FIDE elected Baku in spring to host the challenger tour. But at the recent presidential council in Tromso (Norway) the start was moved to Kazan. In Azerbaijan, the government is actively supporting chess – there is a state program for chess development and each success of the Azerbaijani National Team or a grand master is a nationwide event. The president of FIDE Kirsan Iliumjinov keeps holding up the work of the Azerbaijani national federation in developing sport and chess as an example. That is why Baku decided to compete for the challenger tour. It is an important competition which will determine the grandmaster who will play for the world chess crown against its current holder Vishvanatan Anand.
Levon Aronyan and Teymur Rajabov will be in the championship, they took the first two places at grand prix of FIDE, the World Cup holder Boris Gelfand, Gata Kamskiy, gave way to challenger Veselin Topalov, the Bulgarian himself, lost to the world champion Anand, as well as Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik, who have the highest rating. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov joined them.
But FIDE decided to split the decision to hold the challenger tour in Baku into two parts. Which means that four chess players will play in Azerbaijan, while others will play in another country. The International Federation took into account the declaration of Aronyan who refuses to play in Baku. Although the sport ties between countries are improving – Armenian wrestlers and boxers came to Azerbaijan for the World Championship, Azerbaijani judo team members participated in the European Championship in Yerevan.
At first it seemed as though the Russian initiative to move the tour to Kazan will not continue because the nationalities of the federation had a contract with FIDE to hold the games in Baku. But FIDE handed the championship to Kazan though Azerbaijan managed to only to save its challenger in the championship cycle – Mamedyarov.
Topalov made a thrust against playing in Russia. It is understandable because the Bulgarian had match in Eliste with Kramnik for the world champion rank. The Russian won but the most significant event back then was the scandal.
But this stage has passed; moreover, the manager of Topalov, Silvio Danailov, was in a hurry to make adjustments to the declaration, expressing his agreement to play in Kazan.
As concerns the tour pairs, Rajabov will play against Carlsen, Mamedyarov against Kramnik. Aronyan will compete in the quarter-final with Gelfand, Topalov with Kamskiy. There were many discussions about the pairs. The data of January 1st, 2010 was taken as the basis, although the challenger tour will only be held in spring 2011. It is another logical question to FIDE.
Zaki Feyzullayev, Baku. Exclusively for VK
