Illinois Chess Bulletin Julio - Agosto 2002 | Page 12

From a Fresh Start to a new Dawn

From a Fresh Start to a New
Dawn
By GM Yasser Seirawan
To state that the last three months of my life have
been the most productive and exhausting that I’ve
ever experienced would be a gross
understatement. I could never have expected to be
so deeply involved in any sin gle project, and
especially one that would try to unify the chess
world. Hundreds of phone calls all over the world
and well over one thousand e-mails combined
with multiple meetings all worked to produce
unity in the chess world. My work was
interesting, exhilarating, challenging and fun, but
there was also annoyance, frustration, anger and
despair. On the night of May 5th, 2002, the eve of
the chess peace conference in Prague, I could not
sleep, as I felt certain that agreement would not be
reached. What was the background to the “Fresh
Start” proposal? How did it all evolve? And how
was a final agreement achieved? I invite you to
join me in a personal odyssey that was simply
amazing.
Editors of chess magazines and websites may
reproduce my account in full or in part, subject to
giving a credit to the Chess Café website.
Editor Note: Thank you Chess Cafe
Background
It is no secret that for a very long time professional
chess has been in an alarming state of decline. The
game may be growing by leaps and bounds on the
Internet and in schools, but professional chess has
been suffering mightily. That decline stems from the
events in 1993 that caused a split in the chess world:
the decision by the recognized World Champion Garry
Kasparov and his Challenger Nigel Short to break from
FIDE, the recognized International Chess Federation,
and to play their match outside of FIDE’s auspices.
FIDE responded by staging its world championship
match between Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman, the
two players whom Nigel Short had eliminated in order
to become the Challenger. Having defeated Short,
Kasparov played a match against Viswanathan Anand
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in 1995 under the auspices of a newly founded
organization, the Professional Chess Association
(PCA). The following year FIDE staged its
championship match between its Champion, Anatoly
Karpov, and his Challenger, Gata Kamsky; Karpov
successfully defended the title that he had won against
Timman. At the 1995 FIDE Congress, the General
Assembly elected a new President, the relatively
unknown Kirsan Iljumzhinov, who ran on a platform
undertaking to unite the chess world. He seemed to
be an extremely promising choice, enjoying good
relations with the recognized Champions, Karpov and
Kasparov; better still, he had the deep pockets
necessary to induce Kasparov to return to the fold.
In 1997, Iljumzhinov introduced his novel plan of
condensing what had been a lengthy three-year or, at
times, two-year long world championship cycle into a
single four-week event. Approximately one hundred
players from zonal and national championship events
would join a number of seeded rated players and enter
an elimination match competition boasting a five million
dollar prize fund! To entice Kasparov and Karpov to
accept the new format, both players were invited to join
at the semi-final stage. Other players would also enter
the tournament at various stages, depending upon
their ratings. Certain players would have a bye for the
first round or two of matches and receive a seeding
into the second or third round. It was a grand design
that was enthusiastically endorsed by the vast majority
of players, including me.
There were a few hiccups and one major one:
Kasparov didn’t endorse the new format and he
refused to participate. Kasparov’s position was a
principled one: the elimination matches in the new
format were far too short and were unworthy for
deciding the world’s strongest player and the world
championship title. In Kasparov’s view, such a format
would lead to a completely random Champion.
We mustn’t forget that “World Chess Champion” has
traditionally been an extremely prestigious title with
long historical roots practically unrivaled in any
professional sport. Since 1886, deciding the title of
World Chess Champion had generally been achieved
through lengthy championship matches producing
some of the most important chess games ever played.
Kasparov strongly objected to a format in which a
match of merely two, four or six games would decide a
Champion. In his view, such a format cheapened the
title and would make a mockery of the great chess
traditions. Kasparov’s decision not to participate had
another decidedly negative effect on the launch of a
new championship format: the defending Champion,
Anatoly Karpov, would no longer be seeded into the
semi-final; now he would become a direct participant in
the final match! This decision met with almost

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