World Chess Championship 2016

Defending champion
Challenger
 Magnus Carlsen (NOR)  Sergey Karjakin (RUS)
Born 30 November 1990
25 years old		 Born 12 January 1990
26 years old
Winner of the 2014 World Chess Championship Winner of the Candidates Tournament 2016
Rating: 2851 (World No. 1)[1] Rating: 2779 (World No. 8)[1]

The World Chess Championship 2016 is an upcoming chess match between reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen and challenger Sergey Karjakin to determine the World Chess Champion.[2] It will be held under the auspices of FIDE, the world chess federation, with the organisation rights belonging to Agon, its commercial partner.[3]

The 12 game match is planned to take place between 11–30 November in New York City, with the two contestants competing for a prize fund of at least 1 million euros (US$1.1m).[4]

Planning

The planning of the 2016 championship was a quite convoluted process even by FIDE's standards, firstly due to various novel features such as the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announcing the country (USA) two years in advance, and also Agon striving for substantial commercial sponsorship and media rights deals to try to meet their contractual obligations, but moreover due to the sudden US Treasury sanctions against Ilyumzhinov, right at the time when the plans were to be finalized.

Timeline

Planning details

During the closing ceremony of the 2014 Championship, the FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said the match would be held in the United States.[5] In a February 2016 interview with Die Zeit, Magnus Carlsen said that making this announcement so far in advance was a first.[18] Ordinarily in FIDE, the Chess Olympiad is contracted 4 years in advance, but the World Championship can often be thrown together at the last moment, in a matter of a few months.

Ilyumzhinov reiterated the USA plans in October at the Chess World Cup 2015, saying that the date and place were already final, it would occur in October 2016 in the USA, with five or six sponsors involved, and many cities (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago) offering themselves as a venue.[7] Most likely, Ilyumzhinov did not speak exactly in this extemporaneous interview, as other information had placed the event in November 2016, with Chicago replaced by San Francisco as a possible venue.

Agon's report

FIDE's commercial partner Agon reported to the September 2015 FIDE Executive Board as a special annex.[6] Here they demonstrate four major sponsors for 2016: Goldman Sachs Investment Banking, Audi, E.ON, and Isklar Water. Regarding the World Championship specifically, the report says "Agon has secured a prize fund (€2,000,000) and is working on developing sponsorship contracts. We’ll inform the Board and, if approved, announce the city and venue in November of 2015, exactly a year before the championship. We are looking at New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. We are also working with ESPN and Sky Sports to make sure the Championship is on TV."

Ilyumzhinov's suspended authority in FIDE and its aftermath

However, all plans were then considered to be on hold, as on November 25, 2015 Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was named a Specially Designated National by the United States Department of the Treasury (Office of Foreign Assets Control), which in particular prohibits US persons from transacting with him.[8] Ilyumzhinov commented that the action was a provocation, as he was to be in New York on the ensuing Sunday to sign the contract for the World Championship.[19] Agon's news website declared that the sanctions would "probably not" affect the organization of the World Championship in the United States.[20] In an emergency FIDE Presidential Board meeting in early December, Ilyumzhinov temporarily suspended his authority in FIDE, delegating this to Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos.[9] The CEO of Agon, Ilya Merenzon, commented that this should make it easier to finalize a World Championship deal in the USA,[21] but by early January (40 days after Merenzon's original deadline), there had been no announced progress with concluding a deal. All that had been seen from FIDE is a January 8 news item briefly saying that Agon "has launched a site and an official broadcasting platform for the World Chess Championship cycle events" (worldchess.com), when in fact this site had become operational in early October 2015.[11][22]

Vladimir Kramnik noted that the timing of the sanctions was particularly onerous to FIDE, saying "A couple of months ago, I had a private conversation with a big American businessman who had been one of the initiators of this enterprise. He confirmed to me that the sponsors were ready to support the match - and perhaps even further major chess events in the USA. Then, the sanctions came just a few days before the conclusion."[23] Kramnik also hypothesized that Garry Kasparov might have been behind the sanctions as revenge for the 2014 FIDE elections, an idea that Kasparov hotly denied.[24]

