Updates from the FIDE front

The FIDE rating list will appear monthly, the deadline for bidding for the Anand-Gelfand match has been extended, the list of 2011 World Cup qualifiers has been published (with Sebastien Feller on it) and there is now a Foundation for Modernisation of FIDE. We bring some updates from the FIDE front, resulting from the Presidential Board meeting that was held in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi Emirate.

A group photo from the Presidential Board meeting held in Al Ain | Photo courtesy of FIDE

Al Ain, the second largest city in the Abu Dhabi Emirate and the fourth largest city in the United Arab Emirates, is located approximately 160 km east of the capital Abu Dhabi and about 120 km south of Dubai. There, on June 5th and 6th, Continental President for Asia, Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nehyan, hosted the 2nd Quarter FIDE Presidential Board Meeting, under the auspices of the Asian Chess Federation.

A number of interesting decisions were made in Al Ain. From the original source on the FIDE website we mention the most important ones here:

The FIDE rating list will appear monthly

The Presidential Board

"decided to implement the recommendation of the Qualification Chairman and Rating Administrator to lower the rating floor to 1000 and produce the rating list on a monthly basis. It was agreed that this should come into effect from July 1st 2012."

We can only applaud this decision, with a small suggestion: take the coming year to create a live ratings section on the FIDE website and publish the new ratings of the 2700+ players on a daily basis. If several amateurs can do this on the internet, FIDE should certainly be able to do it, and we don't have to call these live ratings unofficial any more!

The deadline for bidding for the Anand-Gelfand match has been extended

In fact also those of the Women's match.

"The closing dates for bids for the World Championship Match 2012 and the Women’s World Championship Match 2011 were extended to July 31st and June 15th respectively. Proposals for both events were under consideration by potential bidders."

We might interpret this as: FIDE would like to give potential sponsors from Israel more time, and is still hoping to organize the Hou Yifan-Humpy Koneru match before the end of the year.

The list of 2011 World Cup qualifiers has been published

Actually this was posted on FIDE.com last Friday already. The 2011 FIDE World Cup will take place August 26th - September 20th, 2011 in Khanty-Mansiysk. Here's the list of qualifiers:

QUALIFIERS for the WORLD CUP 2011

a) From World Championship Match 2010:
01. V. Anand (IND)

b) From World Cup 2009:
02. B. Gelfand (ISR)
03. R. Ponomariov (UKR)
04. V. Malakhov (RUS)
05. S. Karjakin (RUS)

c) Women's World Champion 2010:
06. Hou Yifan (CHN)

d) Junior World Champions 2009 & 2010:
07. M. Vachier-Lagrave (FRA)
08. D. Andreikin (RUS)

e) From FIDE Rating List, 20 players, average 7/2010 & 1/2011:
09. M. Carlsen (NOR) 2820,00
10. L. Aronian (ARM) 2805,00
11. V. Topalov (BUL) 2789,00
12. V. Kramnik (RUS) 2787,00
13. A. Grischuk (RUS) 2766,50
14. S. Mamedyarov (AZE) 2766,50
15. V. Ivanchuk (UKR) 2751,50
16. T. Radjabov (AZE) 2746,00
17. H. Nakamura (USA) 2740,00
18. P. Eljanov (UKR) 2739,50
19. A. Shirov (ESP) 2735,50
20. P. Svidler (RUS) 2732,00
21. V. Gashimov (AZE) 2727,50
22. Wang Hao (CHN) 2727,50
23. P. Leko (HUN) 2725,50
24. Wang Yue (CHN) 2725,00
25. D. Jakovenko (RUS) 2722,00
26. G. Kamsky (USA) 2721,50
27. E. Bacrot (FRA) 2721,50
28. D. Navara (CZE) 2719,50

f) 46 players from European Championships 2010 & 2011
29. I. Nepomniachtchi (RUS) 2010
30. B. Jobava (GEO) 2010
31. A. Timofeev (RUS) 2010
32. Z. Efimenko (UKR) 2010
33. I. Lysyj (RUS) 2010
34. Z. Almasi (HUN) 2010
35. E. Tomashevsky (RUS) 2010
36. M. Rodshtein (ISR) 2010
37. I. Salgado Lopez (ESP) 2010
38. A. Pashikian (ARM) 2010
39. R. Mamedov (AZE) 2010
40. S. Movsesian (ARM) 2010
41. V. Akopian (ARM) 2010
42. E. Alekseev (RUS) 2010
43. S. Halkias (GRE) 2010
44. F. Berkes (HUN) 2010
45. V. Potkin (RUS) 2010
46. B. Grachev (RUS) 2010
47. B. Socko (POL) 2010
48. L. Nisipeanu (ROU) 2010
49. E. Vorobiov (RUS) 2010
50. Y. Drozdovskij (UKR) 2010
51. V. Babula (CZE) 2010
52. R. Wojtaszek (POL) 2011
53. J. Polgar (HUN) 2011
54. A. Moiseenko (UKR) 2011
55. F. Vallejo Pons (ESP) 2011
56. M. Ragger (AUT) 2011
57. S. Feller (FRA) 2011
58. N. Vitiugov (RUS) 2011
59. S. Zhigalko (BLR) 2011
60. A. Korobov (UKR) 2011
61. E. Inarkiev (RUS) 2011
62. E. Postny (ISR) 2011
63. S. Azarov (BLR) 2011
64. I. Khairullin (RUS) 2011
65. M. Kobalia (RUS) 2011
66. N. Guliyev (AZE) 2011
67. Y. Zherebukh (UKR) 2011
68. A. Riazantsev (RUS) 2011
69. V. Iordachescu (MDA) 2011
70. C. Lupulescu (ROU) 2011
71. L. McShane (ENG) 2011
72. D. Fridman (GER) 2011
73. A. Motylev (RUS) 2011
74. I. Ivanisevic (SRB) 2011

