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Chess Players Write New FIDE-Rating List Dear chess friends, The new FIDE rating list has brought us as many surprises as no one earlier. Four years ago the chess world was shocked by the exclusion of Kasparov and Short. Today FIDE has made another step, excluding hundreds of players of Kazakhstan, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan In fact, it means that these players are disqualified. It is a very serious punishment. In the past disqualification was applied very rarely. I only remember that GM Quinteros was disqualified for taking part in a tournament in South Africa at the time of apartheid. For the first time FIDE has applied mass disqualification. But what is the guilt of the players punished? Just none! Are they responsible for the fact that their federations cannot pay their dues to FIDE? Are the Tajik players responsible for the civil war in their country that makes impossible any expenses for sports especially an unpopular one like chess? Even if the duties result from the officials' negligence, what is the guilt of the players? There are many ways to punish national federations which contempt their financial duties. You can exclude their teams from the Olympiad and the continental championships. You can stop rating their events (of course, after a preliminary warning). These measures will indirectly affect players but not in such a brutal way. The decision taken by FIDE is absolutely illegal and can cost FIDE much more than it can gain, in any legal case. On the other hand, some of the names present in the list just bewilder. First of all, we see a new top player with an amazing 2635 rating: Alexandra Crisan. One can hardly find any games of this guy in databases since 1989 (his rating of 1.1.1990 was 2235). I have taken the trouble to look at his recent results (thanks to the Internet rating database). These are near-100% scores in some Romanian tournaments one has never heard about. Did Mr. Esta-dilla (whose dedicated work deserves nothing but great respect) feel any hesitation when rating such "events"? Another surprise is 212 rated games of Babakuli Annakov (with a rating jump of 200 points). In total he has played about 300 rated games in two rating periods (i.e. a year). A fantastic record for the Guinness book! Still, it is far from the limit of human abilities. Assuming that preparing a tournament report (with 10 rated "games" in average per player) takes 1 hour 8 hours a day 130 working days in half a year well, one can easily reach the amazing limit of 10000 rated games in a period. However, he should be careful. One can easily calculate that the average rating performance of our hero in those 212 games was about 2450. If he plays 212 "games" (with the same performance) in the next period, he will drop down to 2200! Therefore our Turkmenian friend should definitely improve his results. Cri-san's example shows that it is not very difficult. The only problem is: will the Turkmenian chess federation be able to avoid blacklisting (more exactly, non-listing) next time? Yours sincerely, IVIichal Krasenkow, Gorzow, Poland Kramnik's Withdrawal from FIDE Championship Dear Sirs, Your editorial in NIC 97/8 is food for thought for the quarrellous persons with chess problems. The editorial contains negative comments about FIDE administration and avoids some pertinent truths. FACTS: 1 FIDE is composed of the national affiliated chess organisations, it has both the international and legal standing and operates on the democratic principles. (Affiliation fees paid by individual organisations makes it so). 2 The current FIDE champion is GM Karpov and he will remain champion until he is defeated in the prescribed contest, resigns, dies or his title is cancelled by FIDE (as was the case with Kasparov). 3 For some years now many GM's were complaining that they were not given a fair chance both to challenge for FIDE championship and earn a fair share of prize money because of the manipulation by only two players. The current FIDE tournament structure offers better chances and conditions. 4 Both Kasparov and Karpov were seeded into the current FIDE semifinal tournament, (there was no better alternative) but when NEW IN CHESS 15