From a Fresh Start to a new Dawn universal derision . The chorus of angst became even louder when an exhausted qualifier , Viswanathan Anand , narrowly lost the final match in a Rapid Chess tiebreaker .
I would like to make a point here about seeding the defending Champion into the championship final match . Historically , this is precisely the tradition of the chess championship . The defending Champion comfortably awaited the emergence of a Challenger . Furthermore , the Champion also received draw-odds in the championship match ; also , on some occasions if he lost he was entitled to an early rematch . These traditional advantages have been baked into the cake , so to speak . It would be hard to imagine the outrage had Karpov also received draw-odds in his January 1998 final match with Anand . Yet stop and think about the situation for a moment ; if Karpov had received such an advantage , this would only have been a confirmation of an advantage traditionally granted to the defending Champion . This critical point of drawodds was to play a vital role in 2002 , in the events leading up to Prague .
FIDE ’ s new world championship format evolved into the contest that took place in December 2001 in Moscow and culminated in teenage sensation Ruslan Ponomariov becoming the new FIDE World Champion in January 2002 . FIDE ’ s format has now become a one hundred and twenty eight player knockout featuring several rounds of two-game matches with all players beginning in round one . In FIDE ’ s view , such a competition is far more sporting , with no players having the advantage of being seeded . This is undoubtedly true , but in the process the prestige of the title of World Chess Champion has been severely damaged . No player has successfully won two of these competitions . FIDE Champions abound . If mathematical statistics are to be believed , the favorite will rarely win such a competition , because of the random nature of the matches . After my original participation in the 1997 / 98 FIDE championship , I changed my view and now agree with Kasparov that the FIDE format of short match play is fundamentally flawed for deciding who is the world ’ s very best classical chess player . On two occasions , I have declined to participate in FIDE ’ s championship cycle because of my disagreement with the format .
While FIDE was evolving its championship format , Kasparov was having difficulties of his own . The PCA organization that he had created for his matches against Short in 1993 and against Anand in 1995 had floundered and collapsed . By the late 1990s Kasparov had given up trying to stage a grand inclusive world championship cycle open to the rank and file grandmasters . Instead , he was content to accept the challenge of his strongest rivals based solely upon rankings on the FIDE rating list . In 1998 , Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik , the world ’ s two highest rated players after Kasparov , were invited to play a match to determine a Challenger for Kasparov . Anand declined his invitation and was replaced by Alexey Shirov . Shirov defeated Kramnik and expected a million dollar Kasparov v Shirov match to be organized . When a bid for a modest $ 600,000 prize fund came from California , Shirov declined , fully expecting that a better prize fund would be forthcoming . It did not come , and Shirov never played Kasparov for his title . This tragic result has caused a bitter dispute to develop between Kasparov and Shirov .
In 2000 , Anand , then the world ’ s second highest rated player , was again invited to play a world championship match directly with Kasparov . When this plan collapsed , Kramnik , the third highest rated player , was invited to play Kasparov , despite having lost a qualifying match ( against Shirov ). By now , though , Shirov had slipped significantly down the rating list . A new company , Brain Games Network ( BGN ) headed by GM Raymond Keene , organized a match in London between Kasparov and Kramnik . As World Champion , Kasparov held draw-odds but voluntarily relinquished the right to a return match . In an upset , Kramnik defeated Kasparov and became the 14 th world champion in the long line of traditional world champions that extend back to Wilhelm Steinitz .
As part of the BGN 2000 contract , both Kasparov and Kramnik had committed themselves to accepting a candidates ’ qualifier event to determine a Challenger for the winner in the next cycle . I was not privy to these negotiations or how the BGN candidates ’ qualification system evolved . I am , however , aware of the results : BGN had a limited period to set up its qualifier for the second cycle , the company delayed the announcement of its qualifier , and the period expired . Kasparov was no longer contractually obliged to participate in the BGN qualifier . The lengthy planning that must , we assume , have gone into the BGN qualifier produced a startling format . The traditional Dortmund tournament decided to host the BGN qualifier , and the event would feature eight players split into two groups of four players , with each group playing a double round robin . The top two finishers in each group would play four-game elimination matches based on FIDE ’ s own elimination format ! Just as with FIDE ’ s format , the Dortmund system of short matches was fundamentally flawed . Kasparov was incensed and reacted angrily . He would certainly not play in Dortmund and would thus be out of the cycle to determine who would challenge Kramnik .
I too was shocked by the Dortmund format . I could not understand how chess grandmaster Keene , with his great experience and intimate knowledge of world
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