The Biggest Chess Match for a Decade
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by user Alex Holowczak
The World Chess Championship has had a chequered history. On Thursday, the 2006 World Championship Reunification match between FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov and PCA World Champion Vladimir Kramnik will mark the first time the world of competitive chess has had one World Champion since 1993.
The World Championship began when pressure from the press made a match for the title of World Champion a necessity. This was into the 19th century, when attacking play was de rigeur. As a result of the late start, such great chess icons as Philidor, Lopez, and Staunton missed out on the title.
Wilhelm Steinitz became the first World Champion in 1886. Lasker, Capablanca, and Alekhine were the three pre-war champions of note. The matches were played whenever press dictated, and the system meant Alekhine kept avoiding Capablanca in the 1930s.
After the war, and Alekhine's death, FIDE introduced a three year cycle. The Soviets became World Superpowers in this era, with Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky and Karpov and Kasparov all World Champions. The only non-Soviet was American Bobby Fischer, who retired upon winning the title in the controversial match of 1972, where he became the only player in history to not turn up for a game.
In 1993, FIDE wanted to change the tournament, but some players prefered the match type format. As a result, Kasparov played in the matchplay style, and Karpov won the FIDE Tournament. The last PCA match was in 2000, when Kramnik beat Kasparov in London.
The FIDE version has had more variety of winners in the past five years, and Kramnik drew against Leko to defend his PCA title.
In 2005, Topalov won the FIDE title, and will now play Kramnik to determine the World Champion after FIDE agreed a game. In the event of a draw, there will be a rapidplay.
The match notes:
- There will be 12 games, played over standard FIDE time limits
- A draw leads to a 4-game rapidplay playoff for the title
- The loser does not have the right to a rematch
- The loser must play in preliminaries to qualify for the 2007 World Championship
- Both players share $500,000 regardless of the result
- The match is being played in Elisa, Russia
The game marks a new era of chess. After this, the matchplay style of the 1800s will finally have to bow to the new Round Robin format typical of Super Grandmaster events. This match is likely to be the last of its' kind in the World Championship forever.
As for the match, Topalov is the World Number 1 and assumed the mantle as Kasparov's successor since his retirement. Kramnik has struggled recently, and is unlikely to beat Topalov. Topalov should win the title, and the Bulgarian looks set to become only the second non-Soviet World Champion since the war.
I will keep you all updated with progress of the match, when it begins on Thursday.
Date
Fri 09/15/06, 9:18 am EST
