Candidates Matches Venue Controversy

Breaking news has emerged from the FIDE Presidential Meeting held today, that the venue for the 2011 candidates matches is to be switched to Kazan in Russia.

The original venue had been the Azerbaijan capital, Baku, but Lev Aronian's qualification created a problem, since his country, Armenia, is technically at war with Azerbaijan! 

A compromise seemed to be close, which would see the matches split between Baku and another venue.  The question was, what other venue?  In recent days, the Russian Chess Federation has been lobbying hard for all the matches to be held in Kazan, Russia.

However, Veselin Topalov made it quite clear in a recent open letter that he would boycott the event if it were to be held in Russia, citing the "unpleasant situations" that he faced in Russia (Elista) in the 2006 match with Kramnik (the so-called Toiletgate affair).

However, it now seems that FIDE has indeed moved all of the matches to Kazan, effectively calling Topalov's bluff.  What on earth will happen now?

It seems that FIDE really can't organise a booze-up in a brewery!

More detail on the background to the story can be found here and here, if you can stomach it.

Thanks to Natalia Pogonina for breaking this news via her twitter page.