Bulgarian Chess Federation statement
BCF justifies the reasons for the official answer
Note: The text translation is copyright of Chessdom.com, closest possible to the original. We publish also the originals, just as the letter with Anand, in order to avoid misunderstandings. All development of the story with timeline here
Statement of the organizing committee
In relation to the letters of the World Chess Champion V. Anand and the Indian Chess Federation spread through the media, in which they request the match for the world title in chess 2010 to be postponed with 3 days, we have to state the following:
* During her visit in Sofia from 8 to 12 February 2010, Mrs. Aruna Anand, wife and manager of the world champion, reserved two apartments and 4 rooms in “Hilton” Sofia from 15th of April until 14th of May 2010. These were paid for in a timely manner by the Organizing Committee and are at the disposal of the team of V. Anand. On the 15th of April Mr. Hans-Walter Schmitt, member of the team of V.Anand checked in the hotel in Sofia and took the keys of all rooms designated for the delegation of the World Champion. From this follows, that Mr. Anand and his team have checked in the hotel.
According to the Contract (art. 8 “Privileges of the players”), FIDE asks from the organizers to give them, with their good disposition, 7 (seven) days before the beginning of the match for getting accustomed to the new location. This privilege the player uses depending on his judgment. According to the contract, the player is obliged to be present at the mandatory press conference before the inauguration of the game, which is scheduled for the 21st of April this year.
* On the 15th of April this year the Organizing Committee of the match asked in writing Mrs. Anand about the time and number of the flight that will carry the delegation of the world champion, so they can be greeted as it is accustomed, the same way all World Champions have been greeted upon their arrival in Bulgaria. Up until that moment Mrs. Anand had always answered all letters sent to her correctly and in a timely manner. This time there was no answer. A written request to the FIDE Central in Athens was sent immediately, and the answer received was the following: “Mrs. Anand is probably in an airplane and has switched off her cell phone.” The organizers and the journalists in Bulgaria were bitterly disappointed of the attiture of the world champion V.Anand, but we accepted it as a part of the “playing on the nerves game”.
* For the fact, that Mr. Anand could not arrive on time in Sofia, the organizers bear no fault. The fault is to be placed on him and his team. Even more, according to art.11.2 from the contract (on which Mr. Anand is placing his statements) “If one of the parties meets an obstacle in fulfilling one of the parties duties according to this Contract due to a Force Majeure occurrence, this party should, at the first reasonable possibility, inform the rest of the parties for the nature and span of the circumstances that caused the Force Majeure occurrence.” The organizational Committee, as well as the team of V. Topalov up to 11:00h at the 18th of April 2010, was not aware of the troubles of Mr. V. Anand. For those we learned first from the press and then from the supervisor of the game, Mr. G Makropoulus.
* According to art. 11.3 from the contract, the party, which states that due to a force majeure situation had made impossible or has delayed the fulfillment of one of the party’s duties according to this contract, should use all available means to put an end to the force majeure situation and to find a solution that allows the fulfillment of the contract at hand. If the organizing committee was informed, in a timely manner, for the problem with the arrival of Mr. Anand and his team, we would have given him full assistance to resolve the problematic situation.
We understand the problem of Mr. Anand, but we are bitterly disappointed by his derogatory actions and attitude towards the organizers. All problems that emerge should be resolved in dialogue with shown understanding from all sides, and not in the form of pressure.
As much as we are aware, there is no official sports event (World or European championship) that has been postponed due to the inability of one of the teams (players) to arrive on time. The party that does not show up carries the sanctions accordingly. For your information, for the last games the Champions League in Football, every team should find a way to be present on time for the given competition. In the given case, if Mr. Anand had used the alternative means of transportation between Frankfurt and Sofia (train, bus, private car, etc.), he would have arrived to the latest 6 (six) days before the start of the first game, scheduled for April 23rd, which is enough time for getting accustomed and rest.
Postponing the match will result in losses of tens of thousands euro for the organizers, the disturbance of the schedules of politicians, sponsors and official figures taking part in the event, the obstruction of contracts with the television and other media and many inconveniences for the numerous international guests, who have already reserved their accommodation in Sofia.
Therefore, we consider the request for postponing the game as unacceptable.
The Organizational Committee
Note: The text translation is copyright of Chessdom.com, closest possible to the original. We publish also the originals, just as the letter with Anand, in order to avoid misunderstandings.
What kind of idiots are writing these things. Its Obvious Anand can’t get there right now…..its also pretty obvious what kind of a beehive he’s going into….the Bulgarians have shown their hand by all these ridiculous statements. It’s hardly possible for me to think that people like this are sensible adults. hmmph! I think Anand should just go home.
Mike Magnan
Ridiculous.
This reflects very poorly on the Bulgarians.
It’s been obvious for some time that Topalov has no confidence that he can win the match without off the board gamesmanship, but this is a new low.
The fact Topalov himself has nothing to say speaks volumes.
Well written and to the point. So Anand better get on the bus/car/train and haul his ass to Sofia. Sick and tierd of cheap tricks on part of the top players in chess (on all sides)
And so the mess begins… yet again.
