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June 17, 2004
Now No Moro
In the latest edition of TWIC, #501, it is casually mentioned that Alexander Morozevich, the number two seed in the 2004 FIDE KO world championship starting Saturday, June 19, has dropped out at the last minute. The exciting young Russian, always a crowd favorite, has a history of such behavior, and no matter what you think of holding the event in Libya, it's not kosher to bail out after the pairings are up, especially if you are one of the top seeds in a KO. At this point FIDE will probably just give a bye to his amateur Libyan opponent, screwing up the balance of the brackets and giving someone (either Smirnov or Bruzon) an easy ride to round three. At least Morozevich did it (assuming he did) without one of the long, incoherent open letters that are all the rage these days. I haven't seen any other mention of the dropout. Anyone?
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On rec.games.chess.misc, there was a post by Bruno de Baenst saying, "...Fide still hasn't confirmed that Morozevich isn't gonna play, but GM Dima Tyomkin (who is reliable ) keeps saying that he is absolutely sure that Moro isn't gonna play, we'll have to see if he plays or not."
Posted by: Jeff Sonas at June 17, 2004 16:54my source was Baburin's ChessToday and I believeI can trust them :-)
Swiss Milov (the holder of israeli passport) and russian Alekseev are not coming either;
Morozevich's decision not to play was also confirmed by Peter Svidler when he logged on (as "Tendulkar") after finishing his last game in the Petrosian Memorial. Presumably Svidler is a reliable source on such matters.
-Geof
Posted by: Geof at June 18, 2004 14:11Sorry, I mean "logged on to ICC." Tendulkar (Svidler) was observing/kibitzing the Gelfand-Bacrot and van Wely-Lputian games for a short time.
- Geof
Posted by: Geof at June 18, 2004 14:13Another rumor says Shulman has withdrawn;
Posted by: GM Tyomkin at June 18, 2004 15:18Too bad Moro and a few others have decided not to play at the last minute. In spite of that I count more than 100 GMs playing, most of them rated 2500 or higher. Approximately 60 of them rated 2600 or higher. This is awesome! Let's forget politics and watch some fighting chess. Let the best player win.
Posted by: Eduardo Moura at June 18, 2004 17:28There's a new list of pairings now on the FIDE site, with only 61 first round matches listed. Missing are Morozevich-Elarbi, Hjartarson-Kudrin and Tkachiev-Shulman. Milov and Alekseev are still listed in there.
http://www.wcclibya2004.com/round.asp
Posted by: Jeff Sonas at June 18, 2004 19:54I heard about Shulman last week, but he declined to confirm when I exchanged e-mail with him. I thought Milov was playing under a Swiss passport. Ah, now there are 60 pairings on that page instead of 61, and Milov is gone. They may just start with the second round!
Posted by: Mig at June 19, 2004 04:06Morozevich, Shulman, Milov and Kudrin arent playing finally this FIDE WCCh 2004
Posted by: Pablo at June 19, 2004 10:58It appears that it is #35 Hjartarson who is missing, not #94 Kudrin. At least according to the FIDE site.
Posted by: Jeff Sonas at June 21, 2004 17:38
