27/07/2010 15:48
Baku remains without Candidate Matches 2011
The candidate matches, a tournament, qualifying for the World Chess Championship 2011 will take place in Kazan, Russia, the FIDE presidential board announced from Norwegian town of Tromso.
Despite the fact that Azerbaijan had already signed an agreement and had transferred 150 000 eur to FIDE, the tournament was moved to Kazan. It’s worth mentioning that Armenia’s Grand Master Levon Aronian said earlier that he wouldn’t travel to Azerbaijan.
Given the previous agreement with Baku, it has been decided to keep Azerbaijan’s Grand Master Shakhriyar Mamedyarov as the nominated player. The candidates at Qualifying Tournament include Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Levon Aronian (Armenia), Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), Boris Gelfand (Israel) and Gata Kamsky (USA).
In case of a possible withdraw of ex World Champion Veselin Topalov, (the reasons were detailed in his open letter) FIDE’s head Kirsan Ilyumkinov sad would send him a letter asking not to take hasty decisions. However, if Topalov doesn’t change his mind, there will be a substitute player - GM Alexander Grischuk.