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| Chess by Malcolm Pein of the Daily Telegraph   Malcolm Pein writes for the Daily Telegraph (telegraph.co.uk) you can read his chess columns along with those of Nigel Short and David Norwood at their Chess Club (to read the columns you need to register which is free). Chess for Thursday 13th May 2004  Press Conference in Hamburg, Vladimir Kramnik, Hans Leusen, President of Dannemann, Brazil, Joel Lautier and Peter Leko. Photo © André Schulz ChessBase The tortuous process of unifying the world chess championship title took a step forward yesterday with a press conference held in Hamburg during which the details of the forthcoming Classical Chess world championship match between Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Leko were revealed. The contest will take place between September 25 and October 18 and will be the best of fourteen games. The prize fund of one million Swiss Francs will be split 60-40. Danneman, a cigar manufacturer who will both organise and sponsor the event at their Centro Danneman a cultural centre on Lake Maggiore in Brissago, Switzerland hosted the press conference. Kramnik was centre stage, flanked by Hans Leusen, President of Danneman Brazil, Leko and Joel Lautier the President of the ACP or Association of Chess Professionals a body recently formed to look after the interests of the players. The ACP will be sanctioning the match.  Press scrum. Photo © André Schulz ChessBase Under the Prague Agreement made in April 2002 between Kramnik, Garry Kasparov and Fide the winner of the Fide championship was to play Kasparov for the right to challenge Vladimir Kramnik or his successor. The Fide champion Ruslan Ponomariov refused to play Kasparov for reasons nobody can really comprehend and so the winner of the next Fide knockout, which is to take place at Tripoli in June will take his place. However real doubt surrounds Fide's ability to organise a match with Kasparov when the organisation is in such disarray. In response to a question from your correspondent Kramnik emphasised that despite the delays and Fides's erratic behavioue he was still absolutely committed to following the Prague agreement. However Lautier indicated that once the Leko-Kramnik match was complete Fide must have announced or even staged the Kasparov match or else other arrangements would have to be made. I got the clear impression that Kramnik or Leko in tandem with the ACP may well seek to reunify the title themselves and make new proposals if Fide are still prevaricating come November.  Blitz game with Joel Lautier watching on> Photo © André Schulz ChessBase Colours were drawn for the match in an original way. Adrian Madeira a representative of the Swiss region of Ticino held a chessboard aloft and selected the f5 square. The players were then allowed into the room. They played a two minute blitz game and the first player who placed a piece on f5 was to have white in the first game. The game went as follows and so Peter Leko will have white in game one. Here is what happened P.Leko - V.Kramnik Danneman CWCC for colours (2') Hamburg 1 e4 e6 2 d3 d5 3 Qe2 Nf6 4 Nf3 Nc6 5 g3 Be7 6 Bg2 dxe4 7 dxe4 e5 8 0-0 0-0 9 c3 a5 10 a4 h6 11 Rd1 Bd6 12 Na3 Qe7 13 Nb5 Rd8 14 h3 Qf8 15 Be3 Be6 16 Nh4 Rd7 17 Nf5  Position after 17.Nf5 which was the secret square and so Leko gets white in game one.  Final position. Photo © Frederic Friedel ChessBase |
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