Many grandmasters supported him
openly or advised him to walk away from this farce. Pro-Kramnik
comments poured in from Karpov, Korchnoi, Spassky, Short and reigning
British champion, Jonathan Rowson, while prominent tournament organisers
called for a future sanctions against Topalov. Even the Bulgarian
prime minister, in a vain appeal for fair play, urged Topalov to reconsider
his decision to take the fifth game by forfeit. Chess websites around
the world were swamped with record levels of encouragement for Kramnik and
if cosmic karma alone could have secured victory, then Kramniks success was
assured.
