An Old Cat Learns New Tricks, NIC Magazine 2008/8
Garry Kasparov: ‘It will not be easy for the new generation of stars to take his crown. The Tiger of Madras may be an old cat, but he is still learning new tricks.’

I thought that with time Garry could ‘digest’ his London defeat and would become more objective with the passing years, but I see that this isn’t happening. That’s why after Vishy Anand recently provided me with a certain amount of free time, I decided to use it to explain my position on various issues to the readers concerning the ‘newest’ chess history. I hope it will help chess fans to have a clearer picture about the events that took place in the chess world a few years ago.

Just as in his time a myth was created that Alekhine completely evaded a return match with Capablanca (which, judging by the archival materials, doesn’t wholly correspond with reality), so the 13th world champion for however many years now has been trying to convince the entire chess community that I also avoided a return match with him under all kinds of contrived pretexts. In connection with that I wanted to describe how it all actually happened, not based on emotional claims or conjectures, but on proven facts and clear logic.

So, at the end of March 2000, after the breakdown of negotiations with Anand (to play a world championship match against Kasparov – ed.) at the last moment (I don’t exactly know why that happened), I received a proposal from the newly-formed company Brain Games and personally from Kasparov to sign a contract to participate in a World Championship match. For me this was completely unexpected, especially taking into account the fact that two years earlier, as everyone knew, I’d lost a qualifying match to Alexey Shirov.

In answer to my question, why wasn’t Brain Games trying to organize a Kasparov-Shirov match, the situation was explained to me in the following way: the sponsor (or, to be more precise, the main investor in the company) would only give money for a match that had some sporting intrigue. At the time he thought this could be guaranteed by only two opponents – Anand or Kramnik – and he didn’t intend to participate in the project if any other chess player was chosen.

Thus I found myself faced with an unpleasant choice. On the one hand, I understood and still understand the absurdity of the fact that despite my defeat in the Candidates’ match (although it was already two years old) I’d nevertheless received the opportunity to play a World Championship match. But was this my fault, when it came down to it?

On the other hand, by that point it had already become clear to everyone that a Kasparov-Shirov match would probably never happen. And if I was ‘standing in line’, as they say, then for reasons that were independent from me I was highly unlikely to play in a ‘real’ (by my definition) World Championship in the long term. As FIDE by this time was already firmly set on the path of holding knock-out championships, and I had always been opposed to producing a world chess champion by that method. Moreover, I didn’t ask to be put directly into the final match, and if I’d had the opportunity to play in a new qualification cycle, I’d have gladly agreed to it, but that opportunity wasn’t offered to me, or, by the way, to anyone else.

Kramnik-Shirov face to face

That’s why although Shirov’s gripes with me can be understood from a human point of view (although in my opinion they weren’t directed to quite the right person), Kasparov’s constant reproaches about my ‘inadequacy’ based on this history are simply incorrect. It’s my deep conviction that it was precisely his short-sightedness (the absence of a contract with a sponsor for a final match before my semi-final with Shirov) and, to put it mildly, his inconsistency (looking for another opponent with an ‘alive’ Shirov) that were the main reasons for this strange and ugly situation

And to the 13th champion’s constant reproaches that I started organizing a draw for the World Championship qualification cycle even though I myself hadn’t been through this qualification process, I want to reply: that’s exactly why I started doing it! This whole story was extremely unpleasant for me, and I wanted to do everything possible to prevent a similar incident from occurring again, so that the challenger would be determined as a result of a sporting qualification process, and not at the will of the ‘monarch’, or so-called ‘public opinion’.

Let’s go on. I want to draw your attention to one significant fact that Kasparov for understandable reasons always ‘forgets’ to mention in his public speeches. At his own initiative and with my approval, which, by the way, few people were interested in at the time, the following point was included in our contract for the London match: the loser must take part in the new World Championship qualification cycle, starting with the Candidates’ tournament. The winner must play the winner of that tournament. Not a single word was said in the contract about a return match.

