Euro Crisis Victim; Kings Cup Chess in Romania Cancelled

Even as Viswanathan Anand retained his World Championships title, another Indian, Parimarjan Negi crowned himself as the Asian champion. All in the same fortnight.  

Yet, folks I am sorry, my first article since the World Chess Championships in Moscow does not bring good news for the game. 

Countries, companies and people in Europe are reeling under the economic crisis. It has taken a toll in almost all walks of life. You will now need to add chess to the many victims that the economic woes of Europe has claimed.

For the past few days, there were rumours within the chess fraternity of a possible cancellation of the Kings Cup in Medias, Romania, which was to have been Anand’s first appearance since his Moscow World Chess Championships triumph. The tournament was to have been held from June 23 June to July 4.  

The tournament, sadly has now officially been cancelled and among the reasons include financial crisis and local political developments. It is unclear whether the Kings Cup, which had been held on five previous occasions, will be re-scheduled to some other dates.

This is not the first time chess has fallen victim to the economic crises. Last year the annual Linares tournament, often called the ‘Wimbledon of Chess’, was cancelled for the first time amidst hopes that it might return to the calendar in 2012. Alas that did not happen. Between 2006 and 2008, Linares, one of the great venues of chess, had an unique cost and venue sharing system with another city in another continent – Morelia in Mexico.

Another tournament that has fallen by the wayside in recent times is the Amber, formerly called as the Melody Amber Rapid and Blindfold Chess tournament. Conducted by the Dutch billionaire Joop Van Oosterom, the tournament named after the promoter’s daughter, ran from 1992 to 2011. It is unclear why the tournament came to an end. Maybe it was a combination of economic compulsions and the sheer effort of running such a high-profile event, which saw the world’s best compete in Rapid and Blindfold formats. Interestingly Anand won the rapid title a record nine times at Amber, and was the only player to have won both the Rapid and Blindfold titles in the same year. He did that twice in 1997 and 2005.

Two other events, Pearl Springs in Nanjing and the M-Tel Masters in Sofia, Bulgaria have also been wiped off the chess calendar, and the belief once again is that it was because of economic problems.  

M-Tel Masters was held continuously from 2005 to 2009. It was cancelled in 2010 because Sofia was hosting the World Championships match between Anand and Veselin Topalov. Anand won the match and world title and the M-Tel Masters has never been held since. The last M-Tel Masters was won by Alexei Shirov.

The Nanjing Pearls event was held for three years from 2008 to 2010 with Magnus Carlsen, now World No. 1, winning the last two editions.

Anand, interestingly, never won either the M-Tel or the Nanjing events. He was second once and third on another occasion in M-Tel – the winner on both occasions being Veselin Topalov. In his only appearance in Nanjing he was second to Carlsen.

A large portion of the budgets at most Super Grandmaster tournaments are earmarked for appearance fee, which can be anywhere between $80,000 to over $ 150,000 or more. In addition there can be facilities like travel, hotels and additional facilities for support teams, including seconds. At such tournaments the prize money is modest in comparison. The appearance fee depends on titles a player might have, his rankings or Elo ratings.

The Kings Cup 2012 Super GM tournament was to have seen Anand play against Magnus Carlsen among others. Teimour Radjabov, Sergey Karjakin, Vassily Ivanchuk and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu were to be the other participants.  

As one of poorer economies Europe, Romania is under severe strain due to economic woes in Europe.

The sponsor of the tournament was Romgaz, the largest natural gas producer in Romania and it was a state-owned company. The company has a seen a change in leadership and Romania’s political situation also changed with the emergence of a new leftist government in local elections. The Social Liberal Union alliance toppled the Democrat Liberal Party after a no-confidence motion in the Parliament.

In 2011, the title at the Kings' Tournament was shared by Carlsen and Karjakin. The last two editions were held in Medias, while the Romgaz resort in Bazna had been the venue for the first three editions.