Arkady Dvorkovich

FIDE President

“Regarding the proposal to move the tournament to Germany. We do not consider proposals that come at the last minute. This proposal arrived to us via email at the same time it was published in the media. This suggests it was more of a public gesture than a serious proposal.

In any case, we could only have considered it seriously if we assessed the risks as high. But that would inevitably have led to delays and a disruption of the calendar. Again, if we believed the risks were high, we would seriously consider proposals. But our assessment is different.

We plan the World Championship Match for November-December. There are no obvious hosters — everything will depend on the winner of the Candidates. The interest of some countries is directly linked to the winner.”