Freestyle Chess tour’s head claims FIDE demanded $5,00,000 annually to allow event to go ahead

“Despite Freestyle’s willingness to connection $100,000 annually to FIDE, purely arsenic a motion of goodwill and to debar harassment — this has been rebuffed. FIDE’s request for $5,00,000, an unjustifiable sum for a format it has nary engagement in, suggests that monetary summation is the superior driver. Our sponsors, galore of whom similar to debar relation with FIDE altogether, enactment our determination to stay independent,” Buettner wrote successful the unfastened letter.

“FIDE’s caller actions, specified arsenic threatening players with sanctions and demanding they motion agreements nether undue unit and without ineligible counsel, are profoundly troubling. This is neither ethical nor professional. FIDE is attempting to exploit its ascendant marketplace presumption to strong-arm players into submission. Such tactics are unacceptable, and Freestyle volition proceed to support the players’ interests against these abuses of power.

“It seems FIDE’s attack of bully bull (Arkady Dvorkovich, FIDE president) and atrocious bull (Emil) tactics was bound to fail. Now, FIDE appears to person dropped the pretense entirely, adopting a confrontational stance toward the players.”

He added: “Let maine clarify erstwhile again: our circuit is not a ‘World Championship’ successful the accepted sense, arsenic I person explained to some Arkady and Vishy (Viswanathan Anand, Deputy President of FIDE). It is titled the ‘Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour.’ At the extremity of each year, we crown a champion successful Freestyle Chess – a format that mightiness germinate in
the future, perchance moving beyond Chess960 to different caller formats, but not classical chess. The rubric of ‘world champion’ successful this discourse reflects the unsocial format of our events, not an effort to situation FIDE’s accepted World Championship cycle. If FIDE’s contented genuinely lies with the usage of ‘World Championship’ terminology , it would person to code akin cases, specified arsenic the Bughouse World Championship, wherever adjacent players similar Ding Liren person participated. Yet FIDE has not penalized Ding oregon others for taking part. This inconsistency reveals the existent motive down FIDE’s actions: money.”