Kramnik talks about the World Chess Championship

Sat, 13 Jul 2008 14:47:30 GMT

posted by ColonelCrockett
Vladimir Kramnik has an interview (done by Pavel Matocha) featured on Chessbase. It is chessbases attempt at giving Kramnik 'equal time' I suppose.

In that interview Kramnik says of Anand and the upcoming match ...

Is Vishy Anand World Champion?

It is not a question of simply yes or no. Anand won the tournament, which was called the World Championship Tournament, and I competed in that tournament as well. The International Chess Federation FIDE agreed to do it this way, so I have no right not to consider him the World Champion. A question is, however: what is the value of such a title? Similary I considered Kasimdzhanov to be a FIDE Champion, after winning the knock-out tournament in Libya. However I did not consider him to be the real champion. He had won a tournament and by FIDE’s definition he was a FIDE World Champion. But the value of this title was lower compared to the classical title won in a one-to-one match by Champions like Lasker, Spasski, Kasparov or me. The winner of the match Kramnik-Anand won’t be World Champion only from a legal point of view, he will be considered to be the World Champion and best chess player by the entire public.

Wait? What? Anad is world champion because he won a tournament I participated in but he's not world champion? I agree with Kramnik that a tournament shouldn't decide the champion and a match is the more preferred format. However, if the stakes of a tournament that you participate in are that the winner becomes the champion you should acknowledge the accomplishment of the winner. If Kramnik won he would expect to be called champion ... no one else deserves less.

Welcome to our blog about FIDE World Chess Championships

Sun, 8 Jan 2007 19:30:57 GMT

posted by The_Zimbio_Team
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Kramnik talks about the World Chess Championship

Welcome to our blog about FIDE World Chess Championships