Brad H.
Did you expect Danailov and Topalov to behave like gentlemen? that is too much to ask for. I sincerely hope Vishy calls the match off. His reputation and integrity will remain intact if he chooses to do so. Every one knows that.
Anand had plenty of time to get to Sofia 3-4 days ago. He chose not to. He chose to make excuses so when he loses, he can blame the Bulgarians. This is no action of a champion. If everyone else can take the trains and cars including Presidents and Prime Ministers of various countries, why not Anand?
This reflects poorly on the Indians. They could not come up with a single sponsor of the match. Now they want the other side to bear all the costs so Anand can have his way. Why can’t Anand contact the organizer 4 days ago? Why did he wait until yesterday only? Cheap trick by Anand. You can’t blame the Bulgarians on this one.
I can no longer root for Anand after his peculiar behavior in the past few days.
To the troll who has written multiple comments here signing ans “Anonimous”:
Please go away!
Good point. Kings, Presidents and Prime Ministers are travelling through Europe by road and by train, to get back to their country, or to attend the funeral in Poland, etc.
Besides, Anand cannot “call the match off”. He has signed a contract. He has to fullify his legal comitments towards Topalov and the organizer. No show means looseing the game, like Kramnik lost 1 point in Elista on forfait.
For those who forgot this WCC match has the biggest prize fund in the history of chess. It might look easy to some but only organizers would know how to actually make it happen. It doesn’t take a genius to imagine that contacts should and will be in place to define responsibilities. The only question to ask here is: Why didn’t we see any offer from Indian chess federation?
Besides, why was Anand relying on air transportation in first place? If he made the wrong an assumption that it would be faster nobody else is to blame. The same thing if he opted to take a boat from Spain to Bulgaria. I don’t think those details are listed in the contract. It’s completely up to him to decide on the safest way of transportation keeping in mind the importance of the timely arrival.
Well, we just need patience. Everything depends on how quickly Anand can reasonably reach Sofia, but until he does, it will not be easy for him to give certain information. Everyone who has waited at airports, even in normal conditions, knows how the flights can keep being postponed. It must be chaos at the major transit cities.
Those in America might consider being in transit in Chicago, when suddenly the American air space were shut, and figuring out how to make it to L.A. in a few days, with all the chaos that would ensue.
The organisers can well be understood, it costs a lot of money to make a mess of schedules. Publicity is for the match to begin when it begins. Yet of course Anand must be at least rested before the match begins.
One can only hope he has chosen not to wait for a chance to fly, as there are no guarantees.
Let us dissect the BCF statements since the devil always lies in the details:
1. “On the 15th of April Mr. Hans-Walter Schmitt, member of the team of V.Anand checked in the hotel in Sofia and took the keys of all rooms designated for the delegation of the World Champion. From this follows, that Mr. Anand and his team have checked in the hotel.”
Wow, that is stupendous logic for everyone to emulate
2. “The organizational Committee, as well as the team of V. Topalov up to 11:00h at the 18th of April 2010, was not aware of the troubles of Mr. V. Anand. For those we learned first from the press and then from the supervisor of the game, Mr. G Makropoulus.”
Above statement is in contradiction with the contents of the scanned letter from BCF which states that information first reached the organizers on 17th April via e-mail from Anand / Aruna
3. “For the fact, that Mr. Anand could not arrive on time in Sofia, the organizers bear no fault. The fault is to be placed on him and his team”
Yes, Anand with his chess skills should have anticipated the volcano activity first and the air traffic related repercussions thereof. Since Topalov was able to sense it and reached Sofia in time, he should be declared as the World Champion
“Besides, why was Anand relying on air transportation in first place?”
It should be remembered that the situation with the volcano developed quickly. There has not been a similar occurrence to my memory. Would it always occur to people that a volcano eruption in Iceland would have most of European airspace shut down?
It may even be that, aside from possible specific holiday flights, there may not be direct flights from Madrid to Sofia. To most places, after all, you have transits.
This just adds insult to injury. They should just as well have picked a neutral location to play. Surely they will have to at least postpone the games, as they cannot fault Anand for the eruption of a volcano. I do not see why he even has to “ask” for this. Also, he must be given time to be well rested. Hopefully everything will work out and this will not be another chess WC debacle.
D.A.
It’s obvious now that the Bulgarians are incapable of conducting this match in anything that even resembles neutrality.
Anand made a simple request (read: does not have to be granted), and they react as if their feelings have been hurt. What a bunch of crybabies!
Kramnik was completely correct in saying that Anand should never have agreed to play Bulgaria. Since he has, he either has to swallow all the bs and play anyway, or resign the title. Either way it doesn’t matter, everybody will know how Topalov “won the title.”
It’s very irresponsible for Anand not to show up timely. Everyone else did. He has no one to blame but himself and his team. Suck it up and play like a man or resign your title.
It’s easy to see both sides. Nobody could forsee such an incident that requires all of the airports to shut down, so getting there by plane shouldn’t be a big deal. Plus, even after the incident, who expected the effects of the volcano to still be affecting it all today?
