THE CHESS FESTIVAL WAS A GREAT SUCCESS

The President's Cup match between Az-erbaijan and rest of the world was one of the sporting events of the year. It was all the more special since the holder of the world crown, Viswanathan Anand, ex-world champion Vladimir Kramnik, Aleksey Shirov and Sergey Karyakin came to Baku and together with the Azerbaijani team put on a real chess festival for the fans. The visitors gave a true master class, winning confidently against our team (21.5:10.5), but the result was not all that important.

Oscar for Anand

Baku is gradually turning into one of the centres of world chess - major competitions involving the leading grandmasters are held here regularly. Two years ago the capital hosted the Baku-2007 women's tournament in which world champion Antoaneta Stefanova, continental champion Yekaterina Lagno and many other title holders competed. Last season it was in Baku that the first tournament in FIDE's Grand Prix series was held. All these competitions were something of a warm-up for the President's Cup which drew the strongest grandmasters on the planet. It was symbolic that the tournament's organizers managed to attract to the world team the two grandmasters who competed for the chess crown last year - Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik. While they were rivals in that match, now they came together in one team to compete against the hosts. The visitors' team could well have been strengthened even further by the contender for the title of world champion, Veselin Topalov, but he had to turn down the invitation at the last minute.  

It was in Baku at the President's Cup opening ceremony that Anand received his chess Oscar - the prize for the best grandmaster of the past year, awarded by the popular magazine 64-Chess Review. It holds a poll every year to choose the strongest player. This time the Indian player received the award from the publication's founder, Mark Glukhovskiy. Although the results of the poll were known at the start of the season, it was decided to time the official ceremony to award Anand his Oscar to coincide with the start of the President's Cup. The Indian grandmaster has now won as many statuettes as Garry Kasparov (six each) and has ahead of him only the absolute leader, Anatoliy Karpov. Unlike his partners in the team, Anand had come to Azerbaijan for the first time and we can only hope that he will now visit Baku more often.

FIDE's leaders also attended the match, specifically its president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who took on the role of captain of the world team, while his Azerbaijani counterpart Elman Rustamov led the hosts. Of course, it was very difficult for our chess players to compete with their opponents, as only Teymur Racabov has constant practice of playing at the highest level. The same cannot be said for the others, although Saxriyar Mammadyarov, Vuqar Hasimov, Qadir Huseynov and Rauf Mammadov are of course talented grandmasters. However, talent alone is not enough to compete against Anand and Kramnik, experience is needed too. And this is what some of our lads lack.

Things did not begin too badly; the Azerbaijan team won the first round with Sahriyar Mamma-dyarov bringing home the winning point against Aleksey Shirov. But the visitors showed weakness only at the start; after that there was no holding them. After the second day the match was already practically decided when Vladimir Kramnik took three points out of three and the world team had a six-point lead over their opponents. Vladimir himself joked that his 100 per cent was excessive, bearing in mind that he had to face pretty strong opponents. "The debuts went very well for me," the ex-world champion said. "At the very start of the meeting I got favourable positions which worked out." He also gave his opinion about the Azerbaijani players' unsuccessful performances: "The lads are strong in themselves, but they may lack experience of playing at this level. Especially since rapid chess has its peculiarities - at some points you have to play fast, to calculate in a short period of time the possible combinations and not get into time trouble."

Ratings change

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov's visit to Baku was a good reason to discuss the current problems in world chess and talk about the future of the sport, especially since the major tournaments in Baku don't end with the President's Cup - a women's Grand Prix event will be held here next year. The FIDE chief said that Azerbaijan is active in international chess life, which is confirmed by the holding of the first stage of a FIDE Grand Prix and the President's Cup here. "Everyone knows the class of your chess players, so it would be interesting for Azerbaijan to host a women's Grand Prix tournament," the FIDE president said.

He also touched upon the changes in the ratings system that will be introduced in 2011. "We realize that it is difficult for the chess players to move to the new format so we won't make the transfer before 2011. Ratings are now calculated according to the old system, but at the same time the new calculations are being made too. Chess does not stand still, it has to be modernized, which is why we are doing this," Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said. He said that although several leading grandmasters, such as Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov are dissatisfied, they are informed of what is going on. "These chess players are on the FIDE president's council, so they are well informed about the changes in the ratings calculations," the FIDE president said. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov shared his views on the match between Azerbaijan and the rest of the world. "Overall I'm pleased, as my team has won. But we realize full well that the hospitality factor also plays a role here - that's why we were allowed to play well," the FIDE president joked.

The head of the national federation, Elman Rustamov, said that appetite grows at the table and Azerbaijan can set its sights on holding the championship match between Anand and Veselin Topalov. "We have not discussed the possibility yet, but if a sponsor emerges, then why not," the national federation president said. The tender for the match has already been announced and the first results will be known in September. Russia has already put in a bid to organize the match and there are other candidates too, so the choice will be wide. Elman Rustamov said that holding the President's Cup has become a good tradition with a constantly improving level. "It is symbolic that on the eve of this meeting the country's president, Ilham Aliyev, signed a decree on the adoption of a state programme to develop chess, which will help the development of the sport in the country. This will allow us to reach a new level," the federation chief said. Going back to the match, it has to be said that the duel was a good learning opportunity for Azerbaijani grandmasters. Es-pecially since the world team does not bestow the favour on every team - the last time such a major bout took place was in the Kremlin when the All Stars competed against the Russians in the 21st century meeting. Then Teymur Racabov and Anand played for the world team while Kramnik played for the hosts and managed to beat the visitors. However, the Azerbaijani team faced a tough task in Baku right from the beginning and the visitors were the unconditional favourites. Mo-reover, over recent years our team has been considered one of the youngest and if they do not lose their passion, the grandmasters will gain experience over the years. So, this was no tragedy and the only winners were chess fans. Now our grandmasters have something to aim for, especially since they bear the hopes of the return of the chess crown to Azerbaijan. Who knows, maybe in a few years' time, Teymur Racabov will meet Viswanathan Anand or Vladimir Kramnik in a match for the title of world champion. In any case, taking into account the progress of our sportsmen, who rank fifth in FIDE's ratings table, all the prerequisites are in place.