A Statement of Classical World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik
Less than one month after signing the Prague agreement I find it
necessary to clarify my position in order to avoid misunderstandings and
to comment on certain statements made during the last few days.
1. I reaffirm my intention to fulfill the agreement made in Prague on 6th May
supporting the idea of reunification to be achieved after both the Einstein
Classical World Chess Championship Match and a FIDE World Chess Championship.
2.I again declare my willingness, under reasonable conditions,
to participate in a reunification match as described in the Prague agreement
which would be against the winner of a possible FIDE cycle (or against the
winner of the proposed match between Ruslan Ponomariov vs Gary Kasparov)
provided that I am successful in my own World Championship Match.
3.Contrary to some statements and reports which have
misinterpreted the Prague agreement I did not give up the title of
Classical Chess World Champion which is based on 116 years of chess
history and which is also respected in the Prague agreement. My match
against the winner of the Candidates Tournament in Dortmund will be a
Classical World Championship Final and not a semifinal. I made some
concessions at Prague which have never been made by a Classical World Champion
before in order to support the unification process. These were; accepting
Ruslan Ponomariov as a Chess World Champion and therefore giving up draw odds
from the unification match onward and giving up my right to be seeded
automatically into the finals of future cycles.
4.Einstein Group and I are ready for unification as described
in the Prague agreement. However, I am fully aware that it will be not
easy for any proposed new organisation in professional chess to raise
the necessary sponsorship and to develop a business plan acceptable to FIDE.
According to the agreement made in Prague the pre-unification Einstein events
are to be excluded from the business plan. My partner - Einstein Group plc
London - is responsible for the staging of these events and for securing
the budgets. Einstein Group will organise the Dortmund Candidates
Tournament (6 to 21 July 2002) and the resulting title match between myself
and the winner of the Dortmund qualifier in April/May 2003. Therefore our
side clearly relieves the proposed new organisation of these costs and
responsibilities.
5.I hope that the FIDE cycle will be more inclusive than currently
proposed and consist of more than one match between Ruslan Ponomariov and
Gary Kasparov. A solution which included more players would be better
suited to the principles FIDE has followed in recent years. This is in
principle my opinion but I also understand that this decision is not in my
responsibility. Furthermore I support the proposal to found a Grandmaster
Steering Committee to be elected in a democratic way as a part of a
professional management body.
6.Statements which were made during the Moscow press conference
on 30 May 2002 about financial problems in Dortmund are groundless. This
can be seen clearly from the press release of the Einstein Group dated 31
May 2002. The same I would like to say about statements that I would be
an obstacle to the unification process. Such statements made during the
above mentioned Moscow press conference and before are incorrect. I believe
that such comments are not helpful to the unification movement. Rather
these are the real obstacles in raising the necessary global sponsorships.
I would like to express the hope that all sides will be more cautious in their
future statements.
It is clear that endeavors to realize unification will be
only successful if all sides will be able to fulfill their promises in
this process. Therefore I believe it is time to start with the agreed
steps in a constructive and fair way which will be then for the sake
of the Chess World.
Moscow, 3 June 2002 Vladimir Kramnik
Classical Chess World Champion