At a press conference in London in April 2000, right after the signing of the contract by both parties, Garry announced that he considered it important that after this match we should have a strict qualification system for the World Championship, etc... I suspect that he was sincere at that moment, but after losing the match his position quickly changed.

From that point this story takes a new turn – the ex-champion’s desperate attempts to get a return match, bypassing the obligations he’d agreed to earlier.

'Garry had already begun expressing his desire to play a return match inmediately'

Kasparov’s theory that he didn’t consider it right to demand a return match immediately, but started doing this when he’d proved that he was the strongest challenger (by his reasoning this occurred after the tournament in Astana in May-June 2001), isn’t entirely devoid of logic. But it has one substantial flaw – it just doesn’t correspond with reality. In actual fact Garry had already begun expressing his desire to play a return match immediately (in fact the very next day) after the end of our match (see, besides others, Kasparov’s interview in New In Chess 2000/8), long before his ‘symbolic’ victory in Astana. (By the way, my win against him in April 2001 in the final of the tournament in Zürich didn’t seem symbolic to him for some reason...)

Kramnik-Kasparov games generate tremendous media attention

Anyone who wants to may convince themselves of this by looking in the archives of the 13th champion’s interviews and public speeches in the period from November 2000 to June 2001 (to have a clear picture it is already enough to read back the issues of New In Chess from this time period).

Then, using an insignificant legal ‘stumbling block’, Garry breaks his contract with Brain Games, thus freeing his hands for further actions. I don’t know if I had legal ‘loopholes’ to do the same thing (and if not I simply didn’t have the legal right to play an official return match). But in any case, doing such things would have been against my principles, especially as at that point Brain Games had fulfilled its contractual obligations to me.

So the absurdity of the situation lies in the fact that Kasparov is reproaching me for honestly fulfilling the obligations that we both accepted in 2000, which, besides, were initiated by him!

To conclude this subject I’d like to point out another important detail: despite all of Kasparov’s declarations about his desire to play a return match and the existence of businessmen he knows who are prepared to sponsor this event, I haven’t received a single official (or even unofficial) proposal. Furthermore, neither Garry himself, nor any of his representatives, have ever communicated with me, even to simply discuss this question. To this day it’s a mystery to me how it’s possible to naively assume that such a project can come about without that first step. Also Garry’s unflattering (and sometimes also simply insulting) public statements about me, which started immediately after London, of course have only worsened the situation.

Later in 2001, in accordance with the agreements made earlier, the ex-champion received an invitation from Brain Games to participate in the Candidates’ tournament (which took place in Dortmund in summer 2002). Apart from the decent financial conditions (first prize – 100,000 Euros), the winner (this was Peter Leko in the end) received the legal right to a match with me for the champion’s title, which was established in each player’s contract. There was a legal document signed by me, guaranteeing my participation in this match. You’ll agree that this doesn’t fit at all with Kasparov’s theory, as for me and many others it was clear that Garry had every chance to win that tournament, considering his results at the time. Moreover, as far as I know from private conversations with representatives of the company, Brain Games was prepared to consider satisfying ‘special’ financial conditions for Kasparov if he would agree to play in the tournament.

I don’t know how those negotiations went (I’d be very interested in hearing Raymond Keene’s description of this if he wants to talk about it), but in the end Garry refused to participate. Whatever the reason: an unwillingness to play in the qualification cycle on principle, uncertainty about an eventual victory or simply a matter of money, we have to look the truth in the eye: Garry himself missed a real opportunity to play another match with me for the World Championship. No one prevented him from doing this and no one ‘ran away’ from him. If he had just kept his word, played (and in all likelihood, won) the Candidates’ tournament, the Kramnik-Kasparov match would inevitably have taken place.

