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It was won by Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who beat Michael Adams in the final by a score of 4.5-3.5. He takes prize money of around US$100,000 (US$80,000 after organisers FIDE have taken their cut) and the right to a match against world number one Garry Kasparov in a step towards the reunification of the World Chess Championship.
Ever since 1993, when Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short broke away from chess governing body FIDE to play their world championship match under the auspices of the newly-formed Professional Chess Association, there have been two chess world championships: one organised by FIDE (which latterly have been in a knock-out format) and one by a variety of other bodies (in the form of a long match between champion and challenger). Various attempts have been made to reunify the title; the 2004 FIDE Championship is a part of the latest plan, the so-called Prague Agreement .
The plan under this agreement when it was drawn up in 2002 was that reigning FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov and world number one on the FIDE Elo rating list Garry Kasparov would play a match, and that the so-called "classical" world champion Vladimir Kramnik and winner of the 2002 Dortmund tournament (which turned out to be Péter Lékó) would play each other. The winners of these two matches would then play one another to produce a unified champion.
The match between Ponomariov and Kasparov, however, fell through after FIDE refused to alter various things in the contract on Ponomariov's request, and he refused to sign. It was announced that instead the winner of the next FIDE knock-out championship would play against Kasparov in a match to be held not later than July 2005 (Kramnik and Lékó are to play their match in September-October 2004). Therefore, as well as the championship determining who will be the next FIDE world champion, it will also determine who will play Kasparov in what is effectively a semifinal match for the unified championship.
The event has attracted a good deal of controversy in a number of areas.
One source of criticism, in common with when it has been used for previous FIDE championships, has been the event's format. In particular, the relatively quick time controls have been controversial. (90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 15 minutes till the end of the game and an incremental time of 30 seconds per move from move one.) Zhang Zhong, for example, was quoted as saying "the time limit is too fast for such a world championship. We should call it a World Cup … a world championship needs more classic time controls" [1] and Nigel Short claimed that "If you took the top 100 players and survey their opinion you would probably find around 75% are against this time control" [2].
Perhaps the greatest criticism has concerned the choice of Libya as venue. Claims of human rights abuses, and state sponsored terrorism have caused some consternation, but on a more practical level the country's history of not allowing entry to citizens of IsraelThis article discusses the State of Israel. For other meanings of Israel see Israel (disambiguation). The State of Israel Medinat Yisrael in Hebrew, Daulat Israil in Arabic) is a country in the Middle East on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. has been of some concern, as three Israeli players ( Boris Gelfand , Emil Sutovsky and Ilya Smirin ) had either qualified for the championships or were high on the list of reserves (in the event of qualifiers chosing not to play). Additionally, a number of players have joint Israeli and American citizenship, and so were also expected to be disallowed entry.
With this in mind, FIDE originally announced that a parallel event in MaltaThis article is about the european nation. For other meanings, see this page. The Republic of Malta is an island nation in southern Europe. It consists of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea directly south of Italy. These strategically located islands would be held alongside the one in Tripoli to ensure that Israeli players could take part--Sutovsky sent his entry form back on the condition he would play in Malta [3]. This parallel event was cancelled, however, following a press release from the Libyan authorities that "The Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya will pleasantly provide entry visas to all the qualified participants of this great Championship", which was taken by most (including FIDE) to mean that all players, including Israelis, would be welcome to take part. This appeared to be contradicated by a statement from Mohammed Qadhafi, chairman of the Libyan Olympic Committee (FIDE is affiliated with the IOCAlternative meanings at IOC (disambiguation The International Olympic Committee is an organization created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1894 to reinstate the Ancient Olympic Games held in Greece, and organize this sports event every four years. The IOC recei) and son of Libyan leader Moammar Al Qadhafi, that "We [the Libyans] did not and will not invite the Zionist enemy to this championship." [4]
Several prominent figures have criticized FIDE over this matter, with both Grandmaster Boris Gulko , a Jew with joint American and Israeli citizenship, and Beatriz Marinello , president of the United States Chess FederationThe United States Chess Federation USCF is the governing chess organization within the United States and is one of the federations of the FIDE. The USCF was founded in 1939 and grew gradually until 1972, when membership doubled due to interest in Bobby Fi writing open letters to FIDE criticizing their handling of the issue [5].
On May 13, the Anti-Defamation LeagueThe Anti-Defamation League (or ADL is an American organization set up by B'nai B'rith whose stated aim is to fight anti-Semitism, racism, bigotry and various forms of political extremism through an array of programs and services. With an annual budget of wrote to FIDE, saying it was "troubling" that Libya should be hosting the championships, and urging FIDE to ensure that Israeli players were treated equally. The letter raises concerns over the Libyans not allowing the coaches and families of Israeli players into the country [6]. Similar concerns were expressed in an Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) open letter of May 26 [7] (the ACP have also criticized several other aspects of the tournament's organization).
FIDE has maintained throughout that Israeli players would have been issued with visas upon their arrival in Libya. This assurance was never put to the test, however: none of the qualified players took part in the championship and Boris Gulko , who has joint American and Israeli citizenship, withdrew from the event after initially indicating he would play (fellow Americans Alexander Shabalov and Alexander Onischuk also withdrew in sympathy with the concerns of Gulko and others [8]). The only player in the final list of participants with a joint Israeli passport--Vadim Milov--never travelled to Libya: he complained that his official invitation to the event had arrived so late (on the day of the opening ceremony, one day before the first game) that it was physically impossible for him to get to Libya with it in time. Milov claims that this constituted a deliberate attempt by FIDE to exclude him [9] and is taking the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Tribunal Arbitral de Sport) in Lausanne [10]. In response, FIDE said that the delay in sending Milov's invitation was due to Milov not sending them his passport details until a deadline had passed, and that even with this delay, Milov could still have arrived in Tripoli in time for his first game, which they had offered to postpone if necessary [11]. It was also reported (on June 17) that the Israeli chess federation was considering suing FIDE "for compensation for the damages incurred by our exclusion from this tournament" [12].