The FIDE Candidates: Solving One Problem While Creating Two New Ones
As recently reported on this blog and elsewhere, FIDE has set the Candidates event for this October in London. That's the good news (except for those who are unhappy about London winning the bid); the bad news is that it's likely to have an adverse effect on no less than three major tournaments: the Grand Slam final in Bilbao and the London Chess Classic. Bilbao is scheduled to finish just ten days before the Candidates is scheduled to scheduled to begin, and with overlapping players in each and given the huge importance of the Candidates, it's likely that Bilbao will take a big hit. Further - and oddly - the London Chess Classic (LCC) may take a hit as well, as LCC organizer (and IM and former voice of Fritz) Malcolm Pein worries that "the public and particularly the media ... [might not] have the appetite for two elite tournaments in London staged so close together." Bad news if he's right.
It's worth reading the rest of the Pein article - the conversation he relates with Artiom Tarasov is simply chilling. (Off-topic, but relevant to that article, the game he presents at the end is simply fascinating.)
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