CHESS
Casus belli
Raymond Keene
Gary Kasparov, not only world chess champion but also president of the Grand- master Association, has achieved every- thing he wants from the meeting of his Grandmaster Council at Brussels after the SWIFT tournament. At a late-night sitting of the world's top players the GMA refused to affiliate to Fide unless the world body concedes joint control of the world chess championship to the grandmasters. The world championship is now, of course, under Fide's exclusive control.
This decision by the GM Association is tantamount to outright rejection of Fide's urgent pleas to affiliate and a setback for Florencio Campomanes of the Philippines, controversial Fide president and Kaspar- ov's arch-enemy. Campomanes had been in Brussels over the previous weekend, lobbying grandmasters to affiliate, but his overtures have met with scant response.
The grandmasters now plan to set up their own World Cup circuit of top level tournaments, modelled on Formula 1 motor racing. They are considering an offer from Andrew Page, a London businessman, to manage the planned cir- cuit.
A further demand from the Grandmas- ter Association to Fide has been the insistence that the scandal-ridden Asian Zonal be replayed. Held during March in Jakarta, Indonesia, most of the top Asian and Australasian players were vying for two qualifying spots in the as yet unsched- uled Interzonals. With the tournament about halfway through, one of the Chinese players, Qi Jing Xuan, lost a suspicious game to his compatriot Li Zunian after only one hour's play. This result helped Li in his struggle to climb up the qualifying ladder. The game immediately attracted protests from Australian grandmaster Ian Rogers and other players in the tourna- ment.
Rogers lodged an official complaint, accusing Li of throwing the game. The non-Chinese players in the tournament and the tournament officials agreed that the game had been fixed. When considering, however, what penalty they should then impose the appeals committee was press- ured by threats of a mass walk-out by the whole Chinese contingent.
When the appeals committee eventually succumbed to the Chinese threat and imposed no penalty, the players went on strike, forcing the appeals committee to reconsider its position. At a meeting of all the players and organisers a vote was taken to change the result of the game to a draw. The Chinese refused to accept this 'com- promise' on the grounds that to do so would be an admission of guilt on Qi's part, so the tournament continued. Rogers withdrew, thereby sacrificing his chance of going forward to the next stage of the world championship qualifying cycle. Rogers's action was supported by Indone- sia's strongest player, Utut Adianto, who announced that he would also withdraw if no disciplinary action was taken.
While matters deteriorated, Filipino grandmaster Rosendo Balinas came up with a more workable compromise. The tournament would be cancelled as a qualify- ing event of the world championship cycle. Players who achieved the necessary norms would be awarded their IM and FM titles in the usual way, but the tournament would not be used to determine who qualified for the Interzonals. Instead, a new tournament would be held in May, with the same field, and safeguards built in to prevent a recurrence of the problem.
Although the decision to replay was endorsed by Dr Max Wotulo, the top local Fide official, a sudden telex from Fide announced an executive decision by Cam- pomanes that the original result would, in fact, stand. Accordingly, Li Zunian (China) and Torre (Philippines) would proceed to the Interzonals.
Quite why Campomanes continually in- sists on such controversial intervention is beyond my comprehension and apparently that of the grandmasters, who have now advised him to change his mind and let justice take its course.
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