True, he could take a car to get there, and at this point he needs to, but the Bulgarians should show some sympathy to such a bizarre situation. Have a heart for fair competition! But when there are so many VIP people coming, you can’t delay the opening ceremony stuff (unless they can’t get there either!), but you can delay the first round at least one or 2 days for proper rest.
Bulgaria was the ONLY country to secure sponsors and the biggest in history of chess prize fund for a single match. All Germans, Indians, Patagonians should just shut up with the stupid “should not have taken place in Bulgaria” until they have money to put on the table, period.
I do not dispute the organizer’s refutation, as I do not have enough info. But such a refutation could have been written politely and without unnecessary and immature invectives. This must be a low point in chess related correspondence. The looser is, I am sad to say, the game of chess.
it is clearly an act of god.
anand gets some more time.
the bulgarians could have got event insurance, if not TS
It’s the prerogative of FIDE with organizers consent to decide whether to accept or deny Anand’s match postponement request.
But the language used by the BCF officials so far against Anand and his team is deplorable and probably the worst among sporting history
The only reason Bulgaria was the only country to secure sponsorship is because this is a special privilege match for Topalov. Why in the world would anybody else want to pay him to exercise it?
It’s clearly the responsibility of Anand to get to the match timely. Both of them live in Spain and Topalov arrived on time. Why can’t Anand do the same? Stop the whining.
Rules are rules. If Anand can’t get there he should be forfeited.
what you naive don’t realize is that Anand is AFRAID to play now , he wants TO KEEP his title WITHOUT playing .
He asked to postpone the Wc match before arguing that he ‘d be tired after Amber/Monaco , then when he got what he wanted , he DIDNT play in Amber on purpose
Some people of his team are ALREADY in Bulgaria and were coming from GERMANY excatly like Anand
Anand could take the train , bus , car ,taxis etc and get on time in Bulgaria with 3 FULL DAYS of Rest and sleep . The could is just a poor excuse that is onl desgined to convince the naive audience , people from te chess world are not dumb , thhey travel often and know exactly how easy it is to travel to Bulgaria from Germany b train or road
There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING preventing Anand to be there , he just wants to undermine the WC because he knows that it EXTREMELY difficult to find Sponsors and money , so his strategy is to screw up everything (the WC match ) so he can keep his title WITHOUT playing for at least a year or two , because after such a shamble it will be next to impossible to re-organize an event like this with million dollars prize money ….
neigher topalov or anand is no way near to be a world champ, last year have proved that, so who cares
“what you naive don’t realize is that Anand is AFRAID to play now , he wants TO KEEP his title WITHOUT playing.”
Yeah. Anand sent a member of his team to Sofia, flew to Frankfurt himself and was DELAYED BECAUSE OF THE VOLCANO- and requested that the match be delayed for three days because he doesn’t want to play.
You are a very stupid person.
Anand is a true gentleman and champion , this was just a request for postponement which has been rejected and my gut feeling tells me he will be on time for the championship
“his derogatory actions and attitude towards the organizers” Huh? I think that is a little over the top…..
Cancel the match and award the title to Magnus Carlson – he is more deserved!
In a surprise move, FIDE decides to substitute Anand with the exhumed body of Bobby Fischer after it flew out of the volcano in Iceland and soundly landed in the playing venue in Sofia.
Bobby’s corpse is the favorite to win this match.
My initial reaction was a surprise at the Bulgarian position.
However, now I realize that winning this match is a huge deal for them.
Remember Cheatalov in the match against Kramnik? A leopard doesn’t change its skin overnight, you know.
As to the air-travel situation, everyone, including heads of state have not been able to fly. President Obama couldn’t attend the Polish tragedy funeral.
I know it’s a tall order right now, but we should just have the match in a neutral venue.
My gut feeling is Anand will huff and puff and make it to the championship on time. He will go on to play per schedule and here is the prediction
Anand will win this Championship and BCF is going to lose it’s face. You don’t poke a tiger and gete away with it. Kramnik knows that and Bulgaria will find out soon. Just the right dose of motivation for Anand
On the one hand it was probably to be expected that Danailov and his lot would start their phsycho war at some point. On the other hand I’m still shocked that they are doing it … even bevore the match has started. The atmosphere will be poisened even before the match starts. A shame for the chess fans everywhere in the world who are locking forward to seeing some chess and a shame also for Anand who maybe was a bit naive to accept the match in Sofia. I hope the best for the next couple of days. But I’m expecting the worst …
One more thing I ave to say:
This statement by the Organizing Committee sounds like a legal document, nothing else. It has no heart.
For me, it is not so much a legal question (Anand signed a contract, etc….- we all know that, thank you!). For me, it is a human question, a matter of goodwill and common good manners among gentlemen.
The situation in Sofia is so hostile, I do not see how Anand can keep his title…it is obvious that the Bulgarians want this title, no matter what it takes to achieve it. Why? Because Danailov wants in his resumé that he got a World Championship title for Bulgaria- it will look good in his run for FIDE President….