World Chess Championship 2012 - Timeline of Changes

Timeline of Changes

The procedures for choosing the challenger and host underwent a number of changes and controversies. A timeline is shown below:

  • February 2007 – FIDE initially announces that the challenger will be the winner of the Chess World Cup ("Proposal A"). This leads to protests from a number leading grandmasters, so this proposal is soon scrapped.
  • June 2007 – FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announces a structure culminating in a two-player Challenger Match:
    • The first stage is the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010, a grand prix series of tournaments between twenty-one élite players, beginning in April 2008.
    • In late 2009, FIDE will stage the Chess World Cup 2009, a series of knockout mini-matches following a similar format to the Chess World Cup 2007 (128 players, seven rounds).
    • In 2010, an eight-game Challenger Match will be played between the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010 winner and the Chess World Cup 2009 winner.
    • The winner of the challenger match will play the defending champion in a twelve-game match in September 2011.
    • Starting with this 2011 championship FIDE plans to hold future World Chess Championships on a two-year cycle in the same format.
  • February 2008 – Alexander Morozevich announces he is boycotting the Grand Prix, saying the process is too long, unwieldy and disorganised. He claims that Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov are also boycotting.
  • March 2008 – The line-up for the Grand Prix is announced. The top four rated players in the world at the time (Kramnik, Anand, Topalov, Morozevich) are not in the tournament; other eligible players not participating are Alexei Shirov and Judit Polgár. The Week in Chess reports that Kramnik and Topalov are not participating because the event had insufficient prize money.
  • April–May 2008 – First Grand Prix tournament takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan.
  • July–August 2008 – Second Grand Prix tournament takes place in Sochi, Russia.
  • 23 November 2008 – Qatar, who was scheduled to hold the third Grand Prix beginning on 13 December, withdraws as a host nation, and is replaced by Elista, Russia.
  • 25 November 2008 – Ilyumzhinov announces the new structure (the eight-player Candidates Tournament described above, instead of a two-player Challenger Match).
  • 26 November 2008 – The changes are ratified the next day at the FIDE Congress.
  • 5 December 2008 – Magnus Carlsen withdraws from the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010 in protest at the changes partway through the cycle. He argues that the Grand Prix players have been disadvantaged, as the winner now qualifies for an eight-player tournament instead of a two-player Challenger Match.
  • 6 December 2008 – Levon Aronian issues an open letter of protest, but does not withdraw from the Grand Prix.
  • 11 December 2008 – Michael Adams withdraws from the Grand Prix for similar reasons to Carlsen.
  • 13 December 2008 – The third Grand Prix tournament begins in Elista, Russia, with a number of changes to the playing list (see FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010).
  • 15 December 2008 – Ilyumzhinov announces that both events will take place (the two-player Challenger Match and the eight-player Candidates Tournament), with a final decision on the structure in March 2009.
  • 16 December 2008 – The Association of Chess Professionals objects to the change, saying, "The system of the World Championship cannot be changed once the cycle has started."
  • 11 February 2009 – Universal Event Promotion (UEP), the company which organised the World Chess Championship 2008 match, submits a bid to host the Candidates Tournament as a series of matches.
  • 9 March 2009 – FIDE accepts UEP's bid, confirming that an eight-player Candidates Tournament will take place. No mention is made of the Challenger Match. There is also a slight change to the qualification for the Candidates' tournament: two players (rather than one) are to be taken from the ratings list, and the winner of the World Chess Cup 2009 qualifies, but the runner-up does not.
  • 22 June 2009 – FIDE announces regulations for the eight-player Candidates Tournament, indicating it will be organised as a series of short matches.
  • October 2009 – it is reported that the Candidates matches will be organised by Azerbaijan, but that the matches involving Armenia's Levon Aronian will be played elsewhere; and that the matches will be played at the end of 2010 and start of 2011.
  • 20 October 2009 – The FIDE Executive Board gave an option to London to organise the event and announced that it would only open the bidding procedure if London would not take the option.
  • 20 April 2010 – London confirms holding an option to organise the 2012 World Chess Championship.
  • 26 July 2010 – The FIDE Presidential Board in Tromso, Norway decides to move the Candidates matches from Azerbaijan to Kazan, Russia, with Mamedyarov's position intact. If Topalov refuses to play in Kazan, Alexander Grischuk, the third-place finisher in the FIDE Grand Prix, will take his place.
  • 28 July 2010 – After learning of FIDE's intention of replacing him with Grischuk should he refuse to play, Topalov backs off of his previous statement refusing to play in Russia, and indicates that he will participate in Kazan.
  • 29 July 2010 – Topalov (through his manager) indicates that he would still refuse to play a match against any Russian in Kazan; this could not theoretically happen until the Candidates final, since Kramnik and Grischuk are the only Russians in the Candidates tournament and play in the lower half of the bracket, while Topalov plays in the upper bracket; at the time of this statement, Kramnik was the only Russian in the field.
  • 5 November 2010 – Magnus Carlsen decides not to take part in the planned Candidate Matches.
  • 10 November 2010 – FIDE announces that Grischuk will replace Carlsen. Any other withdrawals will be replaced by Dmitry Jakovenko, the fourth-place finisher in the FIDE Grand Prix.
  • 3 February 2011 – London withdraws its 2012 World Championship bid.
  • 28 June 2011 – Moscow confirms bidding to host the 2012 World Championship.
  • 13 July 2011 – Chennai bids to host the 2012 World Championship.
  • 9 August 2011 – Skolkovo near Moscow chosen as 2012 World Championship venue.
  • 26 November 2011 – 2012 World Championship match in Moscow relocated to Tretyakov Gallery
  • 20 February 2012 – hosting agreement signed between the Russian Chess Federation and the Tretyakov Gallery

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