GM IGOR GLEK: Open Letter to the Presidents of FIDE, the European Chess Union and the Turkish Chess Federation

Chess Today - 914 (10th May 2003)

Dear Sirs,

Having studied recently published information about the forthcoming European Individual Championship (Silivri/Istanbul, 29 May - 14 June 2003) I, as a chess professional who makes living playing in tournaments, would like to raise several questions, concerning the financial side of the tournament.

Venue. It is very important to have detailed information about the hotel where players are expected to stay, but I could not find the Marine Princess Hotel in Silivri in any tourist catalogue or on the Internet. More importantly, players are supposed to stay in that hotel only, which takes away their freedom of choice.

Cost. Prices in the Marine Princess Hotel (single room and full board) are fixed at US $80 per day, which is 2-3 times higher than average prices for such hotels in Turkey, where tourism is in decline at the moment. One cannot help but suspect that high prizes in the hotel, offered by the organisers, is the main reason why we cannot choose hotels.

Schedule. We will play 13 rounds in 16 days (including two free days and one day for tie-breaks) - again participants are forced to foot high hotel bill. I believe it would be quite possible to determine the champion in 11 or even in 9 rounds and without free days. After all, the time control is not 6-7 hours!

In total we are asked to pay about $1,900 (18-19 nights plus about $300 for an air-fare plus $50 for bus transfer and $65 for the entry fee) - a pretty high price for most chess professionals. In addition, according to the regulations, we cannot choose how we pay (cheque, credit card, etc) - the tournament regulations mention only cash payment. I would like to stress that the European Individual Chess Championship is not a private tournament, so the organisers cannot expect to do whatever they want about the venue, schedule and the cost. In fact, in any private tournament they would not be able to get away with that!

On top of these concerns, there is full uncertainty regarding the World Chess Championship. It is rumoured that prizes for losers of the first round will be considerably less than before. In this case , many participants will lose money in the tournament as a result - provided that the World Chess Championship will take place!

I trust that my concerns are shared by many of my fellow Grandmasters, who hope to receive as soon as possible some answers from officials in the Turkish Chess Federation, European Chess Union and FIDE.

Yours sincerely,
Grandmaster Igor Glek,
Essen, Germany
prinzflorizel@aol.com