The famous Bulgarian Novinite publication just came out with this:
Chess Masters Awarded Life Insurances in Bulgaria
Bulstrad Life awarded Tuesday all the competitors in the M-Tel Masters 2007 chess tournament with life insurances.
Bulgarian chess king Vesselin Topalov and his opponents Krishnan Sasikiran, Liviu-Diter Nisipeanu, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov will be covered by the insurance for the duration of the tournament.
The rest of the competitors will also be insured for free.
Bustrad Life is the official insurer of the tournament.
Source: Novinite
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
What a bizarre gift. A life insurance policy that only lasts until the tournament is over.
Talk about useless gifts. When was the last time a player died during a tournament? Under the circumstances, a tie would have been a better present.
Life Insurance. Also known as, A Roll of Toilet Paper
“A five million Lev policy?? Whew! That’s so great it makes me want to step in front of a bus! Thanks for much for the wonderful present!”
Well all the players at Mtel are so old. Maybe they will all die before the end. haha. The oldest is probably under 35 so they have 40 more years to live.
Now a life time paid up policy would be nice from an insurance company.
Cash in the hand right now to pay the bills today is much better.
actually, there are many more photos on chessdom. Sasikiran is funny hehe:) In the Russian chessdom.ru there is even a video with Mamedyarov. He seems to be a friendly guy, I hope he wins or at least does well.
The Great and First World Chess Correspondence Champion and author of greatest instructional material ever written on chess: C.J.S. Purdy from Australia died during a chess tournament during a game where he was winning and his last words were reported to be “I think I am winning but I won’t have enough time.”
Not bad. But I’ll be more impressed when this life insurance is granted to participants of a seniors’ tournament; held in Iraq.
According to the brain trust, of George Bush and Dick Cheney and Condi Rice, we have made good progress every year, 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007. Any more “progress” and Bush will have to support the troops with yet another extension of their tours.
LOL, there’s no topic, however innocuous, that the crazies can’t turn into another diatribe on Bush, or whatever their pet hate is.
A waste of time… But I suppose, as long as the money is tricking in to the organizer, it’s ok as a compensation.