In the FIDE-Agon contract (3.3b) there is a specific mention that a proposed event sponsor who has been sanctioned by the US Treasury for terrorism sponsorship can be rejected for that very reason,[3] though this would only be applicable to Ilyumzhinov via analogy, for instance as an indication of a violation of (2.2.11) of the FIDE Code of Ethics ("Any conduct likely to injure or discredit the reputation of FIDE, its events, organizers, participants, sponsors or that will enhance the goodwill which attaches to the same").[25]

Delays lead to skepticism

Remembering the failed 2014 bidding process, and given that Merenzon's desire to announce the World Championship one year in advance had passed, there was some skepticism voiced among top players that FIDE/Agon's plans for the World Championship in the USA in November 2016 would indeed materialize as hoped. For instance, on January 7, 2016 in an interview with Candidate Hikaru Nakamura with commentator Alex Yermolinsky, it was mentioned that the finalized plans for the World Championship could depend on who the challenger would be, and that if an American (Caruana or Nakamura) did not win the Candidates tournament, then probably the match would not be in the United States after all.[26]

The President of the Russian Chess Federation, Andrey Filatov, echoed these sentiments a few days later in an interview with Russia Sport that was then translated into English and published as a FIDE news item, saying that negotiations with the United States had been suspended, and that a final agreement concerning the World Championship would only be reached in March.[12][13] In response, the head of Agon (Ilya Merenzon) immediately launched a news brief to rebut this, again reiterating that the World Championship will take place from November 9–30, 2016 in the United States, with a joint announcement of the host city by Agon/FIDE to occur later in January.[14]

Culmination

Finally, on March 1, 2016, The Wall Street Journal broke the news that New York City would host the match. However, Merenzon declined to identify the sponsors.[15] Essentially, he stated that Agon was in line with Carlsen's manager on associating him with American companies, though finding a major US sponsor has little precedent. Senior chess photographer and journalist David Llada immediately criticized the lack of sponsorship details as "very unprofessional", as the announcement is seen as more of a statement of intent as no venue is specified either.[27] However, this is not uncommon with FIDE, to name cities first and let details work out later, as can be seen in the Candidates Tournament 2016 planning.

Candidates Tournament

The Candidates Tournament was held on 11-30 March 2016 in Moscow, Russia, with FIDE's commercial partner Agon as the official organizer,[3] with support from the Russian Chess Federation.[28]

The tournament was contested as a double round-robin over 14 games, with four rest days after Games 3, 6, 9, and 12. The winner of this 8-player Candidates Tournament will be the challenger for the 2016 World Chess Championship against Magnus Carlsen.[29]

Qualifiers

There were five different qualification paths to the Candidates Tournament.[29] In order of priority, these were: loser of the World Chess Championship 2014 match, the top two finishers in the Chess World Cup 2015, the top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15, next two highest rated players (average FIDE rating on the 12 monthly lists from January to December 2015, with at least 30 games played) who played in Chess World Cup 2015 or FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15, and one player nominated by the organizers (Agon).

Qualification path Player Age Rating World #
Loser of the World Chess Championship 2014 match India Viswanathan Anand 46 2762 12
Winner of the Chess World Cup 2015 Russia Sergey Karjakin 26 2760 13
Runner-up of the Chess World Cup 2015 Russia Peter Svidler 39 2757 16
The top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15 United States Fabiano Caruana 23 2794 3
United States Hikaru Nakamura 28 2790 6
The top two players with highest average 2015 rating who played in World Cup or Grand Prix Bulgaria Veselin Topalov 41 2780 8
Netherlands Anish Giri 21 2793 4
Wild card nomination of Organizers (Agon), with FIDE rating in July 2015 at least 2725 Armenia Levon Aronian[28] 33 2786 7

Results

Pos Player Pld Pts KAR CAR ANA SVI ARO GIR NAK TOP
1  Sergey Karjakin (RUS) 14 8.5 —  1  ½   1  0   ½  ½   ½  ½   ½  ½   1  ½   1  ½ 
2  Fabiano Caruana (USA) 14 7.5  ½  0  —  1  ½   ½  ½   ½  ½   ½  ½   1  ½   ½  ½ 
3  Viswanathan Anand (IND) 14 7.5  1  0   ½  0  —  1  ½   1  ½   ½  ½   ½  0   1  ½ 
4  Peter Svidler (RUS) 14 7  ½  ½   ½  ½   ½  0  —  ½  1   ½  ½   ½  ½   ½  ½ 
5  Levon Aronian (ARM) 14 7  ½  ½   ½  ½   ½  0   0  ½  —  ½  ½   1  ½   ½  1 
6  Anish Giri (NED) 14 7  ½  ½   ½  ½   ½  ½   ½  ½   ½  ½  —  ½  ½   ½  ½ 
7  Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 14 7  ½  0   ½  0   1  ½   ½  ½   ½  0   ½  ½  —  1  1 
8  Veselin Topalov (BUL) 14 4.5  ½  0   ½  ½   ½  0   ½  ½   0  ½   ½  ½   0  0  —

