21.07.2006 EVGENY BAREEV’S OPEN LETTER
The latest interviews of the chief executive of RCF and Russian state trainer Alexander Grigorievich Bach and the head coach of Russian men’s team Sergey Dolmatov in the magazine “64 – Chess review” make me sharply disagree with them. They try to justify the failure of our team at the Olympiad with bad form of some members of the team (first of all, Rublevsky and I are blamed for the failure). They also represent me as a liar and intriguer. As a matter of fact, they discredit me and make me out the useless chessplayer.
If two members of our team have been out of form during the latest tournaments, then it is quite sensible to ask why it is so. Perhaps, it is necessary to create the criterion of selection so that the strongest chessplayers become the members of the national team. Then one wouldn’t complain of taking “untouchable” sportsmen to the team. The head coach has to do it, hasn’t he? Maybe, the state trainer must carry out this work…
 I put a question about the retiring of Dolmatov after the World Championship in Israel at the end of 2005. The attempt to show this question as a personal conflict of two persons seems to be absurd.  Sergey has never felt the team; he was even far from it. That’s why he was very surprised because of our sudden failure.  Having known that it is impossible to work if the chessplayers don’t trust the trainer, he didn’t feel that he had no credence of the team as the head coach. But everyone respects him as a person. It was clear that Sergey had to retire before the Olympiad for the sake of our team. But he could retire as a winner. That’s why I didn’t want to make this problem to be public. The members of our team tried to avoid the publicity and didn’t have enough courage to talk to Alexander Grigorievich Bach (this question is quite delicate). I work in the neighbor room with Bach and I had to put this question right after the World Team Championship. Alexander Grigorievich made it clear that Dolmatov’s work suits him completely in November 2005. But as usual, he referred to Alexander Dmitrievich Zhukov in order to avoid the responsibility. Unfortunately, then he changed the situation of his own free will and in spite of the fact that he is a president of counting committee; he made a wrong calculation of chessplayers who were for and against Dolmatov’s retiring. I hope that the identification parade with the chessplayers will confirm it and we will manage to make everything clear.
I agree with Sergey that there must be a place for the feat. Probably, his refuse could become the truth feat.
It seems to me that it is necessary to organize the special training process to prepare for important team competitions. Dolmatov also touched on the problems of junior chess seriously. Sergey fondly offers to solve the question of the development of young chessplayers. He considers that it is necessary to make higher demands of them. However, young chessplayers mustn’t give back anything. Let them play chess for pleasure. It is doubtful that one shouldn’t find a lot of money to solve the problem of the development of junior chess. Many children play chess in our country. There are six ways of the development of junior chess: high schools, junior sports schools, schools of the highest sporting skill, chess clubs, Internet-training and schools of grandmasters. There are a lot of tournaments and festivals in Russia. The transportation costs are great. It is even possible to calculate approximately how much the preparation of grandmaster costs. Its price is high indeed.
Sergey represents that the Moscow junior chess seems to be poorly developed. I don’t think so. One hardly works with children. There are champions and medal-winners of Russian championships. Russian Chess Federation carried out the trainings for the strongest young chessplayers and five Muscovites improved their skills during these trainings.  
I would also like to argue with Alexander Grigorievich. He considers me to be “the follower of groundless statements”. What is the reason? It is typical of me to take sudden and impulsive decisions. All right, try to explain it! The point is that I don’t like falsehood and intrigues. Was it what you meant? Bach makes Rublevsky and me responsible for our failure. He thinks that the head coach shouldn’t have taken us to the team. It looks like to be an attempt to duck out and not to solve the national team’s problems!
Alexander Grigorievich, you were at the Olympiad and you know that Rublevsky played after defeats because Dolmatov didn’t control the situation. Both Kramnik and the team’s sudden meetings made Sergey change his decisions. He held his own before the last round when he didn’t let Rublevsky play in the decisive game for the second place. However, Sergey was ready to score a victory! I can’t understand Dolmatov indeed! You approve that it is difficult for this team to find the contact with any trainer. Why do you think so? The point is that you blocked the attempt to find such trainer yourself.
Why do you think that the grandmasters that played for the national team projected bad image of chess? What activity did you mean when you said that you had already crippled that image indeed? Tour interview remains more questions than answers. You say that there is no sense to work at the program of the development of chess because of the absence of money. But the fact is that it is possible to find money only if there is a sensible and purposeful program. Nobody does it in the other way! Sergey and you complain that there is not enough money. For what? How much do you need? You say that you give me all money that is possible to free for the development of junior chess. The key word is “to free”. The budget of junior committee for this year, that we worked out together, is sequestrated. And you put off all payments of the RCF accounting till the August. You have my reports and you know that people work on parole. It is clear that the development of junior chess must become the key line of the activity of RCF. It is necessary to finance it in the first place. I would also like to note that it is necessary to organize well-coordinated teamwork in the federation so that we can overcome the crisis. One person shouldn’t solve all questions even if he is the most ingenious. It is really impossible to be competent in every respect.
Evgeny BAREEV