Leko won the Candidates and later met Kramnik

However, the ex-champion didn’t sit around aimlessly for long and soon decided to go over to the other side. As he admitted in an interview with Yury Vasiliev immediately after the signing of the Prague Agreement, the decision to enter a rapprochement with FIDE and personally with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov wasn’t easy for him. And indeed, knowing Garry’s attitude towards FIDE and its president at the time (and vice versa), and their still-recent public insulting statements about each other, this looked rather strange from a personal point of view. But, on the other hand, the things we’ll do for the good of Chess! Moreover, the moment for carrying out this goodwill mission was very appropriate: the opponent in the FIDE World Championship match (the right to which Kasparov ‘traded’) was completely ‘crushable’. With all of the young Ponomariov’s unquestionable talent, hardly anyone doubted that he wasn’t ready yet to win against such an opponent in a full-fledged match.

The fact that I also signed the Prague Agreement, basically legally agreeing to a unification match with Kasparov (who could know then that his match with Ponomariov would fall apart?) again doesn’t fit with the theory that I mentioned above. But here, too, Garry was at the ready, creating the latest myth about how after the signing I supposedly did everything to try and break the Prague Agreement. In fact, the truth is that I was the only party who fulfilled the obligations!

Kasparov, Ilyumzhinov and Kramnik signing the agreement in Prague

Few people now remember that one of the main points in this agreement (and for me really the most important) was the point about the complete reorganization of professional chess. According to the agreement, FIDE agreed that from that point it would completely step back from organizing professional World Championships. Back in 2002 an organization was supposed to be created (this was something like the ATP in tennis), headed by Bessel Kok, which would have taken on all the rights and obligations for holding the championships. All this was supposed to take place under the aegis of FIDE, for which it received a certain amount of money from this new organization, and from then on FIDE would have mainly dealt with so-called ‘amateur’ chess (organizing the Olympiads, youth and junior championships, various team events etc.).

I thought (and still think) that this was the ideal plan for the successful development of chess. In general FIDE seemed well-equipped to organize the above-mentioned competitions, which, unfortunately, can’t be said about the World Championships. The recent match in Bonn was a rare exception in recent years, and that was precisely because it was completely organized by the UEP under the aegis of FIDE (i.e. according to the ‘Prague’ plan).

That’s exactly why this was really an historic and revolutionary document (apart from the actual unification of the title of world champion, of course). But the problem was that FIDE wasn’t in any hurry to fulfil its obligations... By the end of 2004 (two and a half years later!) the following situation had come about: on my part a Candidates’ tournament had taken place and I had played a match with the winner of it (Leko), thus completely fulfilling my obligations in the agreement, while not one of the other main points had been realized.

The new professional organization that I mentioned above wasn’t functioning, FIDE, as before, (and with its previous ‘success’) continued organizing World Championships (or to be more precise, tried to do this), and the Ponomariov-Kasparov match was cancelled. Not to mention the other, lesser details that also weren’t fulfilled. No new corporate sponsors, who were so colourfully described in Prague... Complete chaos.

In one of my interviews in late 2004 I expressed my indignation about the situation and demanded that FIDE fulfil its Prague obligations. I also reasonably announced that if that didn’t happen I wouldn’t consider myself bound to the agreement. FIDE, and for some reason Kasparov in particular, immediately ‘pounced’ on me, declaring that I was trying to break the Prague Agreement, obviously using the chance to ‘cook up’ blame on someone for their own failings. Once again I was ideal for the role of scapegoat.

Everyone well knows the end of this sad story with the Prague Agreement. The romantic love-hate relations between FIDE and Kasparov ended in a scandalous divorce (perhaps someone will blame me for this, too?), and soon afterwards the departure of the disappointed Garry from chess. What was signed in Prague was never fulfilled.

Kramnik with the FIDE President on his arrival to Elista 2006

In 2006 the unification of the champion’s title nevertheless took place, although again, according to the bad old tradition, it didn’t pass without a scandal. But that’s another story...

The full text of this article is published under permission by NIC. It first appeared published in NIC magazine 2009/1