Now that the chess world has a unified World Championship, what happens next? The scenario foreseen after the 2005 FIDE World Championship, San Luis, Argentina, won by Veselin Topalov, was to have a new World Championship qualifying cycle. The first step in that scenario was to reduce the number of possible challengers from many to few. This was accomplished at the 2005 FIDE World Cup, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.

The next step was to reduce the number of challengers, collectively known as Candidates, from few to even fewer. This was to be done in a knockout event called the Candidate Matches. The 16 remaining Candidates would compete for four places in the next FIDE World Championship, an eight-player double robin to be held in the second half of 2007. The other four places in the World Championship would go to the top finishers from San Luis, including Topalov.

Sometimes it seems that nothing ever evolves smoothly in top level chess. Between Khanty-Mansiysk and the Candidate Matches, two things happened.

• The first was the 2006 World Championship Unification Match, where Vladimir Kramnik beat Topalov to become the FIDE World Champion. Kramnik, who before the match had no role in the qualifying cycle, took Topalov's place, leaving Topalov outside the cycle.
  
  
• The second was that FIDE opened the bidding procedure for organizers interested in sponsoring the Candidate Matches, but there were no bids. What was FIDE to do now?

The first call for bids was announced at the beginning of January 2006.

• Bidding Procedure for the Candidates Matches 2006 • 'FIDE has opened the bidding procedure for the first round of the Candidates Matches 2006 of the World Chess Championship cycle. The deadline for submission of bids is 24th March 2006 when the bidding shall close. The first round of the Candidate Matches will take place 20-31 October 2006.' [9 January 2006; FIDE.com]

If you follow that last link, you'll see that it is dated 1 March 2006; FIDE's second call for bids used the same Web page as the first call. The deadline of 24 March passed, the Turin Olympiad was held in June, and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was re-elected FIDE President. All the while there was no news about the Candidates Matches. The long, embarrassing silence ended with an announcement tucked away in a FIDE report from its quarterly board meeting in September.

• Presidential Board meeting • 'In order to resolve difficulties in the organization of the Candidate matches, the Board offered a round-robin tournament for the 16 players as an alternative to the original form of the competition. President Ilyumzhinov offered to hold all the matches or the tournament in Elista in April 2007.' [23 September 2006; FIDE.com]

Sudden shifts in direction have been a FIDE trademark throughout Ilyumzhinov's presidency. The reaction of the top players was predictable: disappointment.

• Open Letter to FIDE President by Boris Gelfand (excerpts) • 'Around a year ago FIDE adopted a new system of World Championship. In order to fight for the highest title in the Chess world, last December I went to the World cup tournament in Khanti-Mansiisk, took 6th place and qualified for the next stage – the Candidates matches. In December I signed a letter of intent with FIDE. In January 2006 FIDE made the pairings and announced that the matches would take place 20-30th of October with a minimal prize fund of 40,000 US for each match. • I was confident that matches would start on time. Last month you confirmed it and assured that "the issue will be finalized during the Presidential Board meeting in Elista, during the Topalov-Kramnik match". • In case the dates of the matches would be moved from officially stated, or if the matches will be cancelled altogether I would expect FIDE to compensate me for my damages.' [23 September 2006; Chess-players.org, Association of Chess Professionals (ACP)]

There was no further news from FIDE until mid-November.

• Announcement of FIDE President in respect of Candidates Matches • 'On behalf of FIDE I am pleased to announce that both rounds of the Candidates Matches for the 2007 World Championship Tournament will take place in Elista, 26 May - 14 June 2007. The prize fund for each match of both rounds will be USD 40,000. I shall personally contribute 320,000 USD towards the total prize fund and a further USD 160,000 will be contributed by FIDE.' [16 November 2006; FIDE.com]

FIDE's Daddy Warbucks had once again saved the day. Was this the last surprise for the current qualification cycle? Many seasoned FIDE observers expect not. It makes no sense that Topalov is excluded from the current cycle after having lost to Kramnik. It is also unknown whether Kramnik will accept Topalov's place in the eight-player tournament which will follow the Candidate Matches. Why not leave Topalov in that tournament and have the winner play Kramnik in a subsequent match to determine the World Champion?

One reason why not is money. On the minus side, the failure to attract real sponsors for the Candidate Matches was a warning that there is no easy money for world class chess. On the plus side, those matches and the following tournament are already financed; see www.chessmexico.com for the official web site of the tournament. If the players could keep to reasonable monetary expectations, while avoiding embarrassments like the cheating allegations that almost spoiled the unification match, there might emerge a real sponsor or two somewhere on the planet.

Who knows? We can always hope.