English and Bulgarian grandmasters continue feud during European Team Championship
Leonard Barden
Saturday 31 October 2009
There is history between English and Bulgarian grandmasters. Four years ago when Nigel Short was a commentator at the world championship in San Luis, Argentina, some players told him of suspicions that Veselin Topalov, who won the title after a fast start, was receiving outside help. Short later called for an inquiry, though he did not join the cheating claim. Nothing was ever proved, but Topalov and his manager blamed Short for damaging the current world No1’s reputation.
So last year at Corus Wijk aan Zee Topalov’s aide, Ivan Cheparinov, refused Short the traditional pre-game handshake, and was forfeited. After an appeal the game was rescheduled along with the handshake, and Short won in impressive style.
Relations were still cool last weekend when Bulgaria and England were paired in the European Team Championship at Novi Sad. The Bulgarians were favourites, since the British champion David Howell and Short as his coach were away at the world junior in Argentina. But weakened England got a gift one minute after the start when a Bulgarian’s mobile phone rang, an automatic zero under Fide’s draconian rules. The incident, captured on an internet video, rocked the Bulgarians and, although Topalov won, Cheparinov was crushed and England won 2.5-1.5.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk
Hahahahahahahaha!
There is no bad blood between the two countries. Why on earth would someone say so?
Could the English players have stood up against the forfeit if they had wanted to ? If so, clearly a chance was missed. Mcshane’s smile on a photo with Delchev getting up from the tables or Gordon’s from the video could be smiles of relief in a tense atmosphere, but that doesn’t imply there was no sympathy. Two arbiters fussing around comparing watches with incoming calls on a mobile, placing kings, stopping clocks were a funny sight, too, but while laughing, for sure, the English should have intervened. Their team captain definitely was asleep. Were there any interviews or comments expressing regret ? Maybe aside of the incident everything was fine. The title of the article ( “Bad blood continues” ) is telling a different story, though. To end speculations and come back to friendly terms they could make the best of it and organise a friendly match. I mean, who wants bad blood ?
I’ve known many chess players to agree on “scandals” before the game, same as with pre-arranged draws. The organizers and media always fall for it.
Is this really England vs. Bulgaria, or rather Short vs. (team) Topalov? True, the Bulgarian side has a tendency to blame an entire country when they mean a single person (cf. Kramnik and Russia). But why does an English journalist come up with sommething similar?
The article doesn’t contain anything “shocking” – it doesn’t say who made the fatal phone call to Delchev (Nigel Short??? ,:) ). Generally the incident stands completely loose from overall England-Bulgaria relations – though maybe Topalov was extra annoyed that it happened against, of all countries, England?
N.Short may be a decent GM , but a gentleman , i doubt it ..
It’s not the first time he badmouth or criticize players pubicly in order to promote himself …
Anon 8.24 has touched the heights of self-referential irony.
A nice joke.
Anon 3:44:
Why shouldn’t McShane smile when Delchev is stupid enough not to turn off his Cell-Phone.
How can a chess-pro like Delchev be so stupid?
Not sure Kamsky , Topalov , Tkachiev , Petrosian and others got the joke though ..
We also owe him the destruction of the wc cycle in the early 1990’s as well , it was a great achievement indeed , or is a joke too ?