Dear Taylor,
Thanks for your reply.
I am just wondering why you do not know about the existence of
Averbakh=92s letter to FIDE at ChessCafe. I copied it, may be, 5 or 6
years ago from ChessCafe Archives. And I am sending it over to you.
Possibly, I did not put my question to you in the appropriate way. It
did not actually concern Korchnoi,or the Korchnoi-Averbakh
relationship. Rather, I was wondering how you could have interviewed
Averbakh knowing that he had written such a letter (now I see that you
did not know about this letter), but Mr.Russell knew about it! It seems
to me that Averbakh simply betrayed Korchnoi when he wrote that letter.
It is just unforgivable that a top-notch player like Averbakh knowing
the chess strength and potential of Korchnoi wanted to bar himtotally
from chess. How can anyone trust any views and opinions of Averbakh on
chess history or anything? If I were the editor of a chess site or a
chess newspaper, I would have never invited Averbakh to give any
interview or write any article.
Best regards,
Lev Khariton
Here is Averbakh=92s letter:
In the period between the end of the Second World War and
the collapse of the Soviet Union, the USSR wielded enormous
influence in the International Chess Federation (FIDE). When
one of their superstars, Viktor Korchnoy, defected in 1976,
they were outraged. The Soviet authorities ordered
Grandmaster Yuri Averbakh to do whatever he could to
impede Korchnoy's road to a championship match. The
darling of the Soviet system, Anatoly Karpov, had acquired
the title by default the year before; it was not acceptable to
have his title challenged by a defector. This letter was the
result of the anger in Moscow...
From: Yu. Averbakh, Moscow (USSR Chess Federation
letterhead)
To: Max Euwe, Amsterdam, FIDE President
Date: September 6, 1976
Dear Mr. President,
In accordance with the decision of September 3rd, 1976 the
USSR Chess Federation disqualified Victor Korchnoy for his
indecent conduct and in view of this requests to exclude him
from the number of participants of the 1977 Candidates'
Matches because he will not be delegated to this competition
by our Federation and may not represent the other Federation.
Our request is based on Article 2.1 of the FIDE Statutes
according to which the FIDE Members are the National Chess
Federations which govern the chess activity in their countries
and delegate their chess players for participation in the official
and unofficial competitions held under the aegis of the FIDE.
This is also confirmed in the decision of the last FIDE
Congress of 1974 that the organizers of the International
Tournaments should send invitations to players via their
National Federations or at least inform these Federations by
the copy of the text of the invitation. The Tournaments, where
take part the players not recommended by their Federations,
are not considered while awarding the International Titles
(Annex 25, point 2).
Points 13, 21, 23, 38, 39 of the Regulations for the Candidates'
Matches for the 1977 Men's World Championship provide that
a number of functions while organization and holding of the
competition should be realized with participation of the
National Federations of the participants of the Matches with
taking into account their opinions.
Thus, though the right to take part in the competition for the
World Championship is won by the player as a result of his
sports performances, however, each participant of such
competition should represent a certain National Federation -
the FIDE Member and compete as a member of this
Federation.
At the same time we believe it necessary to take a decision on
holding in due time (before the end of the current year) the
Match between the players who took the fourth places in two
Interzonal Tournaments to determine the player for the vacant
place in case of non-participation of Korchnoy in the 1977
Candidates' Matches.
Please inform us of the decision made.
Yours sincerely,
Yu. Averbakh
President of the USSR Chess Federation
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