Challengers Match in Doubt!

After the recent successful completion of the World Championship match between Champion Viswanathan Anand and Challenger Vladimir Kramnik, with no incidents, a good prize fund shared equally and magnificent coverage in all the media, in other words a demonstration of what Top Level Chess is about, we now have exactly the opposite in finalizing the match to determine the next challenger for the title.

The match between Gata Kamsky and Veselin Topalov was originally scheduled to take place before the end of 2008 in Sofia, Bulgaria for a prize fund of € 250 000. This was known and agreed to by FIDE at the beginning of the year. Then Gata Kamsky's manager was given time finalize a counter proposal with a bigger prize fund and different venue and somewhere in all of this it is claimed that Kirsan Ilyumzhinov gave his personal guarantee for the € 750 000.

Of course now that time has run out, the guarantees are not forthcoming, FIDE wants to revert back to the original agreement with the Bulgarian Chess Federation and the players having to confirm in a short space of time. This has lead to flurry of objections, claims, open letters and arguments within the United States Chess Federation sparked by letters written by Gata Kamsky and his father with up till now the Topalov camp remaining silent.

How can something that should be so straightforward be made so complex and potentially divisive by a group of very intelligent people?

Read a detailed report with events in chronological order on Chessvibes.