Image via Wikipedia

The match between Azerbaijan and the World, which will take place between May 7-9 this year for the President's Cup will be one of the major events in chess, not only for Azerbaijan, but also the Chess fraternity of the world. The World team will be represented by current world champion Viswanathan Anand (India), former world champion Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Alexei Shirov (Spain) and Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine). The team from Azerbaijan includes, Chess Prodigy Teimur Radjabov, Vugar Hashimov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Gadir Guseinov and Rauf Mamedov as a possible stand by.

The Azerbaijan team leader Teimour Radjabov the only player from the team, who already has experience in this format. In 2002 in Moscow at the age of 15 Teimour Radjabov played for the World team in a match against Team Russia, led then by the giants of world chess, as Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Anatoly Karpov. The Azeri chess player had a decent score for his by age, showing a 50% result and almost forced Garry Kasparov to capitulate, who managed to escape via a repetition of moves in an almost hopeless position. Thus he played a good part in supporting the world team comprising of a no less powerful Vishy Anand and Alexei Shirov (both of whom will be on the opposite side this time).


In an interview with T.Tushiev for extratime.az, Teimur Radjabov has shared his thoughts about the upcoming game, and analyzed each of the team members of the world. Here is an excerpt from the Interview, translated via Google.

T. Tushiev: The entire chess fraternity will be watching the upcoming match between Azerbaijan and the World. What was your first reaction when you heard about the possibility of such a match?

Teimur Radjabov: If you look at the history of chess , matches between a national team and a team representing the world have been very few. If I recall correctly, there have been only four. Therefore, playing against a World team for your national team is a great honor.

T.Tushiev: You have been a party to one such match at the beginning of the 21st century when you played for the World team against team Russia. What can you remember about this game?

Teimur Radjabov: Yes, in 2002 I was lucky to take part in the match between the World team and the national team of Russia. I played for the world team with Anand and Shirov ,and, Vladimir Kramnik played for Russia. The match was widely reported in the world media and a conference was organized in Moscow at the Kremlin. Team Russia was very strong, as Gary Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov and Vladimir Kramnik were a part of that team, yet we managed to win.

T.Tushiev: In recent days, there is talk that the World team will have an advantage, likely to be caused by psychological factors. Do you agree with that judgement?

Teimur Radjabov: A psychological factor? Maybe. Playing at home in front of our fans is always exciting, and, but as I mentioned, the average ratingof our rivals is higher than that of our team. But I do not think that all this is of much importance. I believe that the chances are equal. Everything will depend on the form of individual players during the match.

On the opponents:

Vishy Anand - The world champion in chess, a cult figure, but Viswanathan Anand is something more than that, I would say that he has a mysterious aura that makes him always a welcome guest in any competition around the world. A brilliant chess player, succesful in all formats of the game, won everthing that can be won in chess. Traditionally, a strong opponent. Besides Anand is the current world champion, not only in the classics , but also in rapid chess.

Vladimir Kramnik - outstanding Russian chess player. He has an excellent positional understanding, defeated Garry Kasparov in a match for the world chess crown in 2000 and after that time continued to occupy a leading position in world chess. Now the ex-world champion, is fourth in the world rankings. Very strong as in rapid chess. In addition Kramnik will certainly make every effort to ensure that he gets back the Chess Crown in the near future.

Alexei Shirov - Shirov has been a representative of the world chess elite for a number of years now. As a Chess players he is very creative and styles his games on the legendary Mikhail Tal. Based on recent tournaments, I believe, Alex is in good shape.

Sergey Karjakin - one of the best young chess players in the world. His play has not always been smooth, but that tends to occur at his age. The win at Wijk aan Zee will bring him additional confidence. In any case, the participation of Sergei in the World team looks quite natural to me, for he represents the youth.

The best actors and actresses of Hollywood receive an award each year, at the Oscars. The highest goal scorer at the football world cup, receives the Golden shoe. The best Cricket team receives the ICC Mace each year. In chess, the equivalent award is the Chess Oscar. This is an International award instituted in the year 1967 by Jorge Puig,and the winner was chosen by accredited journalists following the game from across the world. It is traditionally given to the Grandmaster , who, according to the chess aficionados, was the best and most entertaining player that year. The first winner was Bent Larsen in 1967 and the award ceremony was held in Madrid. In 1988 Puig died and the award was not given until 1995. They were reinstituted in the year 1995, by the popular Russian chess magazine - '64'.

The current World Champion, GM Vishwanathan Anand of India, has won the Chess Oscar, 6 times. He is the only non-Russian to have won the award more than 5 times. To put this achievement in perspective, the late Robert.J.Fischer, chess genius from U.S.A, won it three times. The maximum number of chess Oscars have been won by the Chess Master, Garry Kasparov - a record 11 times.