g) 19 players from Americas
75. R. Felgaer (ARG) Zonal 2.5
76. S. Mareco (ARG) Zonal 2.5
77. Y. Shulman (USA) Zonal 2.1
78. S. Shankland (USA) Zonal 2.1
79. R. Hess (USA) Zonal 2.1
80. R. Robson (USA) Zonal 2.1
81. A. Onischuk (USA) Zonal 2.1
82. (…to be announced…) Zonal 2.4
83. (…to be announced…) Zonal 2.4
84. L. Dominguez (CUB) Zonal 2.3
85. L. Bruzon (CUB) Zonal 2.3
86. (...to be announced...) Zonal 2.2
87. S. A. Sanabria Rangel (COL) Continental 2010
88. M. Bluvshtein (CAN) Continental 2011
89. G. Vescovi (BRA) Continental 2011
90. Y. Quesada Perez (CUB) Continental 2011
91. J. Cori (PER) Continental 2011
92. F. Corrales Jimenez (CUB) Continental 2011
93. I. R. Ortiz Suarez (CUB) Continental 2011

h) 19 players from Asia/Oceania
94. Ni Hua (CHN) Continental 2010
95. A. Gupta (IND) Continental 2010
96. Le Quang Liem (VIE) Continental 2010
97. Wesley So (PHI) Continental 2010
98. Zhou, Jianchao (CHN) Continental 2010
99. P. Harikrishna (IND) Continental 2011
100. Yu Yangyi (CHN) Continental 2011
101. Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (VIE) Continental 2011
102. R. Jumabayev (KAZ) Continental 2011
103. Li Chao B (CHN) Zonal 3.5
104. Bu Xiangzhi (CHN) Zonal 3.5
105. Zhao Zong-Yuan (AUS) Zonal 3.6
106. Ziaur Rahman (BAN) Zonal 3.2
107. S. Megaranto (INA) Zonal 3.3
108. M. Paragua (PHI) Zonal 3.3
109. P. Negi (IND) Zonal 3.7
110. (…to be announced…)
111. (…to be announced…)
112. (…to be announced…)

i) 6 players from Africa
113. M. Kaabi (TUN) Zonal 4.1
114. H. Ibrahim (EGY) Zonal 4.2
115. R. Gwaze (ZIM) Zonal 4.3
116. (…to be announced…)
117. (…to be announced…)
118. (…to be announced…)

j) 6 nominees of the FIDE President
119. (…to be announced…)
120. (…to be announced…)
121. (…to be announced…)
122. (…to be announced…)
123. (…to be announced…)
124. (…to be announced…)

k) 4 nominees of the local Organising Committee
125. (…to be announced…)
126. (…to be announced…)
127. (…to be announced…)
128. (…to be announced…)

Total = 128 players

It was pointed out to us that Sebastien Feller, who was excluded from play for five years by the French Chess Federation, is still on this list. We asked FIDE about this and received the following reply:

At this point in time, we have not received any formal notification and corresponding information from the French Chess Federation regarding the ban of any players and any respective action would be accordingly decided by the FIDE's Ethics Commission.

Regards

Geoffrey Borg CEO - FIDE

Makes sense. We've asked the French Chess Federation about this and are awaiting a reply.

A Foundation for Modernisation of FIDE will be founded

We've saved arguably the most interesting bit for last.

"The FIDE Presidential Board in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, acclaimed the announcement of FIDE President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov to set up a Foundation for Modernisation of FIDE which will be funded by private investment."

It's apparently a personal idea from the FIDE President: a commission will be reviewing the development of chess in recent years and propose

"new processes, procedures, regulations, events rating systems, chess in schools and generally reviewing all aspects related to the modernisation of FIDE and the chess world"

or more shortly: a hellofalot. The commission (or rather, as FIDE puts it, Commission) will consist of the usual suspects. Chairman: FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov; commission members: FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos, General Secretary Ignatius Leong, Continental President for Asia, Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nayhan, Continental President for Europe Silvio Danailov, Vice President Ilya Levitov and Chief Executive Officer Geoffrey Borg. The first recommendations for changes are expected to be presented at the Executive Board in Krakow, Poland in October 2011.