Anand requests for a curtain between audience, player
TNN, 14 February 2010, 02:41am IST
CHENNAI: Viswanathan Anand has requested for a special curtain to be placed separating the audience and the stage to avoid visual contact for his upcoming World Chess Championship match against Veselin Topalov in April.
Though this move looks simple and harmless, it has unveiled Team Anand’s cautious approach to the match in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Anand’s wife and manager Aruna Anand visited the venue earlier this week and inspected the arrangements to officially kick-start the preparations.
Basically in all World championship matches, the teams get to see the arrangements two to three times before the actual game. This was Team Anand’s first visit, though only the manager was present, but she must have got a clear idea of what was already in place and what improvements she expected from the hosts. “
In Bonn, we also had a chance to see the facilities. Before the last World Championship in 2008 the WCC contract covered all the details in how the event will be staged and the details that pertain to the stage, the logistics etc.
“So my visit was only to follow on that,” Aruna explained on Saturday.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Well, if I was considering buy tickets, that would blow it for me. Why go to a match if you aren’t allowed to see the players? Thumbs down Anand.
The elephant in the room is the fact that he doesn’t trust Topalov and his manager Danailov. Accusations of Danailov giving signals at key moments during past games have been leveled by several high profile players. Smart move Vishy! don’t play him until you are sure it’s on a level playing field and let the best man win.
I have been caught!
Anand we want you to beat topalov and defend your title.
All the best.
I hope Topalov skunks him, poor sportsmanship by Anand.
Anon – Anand only wants a one-way curtain. The audience can see the players, but the players cant see the audience. This was used in Bonn also.
The one-way curtain is to ensure that players do not receive visual signals from any assistant in the audience.
As someone has pointed out, this was used in Bonn also.
–br
Then I take back my thumbs down. If the curtain allows the audience to see the players, it’s fine and probably a reasonable precaution.
You have to do what you can to play a sneaky player like Topa who always takes care of the best circumstances for himself.
Go Anand!