We've got'em. ChessVibes reports that the Doha FIDE Grand Prix, scheduled to begin on Dec. 13, has abruptly been moved to that venue of last resort, Elista. The Doha bid has smelled for a long time according to the players and Global Chess people I spoke with quite a while ago. This probably means the ax for local invitee al-Modiakhi. As CV points out, 12 of the participants are currently in Dresden.
In other FIDE news, they announced that Kamsky and Topalov have signed the candidates match agreements. Danailov also announced that Topalov has 'amicably' withdrawn from Linares. The match is scheduled for Feb. 16-28 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Prize fund should be the revamped 250K, which means that for whatever reason, the long delay worked to both players' advantage, cash-wise.
Carlsen in an interview today, after winning his game – the interview was one of those impromptu things that chessbase does, said that he was informed about the dates being changed. He didn’t mention anything about a change of venue. He wasn’t very happy about it
The Carlsen interview was more specific and interesting about this point.
Carlsen said he was informed immediatly before the start of yesterdays round about the changes(!) and that he was, in his own words, "to put it mildly not very satisfied" about it. Then he smiled and said, maybe being angry helped him to win the game against Navara :-)
FIDE sucks!
Raffael, you wouldn't be the guy on playchess with the massive rating, would you?
Moro got a severe spanking today for something out of his legendary "crap base" If you played through this game without knowing the players you would not believe black was a GM 10...Ng4 and 11...h5 are at best blitz chess moves still even great players are allowed an off game but this one is surely destined for the text book of premature attacks etc Botvinnik would have a heart attack if he saw this game I cant imagine Kasparovs reaction im sure it would involve a disgusted expression
In the video at chessVibes/ICC, Danalov used the term, that Topalov was able to cancel under 'friendly terms', essentially what you say.