Candidates Matches 3rd - 27th May 2011

[Mick Norris]

Press Conference:

Grischuk said White played a great game

[AustinElliott]

I realise this is probably a subject with a long and tortured history, but is there any chance of a bid from London as a "neutral" venue for an Anand-Gelfand match?

Or would the US be a possibility?

Either might go some way to raising the public profile of the event.

[Roger de Coverly]

I realise this is probably a subject with a long and tortured history, but is there any chance of a bid from London as a "neutral" venue for an Anand-Gelfand match?

You wouldn't be wrong about the history.

Here's how it was stated a few months ago.

http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/malcolmpein ... onship-bid

[LozCooper]

I realise this is probably a subject with a long and tortured history, but is there any chance of a bid from London as a "neutral" venue for an Anand-Gelfand match?

You wouldn't be wrong about the history.

Here's how it was stated a few months ago.

http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/malcolmpein ... onship-bid

I think Malcolm and his sponsor ran out of patience with FIDE a long time ago.

[AustinElliott]

Shame. Still, now we know for sure who the two participants are, I wonder if any other city will fancy it? are the participant's home countries allowed to bid?

[Mick Norris]

are the participant's home countries allowed to bid?

Yes

Would Gelfand be happy playing in India or Anand in Israel? There would be security considerations

[Alex Holowczak]

Well, Gelfand's qualification ensures there'll be no bid from the Middle East. India and Israel have fairly cordial international relations these days, so I imagine one of those two countries hosting it wouldn't cause that much of a problem.

[AustinElliott]

Security considerations aside, you'd think the first Israeli ever to make the final might prompt a bid from there.

[Roger de Coverly]

Wasnt Fischer an Israeli??

Of Jewish descent yes, Israeli no. Not least because his birth pre-dates the formation of the state in 1948.

Here's wikipedia's biography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer

Bobby Fischer was born at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Illinois on March 9, 1943

His birth certificate listed his father as Hans-Gerhardt Fischer, a German biophysicist. His mother, Regina Wender Fischer, was an American citizen of Polish Jewish descent,

A 2002 article by Peter Nicholas and Clea Benson of The Philadelphia Inquirer argued that Paul Nemenyi, a Hungarian Jewish physicist, was Fischer's biological father

Without knowing the detail of Israeli immigration law, it's more than possible that through his mother, he could have become an Israeli citizen. Gelfand by birth was USSR.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Gelfand

Boris Gelfand was born in Minsk, Belarussian SSR on June 24, 1968. In 1998, he immigrated to Israel and settled in Rishon LeZion, where he became Israel's top ranking chess player.

[AustinElliott]

Fischer would certainly have qualified for citizenship of Israel via Israel's Law of Return. Jewishness descends through the maternal line, so Fischer was unequivocally Jewish by birth using any standard definition - and that is even if one accepts the non-Jewish Hans Gerhardt Fischer as his biological dad. If Paul Nemenyi was Bobby's father, that would mean both Fischer's parents were Jewish.

Of course, Fischer would never have sought Israeli residence or citizenship since he became a virulent anti-Semite quite young, and stayed one his entire adult life, his pronouncements on the subject getting ever madder and more vitriolic as he got older. It was, I would say, one of the great tragedies of his life and his mental illness.

[Phil Neatherway]

If Gelfand can achieve this success in his forties, is there still hope for Short and Adams?

[LozCooper]

If Gelfand can achieve this success in his forties, is there still hope for Short and Adams?

Well Adams is only just behind Gelfand and Grischuk on rating and this format would certainly suit him so why not? I can't speak for Nigel but I suspect he wouldn't have the same motivation to try but I wouldn't be surprised to see other English players being involved in future qualifying cycles, I'm not sure yet if Luke will take up his place in September's World Cup but there's also Howell, Sadler, Jones etc all of which are 2600+ players and with the potential to go a lot higher.

[Mick Norris]

I'm not sure yet if Luke will take up his place in September's World Cup

If you are able to expand on this point, is it the date, the location or something else?

Assuming he gets a place, is Mickey likely to play?

[LozCooper]

I'm not sure yet if Luke will take up his place in September's World Cup

If you are able to expand on this point, is it the date, the location or something else?

Assuming he gets a place, is Mickey likely to play?

It will depend on if Luke can get time off work.

Mickey seems very keen to play if he is deemed to have qualified so my expectation would be yes.

[Mick Norris]

Thank you, hope they both can play