Kamsky-Topalov On for February

Earlier this week, FIDE annonuced that Gata Kamsky and Veselin Topalov have indeed agreed to play their candidates match in Sofia, Bulgaria, in late February. The agreement comes after months of speculation, doubt, and confusion as to when or where the match might be taking place.

Although Topalov will love having the match close to home, the real winners here are chess fans around the world. Some normalization of the World Championship process is desperately needed, and this is an excellent first step.

One interesting note in the FIDE press release: Kamsky is no longer being represented by Oleksandr Chernenko. Whether this had any bearing on the sudden agreement would be pure speculation, but it does seem like player representatives seem to get in the way of any actual chess being played fairly often these days.