DOES BAKU HAVE A CHANCE OF HOSTING AN INTERNATIONAL QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT?

Azerbaijan has decided to propose Baku as host city for an international chess qualifying tournament.  After coordinating all details, the Youth and Sports Ministry and the National Chess Federation decided to open negotiations with FIDE on this issue.  A delegation from the International Chess Federation is to arrive in Baku in September to discuss this and the visit may clarify many issues.

Special interest

The international tournament promises to be one of the main chess events of 2010, because the winner will have the right to play the world champion.  This is why the tournament has aroused special interest in Azerbaijan, because the country plans to spare no effort to win the right to host the event.  As an additional incentive, several Azerbaijani grand masters will win the right to participate if circumstances are right.  The group of the eight best players who will compete for the right to play the world champion, will be made up of those who occupy the top two places in the Grand Prix ratings, the winner of the upcoming World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, one candidate nominated by the organizers of the tournament and two grand masters who have the highest ratings between July 2009 and January 2010.

Today, Veselin Topalov has the highest rating, and Vishwanathan Anand lies second, so they will vie for the world chess crown.  And because the loser of that game will have the right to play in the tournament, Magnus Carlson or Vladimir Kramnik might also play; they have the third and fourth highest FIDE ratings, respectively.  However, there is currently only one definite participant in the tournament - Gata Kamskiy, who recently lost to Topalov.

We will discuss the prospects of our players later, so let us focus now on the specifics of Azerbaijan's application.  FIDE Chairman Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has said many times that the rate of development of chess in our country and our government's support for sports in Azerbaijan set good examples for many other countries.  Baku has hosted major sporting events many times, including the first stage of the FIDE Grand Prix, a match between the Azerbaijani national team and the world team, which was played as part of the President's Cup, and so on.  Incidentally, among the "all stars" were Anand and Kramnik, who said that they would accept an invitation to visit Azerbaijan again with pleasure.  In short, the National Chess Federation and the Youth and Sports Ministry paved the way for the application to hold the international tournament in Azerbaijan as it would be especially important for the country.  After all, it is the shortest and, at the same time, the most difficult step to enable one of Azerbaijan's grand masters to take part in the struggle for the title of world chess champion.

Let us note that in 2006 Racabov was very close to competing for the title.  Back then, the FIDE rule was that any player with a rating of at least 2,700 could challenge the incumbent world champion after transferring to the International Federation a prize fund of $1 million. The Azerbaijani and Bulgarian sides signed an agreement that in the event of victory in the match with Vladimir Kramnik in Elista, the then strongest grand master, Topalov, would play Racabov in Baku.  However, these plans have never been realised:  Veselin Topalov lost to the Russian grand master, and the historic match did not take place.  Now, though, we have an opportunity to watch a tournament of the eight best grand masters, in which Azerbaijan, as potential host of the event, is guaranteed at least one vacancy.

The adjective "potential" is not accidental here because, despite Azerbaijan's initiative, there are other applicants who want to host the tournament.  Among them is Moscow, which wants to rebuild the reputation of Russian chess after two successive victories by Anand in matches with Kramnik for the world championship.  However, one way or another, the financial component will be very important, because to get the tournament, the host city will have to transfer 1 million euro to the FIDE treasury.  And besides this, there will certainly be the extra cost of organizing the event.  So, a great deal will depend on how successful talks are with FIDE and what proposals the potential organizers will make.  In addition, the Azerbaijani side has already stated that it will provide all the necessary security measures in case Armenian grand master Levon Aronyan wins his way to the tournament, which is also very important.

A "knock-out" for pretenders

It is curious that, at the same time, Baku remains one of the candidate cities to host the match for the title of chess champion of the world between V. Anand and V. Topalov.  At least one popular chess website, chessdom.com, says so in an article which reads that the Azerbaijani capital is among the candidates to organize the match, although no official applications have been made yet.  However, it is more likely that the match will be played in Bulgaria.

Despite the fact that the Azerbaijani national team played the "rest of the world team" in Baku and the same V. Anand was the star, it is unlikely that Baku is particularly eager to host the match.  However, National Federation head Elmar Rustamov said during the President's Cup that the federation would consider this possibility.  But it is unlikely that Baku has serious intentions of hosting this match, if only because no Azerbaijani grand masters will take part.  It is much more logical to focus on the pretenders' tournament, especially as our players might actually qualify to participate in the event.

And going back to the Anand-Topalov duel, which is scheduled for next year, it is likely that Bulgaria will host it.  At any rate, the national federation of that country has stated its great interest in organizing the match, precisely on Topalov's "home ground."  In addition, the application is backed by 3 million euro, which Bulgaria plans to invest into the organization of the match, including the prize fund.  At the same time, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov noted after visiting Baku that he had no objections to organizing the match in Bulgaria or India.

It is known that the pretenders' tournament must take place in spring 2010.  This, anyway, is the opinion of FIDE head Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.  "We are keeping all the components of the old system, the World Cup and Grand Prix, but we are giving an opportunity to our grand masters, if they lose games during the world championship, to start competing again for the title of world champion in a two-round tournament of eight pretenders.  When, at a recent General Assembly of FIDE, a delegate delivered a speech saying that we are undermining the logical system of selection and advocating the old knock-out system, I told him that both the "knock-out" championship and the pretenders' tournaments and Grand Prix are my brain-children.  And they are all dear to me.  But times change.  And FIDE must adjust accordingly.  We maintain all of our democratic principles in selection: in the World Cup, there may be 128 players from all the countries, the Grand Prix is played by grand masters with high ratings, and the pretenders' tournaments have participants who would otherwise be effectively sidelined in the competition for the title of world champion. For example Vladimir Kramnik, if Russia decides to become the host country of the tournament," said K. Ilyumzhinov.

Taking account of the sporting aspect, holding the pretenders' tournament in Baku is in the interests of Azerbaijani grand masters.  For example, Racabov is among the leaders in the FIDE Grand Prix tournament and is close to claiming one of the top two places, which would earn him a place in the pretenders' tournament.  At the same time, five of our players, including Racabov, Vuqar Hashimov, Sahriyar Mammadyarov, Qadir Huseynov and Rauf Mammadov, could vie for the main prize.  And, given the extra vacancy given to the organizers of the tournament, Azerbaijan could ideally be represented by as many as three grand masters in the tournament.  In addition, the tournament will not follow the championship system - it is a series of matches, that is to say, the road to victory begins for all eight players from the quarterfinals.  In other words, only one minor detail remains - we must win the right to host the tournament in Baku.