The Never Ending Cycle

In a long interview given to Peter Doggers of Chess.com, Arkady Vladimirovich Dvorkovich, the Russian candidate for the post of FIDE President, offered some specifics about how he would reform the Fédération Internationale des Échecs. The big news is that he was the first and the only – at least so far – to put on the agenda the controversial issue of “women’s chess”. In his electoral program he advocates an immediate move to reconstruct a circuit of great women’s tournaments, build a welfare assistance system for veteran female players in need, and equate women’s and men’s World Chess Championship systems and formats, thus apparently fulfilling four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán)’s demands, which so far had been invariably rejected. And when should it happen? Doggers puts the crucial question: “Will you change the format for the upcoming women’s world championship? The knockout in Khanty-Mansiysk in November?”. Don’t run too fast, cautioned Dvorkovich. “No, we need to change the whole cycle, so it will require us to finish the current cycle first. But then we need a tournament of eight or 10 people, a Candidates’ tournament, and also a Grand Prix series”, Arkady Vladimirovich answered. Thus, the story continues and perhaps it will be told by another President. But now you know why female players might need welfare in the future.