GM Vishwanathan Anand won the Chess Oscar for the year 2008 for his outstanding play while retaining his World Championship title in Bonn. Other contenders for the title included GM Veselin Topalov, who had a strong run last year in Bilbao and Nanjing and who is also the current World No.1. Since the Award couldn't be presented to Anand last year, he will be receiving the award on 7th May during the inaugural ceremony of the President's Cup match between Azerbaijan and the rest of the World.

P.S: The chess Oscar is represented by a statuette also called the Fascinated Wanderer !

Can you believe this guy? No wonder Topalov's reputation is going for a toss. With such a manager, you wouldn't expect to be liked in the real world!

Mr.Silvio Danailov, in an interview to Chessdom, had this to say...

The Chess Oscar award does not surprise me at all, after Elista 2006 is very difficult to imagine that Veselin will get any award from Russia. This is typical political decision, otherwise they will probably close the "64" magazine.

Look, for every person with common sense it is obvious that Topalov had by far the best results in 2008. He won the strongest tournaments in Bilbao and Nanjing and he is number one in the World ratings with big margin. The biggest result of Vishy was to beat the player number six in the world in the World Championship match. Great achievement, of course, but not enough to win the Oscar.

Common sense would tell Mr.Silvio Danailov, that the Chess oscars are voted for by journalists from all over the world, not just Russia. Also, its not how many tournaments you win, or, how strong you are that determines, the chess oscar winner - it is how much you entertain the paying public!

On that count, Anand is a thoroughbred winner.

Image via Wikipedia

The much awaited World Chess Championship between the current World Champion, GM Vishwanathan Anand and former world champion and World No.1 , GM Veselin Topalov, will be held next year.

To decide where it shall be held and how much the prize money shall be, FIDE ,today announced the bidding procedure.

1.The FIDE Presidential Board, during its meeting in Istanbul 7-8 March 2009, decided to open a bidding procedure for the FIDE World Championship Match 2010 (FWCM 2010) between the current World Champion GM V. Anand (India) and Challenger GM V. Topalov (Bulgaria).

2.Each bid shall contain the following particulars as minimum:-

a) Proposed exact dates of the event in April 2010.
b) Proposed tournament venue.
c) Proposed prize fund for the players (minimum 1,000,000 euros should be offered net of any applicable taxes).
d) The contribution to FIDE (net of any applicable taxes and not less than 20% of the prize money) as stipulated in Article 13.2 as well as the financial obligations stated in Article 14 of the Rules and Regulations of the FIDE World Championship Match 2010
e) Commitment to cover all the other financial obligations to FIDE, in accordance with the Rules and Regulations of the FIDE World Championship Match 2010
f) Commitment to cover all organizational costs, in accordance with the match regulations.
g) Category of official hotel (minimum 4- stars), and name if possible, with special room rates including meals.
h) A statement that the applicant accepts the regulations of the match without any reservations.
i) An invitation for at least (two) members of the FIDE Commission for World Chess Championships and Olympiads to inspect the proposed venue and examine the other conditions, with all travel/hotel expenses paid by the bidder.
j) The applicant's name, signatures and authentication.

3.In order for a proposed bid to be considered, it should be accompanied by a 8-month term bank guarantee covering the amount of prize fund (minimum 1,000,000 euros), the FIDE contribution (20% over and above the prize fund), 5% for WCO budget and 5% for the commercial rights and 32,500 euros covering stipends of Principals as described in article 14.4 of the match regulations. This guarantee should be from a bank that FIDE bankers, UBS of Switzerland, are able to confirm as acceptable. Alternatively to the above paragraph, a bidder can deposit in FIDE's bank account the amount of 100,000 euros by the deadline of 30 September 2009 (refundable if the bid is rejected), another 60% of the prize fund by 30 November 2009 and the balance by 21 January 2010.

4. A bid is considered to be valid if it is accompanied with a non-refundable Bid Fee of 2,000 euros payable to FIDE.

5.No bidder can propose a sponsor which shall be in conflict with the regulations of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

6.The bids, including all original documents and particulars, shall arrive by registered post to the FIDE Secretariat, post address: 9 Syggrou Ave., 11743 Athens – Greece. The bidding process will close on 30 September 2009, 13:00 GMT.

7.When the deadline has expired, the FIDE President or his representative shall open the received envelopes in order to assess the bids. FIDE will inform any bidding parties of the results of the process by 9 October 2009 the latest.

8.FIDE reserves the right not to award any bid, however favourable.

For More details Visit FIDE

Image by mharrsch via Flickr

Taleigao Chess Academy Sports Club will organise all India children chess tournament on May 2 and 3 at Shri Yogeshwari Mandir, Bicholim.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Drunken chess player caught napping (guardian.co.uk)
• Chess around the globe (gadling.com)