Henrik Carlsen speaks out

On his increasingly popular blog, Magnus Carlsen's father Henrik made some interesting statements about the current world championship cycle and the World Cup in December. He analyses the current situation and the privileges that both Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov received. Henrik's insider's point of view clarifies the complicated matter a bit more and therefore deserves mentioning.

Henrik's most important statements:

"V. Kramnik will be playing in Mexico. More surprisingly he will get a re-match against the winner irrespective of the outcome.There are arguments for this solution - he did beat Kasparov in 2000, defended his title against Leko in 2004 and beat Topalov in 2006, the reintroduction of FIDE WC matches combined with the fact that Kramnik has not lost a WC match yet counts in his favour. But there are also strong arguments against. He did not allow Kasparov a re-match, he was not a FIDE World Champion before 2006, to public knowledge a re-match was not part of the Elista 2006 match agreement, and it is obviously unfair to the winner and runner up in Mexico if Kramnik ends 3rd or worse. In conclusion it is obvious that he has got a (too) good deal."

"The story about Topalov's sudden right to a challenger match against the World Cup winner follows the same lines. Although it seems odd to arrange Mexico without Topalov, he fell for his own Elista rules. The short story is; he obviously also got a (too) good deal. FIDE yielded to a strong Bulgarian delegation at the cost of the nameless World Cup winner and runner-up. In effect the World Cup final, as a WC match qualifier, has been relegated to a semi-final, the semi-final to a quarter-final etc."

Here's the full article.

Here's a scheme of the current world championship cycle. Click on the image for a bigger view.