FIDE Regain Control of World Championship Match and Candidates Tournament

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David Sedgwick
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FIDE Regain Control of World Championship Match and Candidates Tournament

Post by David Sedgwick » Wed Jan 23, 2019 5:53 pm


Chris Rice
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Re: FIDE Regain Control of World Championship Match and Candidates Tournament

Post by Chris Rice » Thu Jan 24, 2019 8:50 am

David Sedgwick wrote:
Wed Jan 23, 2019 5:53 pm
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa1RTZ ... dbzI8ugTEQ Interview with Emil Sutovsky
Good interview by Tania Sachdev. Got a few takeaways from it:

AGON/World Chess agreement with FIDE scrapped and new agreement signed a couple of days ago and FIDE regain control of the Candidates and World Championship match as a consequence.

AGON/World Chess will now only run the Grand Prix series events for a couple of years. These will be 16 player KO events with decent prize money.

The World Championship match and the Candidates will now be opened to new bidding procedures with clear and transparent regulations and the prize money for these will increase "drastically" following sponsorship negotiations which look to have already been concluded but not announced yet.

Following surveys done with the top players, Sutovsky seemed to be saying between the lines that, it is likely that the Classical portion of the World Championship match will increase in the number of games played but any changes are only likely to be officially announced in March this year. One thing he was happy to say was everyone agreed that the number of free days will be reduced as they "ruin the pace of the match".

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JustinHorton
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Re: FIDE Regain Control of World Championship Match and Candidates Tournament

Post by JustinHorton » Thu Jan 24, 2019 2:38 pm

Chris Rice wrote:
Thu Jan 24, 2019 8:50 am
David Sedgwick wrote:
Wed Jan 23, 2019 5:53 pm
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa1RTZ ... dbzI8ugTEQ Interview with Emil Sutovsky
AGON/World Chess agreement with FIDE scrapped and new agreement signed a couple of days ago and FIDE regain control of the Candidates and World Championship match as a consequence.

AGON/World Chess will now only run the Grand Prix series events for a couple of years.
Curious way of proceeding
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: FIDE Regain Control of World Championship Match and Candidates Tournament

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Thu Jan 24, 2019 2:43 pm

Maybe that was a necessary sweetener to get the deal to go through? (I've not watched the interview.)

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JustinHorton
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Re: FIDE Regain Control of World Championship Match and Candidates Tournament

Post by JustinHorton » Thu Jan 24, 2019 2:51 pm

Me neither, and my guess too. I guess one of us ought to bother watching it. Can I nominate you?
"Do you play chess?"
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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: FIDE Regain Control of World Championship Match and Candidates Tournament

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Thu Jan 24, 2019 2:54 pm

Correct link is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVHmSq4BToM

No closed captions (subtitles). In some videos there is an option to turn on some automatic subtitling, but not here it seems.

Maybe there is a transcript somewhere?

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Re: FIDE Regain Control of World Championship Match and Candidates Tournament

Post by David Sedgwick » Thu Jan 24, 2019 3:31 pm

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
Thu Jan 24, 2019 2:43 pm
Maybe that was a necessary sweetener to get the deal to go through? (I've not watched the interview.)
Thank you for the updated link, Chris.

I have spoken briefly to both Emil Sutovsky and Nigel Short. I won't reveal any details, but I think that FIDE had the following three options:

1. Make the arrangement which they have done.

2. Terminate the arrangement with Agon / World Chess and pay a large sum in compensation to them.

3. Terminate the arrangement, refuse to pay compensation, and fight it out in court.

I consider it understandable that the FIDE Presidential Board chose Option 1.

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Re: FIDE Regain Control of World Championship Match and Candidates Tournament

Post by NickFaulks » Thu Jan 24, 2019 3:38 pm

David Sedgwick wrote:
Thu Jan 24, 2019 3:31 pm
I consider it understandable that the FIDE Presidential Board chose Option 1.
I agree, even though I think their prospects in court would have been pretty good. They just don't need the trouble.
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Roger Lancaster
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Re: FIDE Regain Control of World Championship Match and Candidates Tournament

Post by Roger Lancaster » Thu Jan 24, 2019 3:55 pm

David Sedgwick wrote:
Thu Jan 24, 2019 3:31 pm
I have spoken briefly to both Emil Sutovsky and Nigel Short. I won't reveal any details, but I think that FIDE had the following three options:
1. Make the arrangement which they have done.
Very close to being a no-brainer, I'd suggest. Hard to see how the distraction of a court case would benefit world chess. Overall, having watched/listened to the Sutovsky interview, it sounds very encouraging to me.

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JustinHorton
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Re: FIDE Regain Control of World Championship Match and Candidates Tournament

Post by JustinHorton » Thu Jan 24, 2019 4:02 pm

Roger Lancaster wrote:
Thu Jan 24, 2019 3:55 pm
David Sedgwick wrote:
Thu Jan 24, 2019 3:31 pm
I have spoken briefly to both Emil Sutovsky and Nigel Short. I won't reveal any details, but I think that FIDE had the following three options:
1. Make the arrangement which they have done.
Very close to being a no-brainer, I'd suggest.
Maybe so, but "we have put this series in the hands of people who we consider incompetent and worse" does not perhaps promise great things for the Grand Prix.
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

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Angus French
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Re: FIDE Regain Control of World Championship Match and Candidates Tournament

Post by Angus French » Thu Jan 24, 2019 6:07 pm

Have FIDE yet published the revised contract with Agon which was agreed at some point prior to last year's election and which Nigel Short complained, during the election compaign, of not having had sight of?

Roger Lancaster
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Re: FIDE Regain Control of World Championship Match and Candidates Tournament

Post by Roger Lancaster » Thu Jan 24, 2019 7:34 pm

JustinHorton wrote:
Thu Jan 24, 2019 4:02 pm
Maybe so, but "we have put this series in the hands of people who we consider incompetent and worse" does not perhaps promise great things for the Grand Prix.
I don't recall the quote and I hope you'll forgive me for not going through the interview again. But it seems reasonable to infer that, for FIDE to terminate the contract with Agon without recourse to law, an agreement had to be reached whereby each side got something. If Agon got nothing more than the Grand Prix for a couple of years then, regrettable though that may be, perhaps it's an acceptable price to pay.

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JustinHorton
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Re: FIDE Regain Control of World Championship Match and Candidates Tournament

Post by JustinHorton » Thu Jan 24, 2019 7:54 pm

I'm not quoting, I'm characterising!

You might be right, and I'm not in a position to prove otherwise, even if I wanted to. But I'm thinking it could at least provide for some tasty press conferences if anyone is interested in asking the right questions.
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

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Mick Norris
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Re: FIDE Regain Control of World Championship Match and Candidates Tournament

Post by Mick Norris » Thu Jan 24, 2019 8:08 pm

JustinHorton wrote:
Thu Jan 24, 2019 7:54 pm
if anyone is interested in asking the right questions.
Unlikely :roll:
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Roger Lancaster
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Re: FIDE Regain Control of World Championship Match and Candidates Tournament

Post by Roger Lancaster » Thu Jan 24, 2019 8:53 pm

JustinHorton wrote:
Thu Jan 24, 2019 7:54 pm
I'm not quoting, I'm characterising!

You might be right, and I'm not in a position to prove otherwise, even if I wanted to. But I'm thinking it could at least provide for some tasty press conferences if anyone is interested in asking the right questions.
LOL, standard procedure if asked awkward questions is to plead "commercial confidentiality" which tends to get in the way of a good story.