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The Last Chess WarBy Alexei Kuznetsov, UTRO.RU
The ?Super-GM? commercial chess tournament that recently ended in the Spanish town of Linares has a well-established reputation of the chess equivalent of the famous Wimbledon Cup. The competition here is on the highest level. As GM Levon Aronian from Armenia ? a debutant ? became the winner in Linares, it is worth the effort to take a careful look at the world chess scene and to consider whether some serious changes may be close at hand. Certainly, the greatest change occurred about a year ago, when Garry Kasparov, after having won the Linares tournament (or, more precisely, after having tied the victory with the future world champion Veselin Topalov) announced his departure from professional chess. Since no chess master has achieved Kasparov?s level so far, the chess world seemed to have become orphaned. However, the contenders for the highest title remained numerous, as usual. One of them was Aronian, who ended winning the Linares-2006 tournament in a beautiful style. As a matter of fact, this resulted from a tradition, according to which promising newcomers who demonstrated the highest results are always invited to take part in the tournament. One of those newcomers was Aronian ? which means that his success was not due to a chance. In 2002 Aronian won the world championship for men under 20, and last year he won the World Cup held by the World Chess Federation in Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia). Those tournaments fit Aronian?s style quite well, as in the games with the so called ?knock-out control? much depends upon psychological power and steadfastness. It was commonly considered that Aronian?s chances would be much lower in the games with the classic time control system. However, he brilliantly defied that opinion in Linares, having left behind such famed fighters as Topalov and Vishy Anand. Having played black successfully in the last game against the strong Hungarian player Peter Leko, Aronian became the single-handed victor of Linares-2006 and won the right to be considered one of the world?s strongest and most promising GM?s. Everyone was busy recalling Tigran Petrosian, Garry Kasparov, and their contribution to the chess tradition of Armenia. Truly, Aronian became a worthy successor of those champions. It was quite symbolic that Aronian marked in a peculiarly ?chess? manner the sad anniversary of Kasparov?s abandonment of the sport for the sake of politics. The trio of Linares? best players did not include a single Russian, and it can well be recognized that the era of Soviet/Russian champions is gradually ending. No new chess personalities have recently appeared in Russia, while the bare mention of Aronian or Radjabov, aside from Leko and Topalov, should be the cause of melancholy in the Russian chess circles. Possibly, the tendency could be overcome by Vladimir Kramnik, who not without cause considers himself to be the world champion ? after all, only this GM managed to defeat Kasparov! Kramnik is taking part in the two most ambitious chess projects of the year. Firstly, from November, 25 to December, 5 Vladimir will play a series of 6 games against the German Deep Fritz chess program in Bonn. If Kramnik wins the series, he will receive $ 1 million. His previous match against the program ended, we remind, by the victory of the Russian player. Secondly, an agreement has been achieved to hold the so-called unifying match against the two world champions according to different versions ? Kramnik and Topalov. The prize fund of the match will amount to $ 1.2 million, to be evenly shared between the winner and the loser. Previously, the match could not be organized precisely because of financial problems. In the beginning Topalov would not agree to participate even for $ 2 million! But gradually FIDE managed to convince everyone ? and the two GM?s will meet in Elista in mid-September. The result was achieved thanks to a number of fine points. For example, a separate agreement was signed with each of the players. FIDE, as a matter of fact, avoids using the ?unifying match? definition. ?It will be exactly the match for the title of world chess champion?, ? President of FIDE Kirsan Ilyumzhinov explains. ?Veselin Topalov is the 17th world champion in the succession starting from the first champion Wilhelm Steinitz, and Kramnik defeated Garry Kasparov, the 13th champion?? In any case, this acute and subtle Eastern-style approach bore its fruit. It appears that after the end of Kramnik-Topalov match the division of the chess world will be finally overcome, and normal life of the sport will finally resume. FIDE has already announced the start of the new contender cycle ? as in the good old times! The united world championship will be held in 2007 ? between October 24th and 31st. Only the place is still not defined ? the choice is between Russia, Argentina, and Singapore. The pairs of contenders for the 1/8 of the final of the new championship cycle are already known. In one of them Levon Aronian, the rising star of world chess, will play against the Danish GM Magnus Carlsen, considered by many to be one of the most interesting and promising players. Perhaps this is the future of world chess? But aiming to gaze upon the brilliant perspective of the sport, one is to remember the well-known Russian lyrics: ?But all of that will happen when the last war is over?. The war, the end of which will be the end of the schism in world chess. |
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