Elsewhere on the Web : FIDE World Championship 2004
Saturday June 19, 2004
As the FIDE World Championship 2004 limps to the start round, the official FIDE site wcc2004.fide.com gives the final list of participants, pairings for the 1st round, and the schedule
Rd. : Start : No. games
1 : 19 Jun : 2
2 : 21 Jun : 2
3 : 23 Jun : 2
4 : 26 Jun : 2
5 : 28 Jun : 2
6 : 1 Jul : 4
7 : 6 Jul : 6
of the knockout event being held in Tripoli, Libya. • Top seed is GM Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, currently ranked world no.5. If he wins, he will give Bulgaria a second World Championship title following the recent victory of Antoaneta Stefanova in the women's competition. • The event has been plagued by the refusal of top players to participate, by the uncertain status of Israeli nationals, and by increasingly shrill criticism from the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP). Only in chess do we see delicate negotiation carried out by exchanges of blunt open letters. An uncompromising fight may be a desirable quality over the chess board, but it's a public relations' disaster off the board. For the next few weeks let's leave the politics to the politicians and get on with the chess! • The winner of the event will face world no.1 Garry Kasparov later this year in a match at a to-be-announced location. (Previous report : Elsewhere on the Web 22 May 2004)