The
Autonomous Turkish Chess Federation
Press Release
Calvia, 30 October 2004
To the world media
On 29 October you have seen the Open Letter of Mr.Garry Kasparov on ChessBase
Web site about the World Championship Match Kasparov-Kasimdzhanov.
As the Turkish Chess Federation, with the support of the Turkish Republic,
we are very interested to organise this match in Turkey. Our interest became
very high-level on the last three weeks. Since Dubai has been declared the venue
in a Moscow Press Conference by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, we have waited
in standby position till the FIDE Congress in Calvià to see further developments.
The President of the Turkish Chess Federation, and one of the
most active chess organisers in the world, Ali Nihat YAZICI
During the FIDE Congress I have participated in a World Chess Championship
Committee meeting (it may be seen in the minutes of the meeting). I expressed
our interest to Chairman George Makropulos, and to members Israel Gelfer and
Zurab Azmaiparashvili. They agreed that there must be a deadline for Dubai,
and then Turkey shall be given an option to seek government guarantees for the
match. This was Mr. Gelfer’s idea to get a concrete decision in General
Assembly for a deadline and then a ten days option for Turkey, since he considered
this match very important for reunification process of chess.
Before the General Assembly on 27th October, Mr. Garry Kasparov sent me the
letter which has been published. I delivered to letter to Mr. Israel Gelfer
for distribution in General Assembly.
However, on 29 October, the Chairman of GA, Mr. Makropulos refused to distribute
this letter in the GA, since it would be “insulting to the FIDE President”.
The letter included a proposal to give Dubai a deadline, and in case the fulfilment
of conditions of the match failed, then an option to Turkey for ten days. Personally
I do not believe that the letter is insulting to the President. I believe in
that the world champions are not ordinary people and we should not disregard
what they are saying.
In the General Assembly, the Chairman mentioned that to give a deadline to
Dubai would be a very big risk of losing the match. I have made a motion, as
delegate, and insisted that a deadline must be given and as the highest authority
of FIDE a concrete decision must be taken by the GA. The Chairman refused my
proposal, since the President was not in the GA. He claimed that if they took
a decision it would be very risky that FIDE would lose the organiser of match.
As everybody may appreciate we now have only 70 days to fulfil the FIDE announcement
dates for the match. I think it will be very late for a responsible organiser
to arrange sponsors and conditions for this match if we wait any more. For the
players I cannot believe how they can be ready in such as short time. Therefore
as the Turkish Chess Federation we think that without the decision of the GA
it would be a repetition of the same old stories again. We know the Ponomariov-Kasparov
match failed twice, while at the time there were other candidates to organise
the match.
I hope that the match will be organised in Dubai. I want it very much to happen,
for the sake of chess, and I would be very happy if it did. But I want to ask
everyone: who will take the risk if the match is not in Dubai? Of course we
are assuming that the guarantee or the money for organising this match will
be minimum US $1.2 Million, excluding organisation costs.
For Turkey this match would be very important, due to our economical and historical
relations with Uzbekistan and Russia. Now without a GA decision we may not be
sure what kind of problems we will face if Dubai fails. For the Turkish part
it is very difficult to organise the match without a GA decision, because the
FIDE executive management on this issue is floating in the air.
On behalf of my federation, I officially demand that in case the match does
not take place, the responsible people in FIDE should resign their positions.
If the match is organised as planned, I will be very happy and appreciate the
work done by FIDE.
Gens Una Sumus
Ali Nihat YAZICI
President of Turkish Chess Federation
International Organiser (FIDE)