Chessville - News - Open Letter from the ACP Board to the President of FIDE, April 15, 2004

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OPEN LETTER TO
KIRSAN ILYUMZHINOV, PRESIDENT OF FIDE

Dear Mr Ilyumzhinov,

Since the publication of the "Player's Undertaking" by the FIDE Secretariat, several participants have expressed their concern to the ACP over many issues raised by the organization of the upcoming 2004 FIDE World Chess Championship to be held in Libya and Malta, from 18 June until 13 July 2004.

We would like to bring these preoccupations to your attention. To begin with, the "Player's Undertaking" only describes the players' obligations towards FIDE, whereas no mention is made of FIDE's obligations towards the players. Moreover, the Undertaking is to be signed only by the participants and bears no signature from a FIDE representative, which means it does not constitute a proper contract, as there is no reciprocity between the parties.

The Undertaking also fails to address several important topics regarding the organization of the Championship itself.

Before committing themselves to play, participants should be told beforehand whether they will play in Libya or in Malta, as for many of them it makes quite a substantial difference. Even if granted visas to Libya, players from a certain number of countries, say Israel or the USA, would much rather play in Malta than in Libya for obvious security reasons.

We would also like to address the highly unpopular regulation, whereby the players are forced to stay in the official hotels, in this case without any mention of hotel fares. If obliged to stay in a determined hotel, it stands to reason that players should know of the incurred expenses before agreeing to them.

For all of the above reasons and several others that could be explained in detail if necessary, the ACP Board considers that the current "Player's Undertaking" fails to offer the participants sufficient information and guarantees.

This is the reason why we have come up with a modified version of the agreement between FIDE and the participants, which we send you along with this open letter. This constitutes the model of contract that several of our members would like to see used for the upcoming World Championship. Naturally, we are open for dialogue and stand ready to discuss possible changes in order to suit both parties, FIDE and the players.

Notwithstanding the last announcement by the FIDE Secretariat which chose to ignore our offer, we hope that you will be willing to address this most pressing issue. Our goal is not to prevent the event from taking place, much the contrary, we would like to help ensure the maximum participation of qualified players in the World Championship by successfully resolving the existing problems.

With best regards, The ACP Board
15.04.2004