Championship match

Match regulations

The match regulations have been put forth by FIDE. Draws are not permitted before move 30, except by repetition of moves.[2]

Sponsorship

According to Section 12.2 of the Regulations, no sponsor may conflict with the regulations of the International Olympic Committee. This could preclude various alcohol and tobacco companies,[30] though Beluga Noble Russian Vodka was a partner of the Candidates Tournament. The dress code regulations (6.5) also prohibit individual player sponsors from conflicting. To date, no specific World Championship sponsors have been announced by Agon,[15] though four (general) sponsors were listed in their September 2015 report.[6]

Head to head record

Prior to the match Carlsen and Karjakin have played 19 games at classical time control. Carlsen has won three, Karjakin - one. 15 games ended in a draw.[31]

References

  1. 1 2 "Top 100 Players". Ratings.fide.com. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 2016 Fide World Championship Match Regulations
  3. 1 2 3 FIDE-Agon agreement (3.1a) of Annex 11, 2012 FIDE General Assembly
  4. 1 2 "The World Chess Championship comes to New York City!". World Chess Federation. 1 March 2016. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  5. 1 2 Wrapping Up The World Championship by Mike Klein (Chess.Com)
  6. 1 2 3 Report to the FIDE Executive Board by Ilya Merenzon, CEO of AGON Limited, Annex 54, FIDE 2015 Executive Board
  7. 1 2 "Chess-News interview with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov". 4 October 2015.
  8. 1 2 OFAC designates four individuals and six entities for Syrian support US Treasury press release
  9. 1 2 Statement from FIDE
  10. ↑ FIDE and Agon sign historic media rights with NRK (FIDE press release)
  11. 1 2 Agon Launches Site (FIDE News)
  12. 1 2 Interview with Filatov (FIDE site)
  13. 1 2 Russian Sport interview
  14. 1 2 Statement regarding 2016 WCC (Agon)
  15. 1 2 3 NYC to host 2016 WCC by Jonathan Zalman, Wall Street Journal, 1 March 2016
  16. ↑ Moves from Candidates Tournament exclusively shown by approved broadcast partners (Agon)
  17. ↑ Worldchess.com Terms and Conditions (Candidates Tournament)
  18. ↑ Magnus Carlsen, Chess World Champion (Die Zeit, German)
  19. ↑ US imposes sanctions against Ilyumzhinov for supporting Syria (Russian)
  20. ↑ United States Levies Sanctions Against the President of FIDE (Agon)
  21. ↑ BREAKING: Ilyumzhinov Steps Down Temporarily As FIDE President Peter Doggers, Chess.com
  22. ↑ The new Agon worldchess website (The Chess Mind blog)
  23. ↑ Kramnik: "The Sanctions Imposed on Ilyumzhinov Might Have Been Kasparov's Revenge" (Chess-News Russia)
  24. ↑ Garry Kasparov: "Blaming Me for Ilyumzhinov's Corruption? This is Bizarre" (Chess-News Russia)
  25. ↑ FIDE Code of Ethics
  26. ↑ Man vs Machine Chess: Nakamura-Komodo Game 4 (twitch video)
  27. ↑ Tweet (David Llada)
  28. 1 2 World Chess Candidates Tournament (FIDE)
  29. 1 2 "Rules & regulations for the Candidates Tournament of the FIDE World Championship cycle 2014–2016" (PDF). FIDE. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  30. ↑ Olympic Marketing Fact File 2016 (page 33): "The IOC does not accept commercial associations with tobacco products or alcoholic beverages other than beer and wine"
  31. ↑ http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?pid=54535&player2=carlsen&playercomp=either

Notes

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