Interview with Silvio Danailov
by Chessdom.com
Q: Mr.Danailov, in a recent interview Viswanathan Anand commented that besides the known seconds (Nielsen, Kasimdzhanov, Wojtaszek, and Ganguly) he had additional helpers for the match in Sofia (Kasparov, Kramnik, and Carlsen ). Did this surprise you?
A: Well, not very much. I know quite well Kasparov and our WC hero from Elista, they are both old fashioned. What really surprised me was that despite their so called super team, we were still much superior in the openings. Only in two games they showed some decent ideas. This was game 4 with white and game 12 with black when they succeeds to equalize the position quickly. The rest of the games our team totally dominated in the openings. Anand was suffering with black in all games (except the last one) and no advantage at all with white (except game 4). And I can tell you more: I will never exchange Cheparinov for all of these guys together. Cheparinov is much better and much more creative than Kasparov, Carlsen, etc.
Q: Viewing this, are you upset by the final result?
A: Not at all, I am very proud of Veselin and our team. Topalov played great, fighting and creative chess, under tremendous pressure, due to the fact everybody in Bulgaria was expecting his victory. I am proud as well from our trainers, Ivan Cheparinov , Erwin L’Ami, Jan Smeets and Jiri Dufek, they did wonderful job. I am also very proud from the Organization, our Federation gave clear example how to organize perfect WCC.
Topalov lost, this is sport, everything can happen. At least this match was one of the more exciting, chess wise, in the last 20 years. This was not Bonn, when after game 6 the match was over. Topalov lost, but he was attacking and was creative during the whole match. Anand was only defending, nothing more. Brilliant defence, by the way! But maybe the fans expect different way of play from the Champion, a more inspiring one…
Q: What about the Blue Gene with 8192 cores that you used?
A: About Blue Gene, what I can say is that everything is question of money. We invested huge amount of money on preparation, I do not want to mention the figure because someone can get heart attack. In any case Anand’s team could do the same, some money always brings strong preparation.
Q: Are you going to continue working with Blue Gene?
A: Of course, we are very happy with the collaboration with IBM Bulgaria and I hope this collaboration will be long and successful.
Q: Let’s speak about the rumors: according to local sources there is a rumor that Anand received extra 300 000 just to agree to play in Sofia. Is that true?
A: The rumor is not exactly true. It is true that their team has asked for this fee, but after negotiations they got only 100 000 eur extra money apart from the prize fund, all according to regulations. And still some people are trying to present Anand like a poor victim. I agree, maybe he is the victim, but not so poor after all….
Q: Ok, lets’ switch the topic. ECU elections are getting hot. There are already four candidates, and you are one of them. Can you comment the most recent candidate Robert von Weizsäcker, who is supported by Kasparov and Karpov?
A: The fact that there are four candidates means that the ECU position is important for many people. I do not want to comment my opponents, I would like to speak with the facts. Only in the last 5 years I brought to chess more than 10 million eur in sponsorship – Mtel MastersGrand Slam events, the FIDE World Chess Championship Mexico 2007, the Challengers match Kamsky – Topalov and FIDE World Championship Anand – Topalov. This is the reality, like it or not. tournaments,
Q: Can you share some news, your program, names from the ticket?
A: Very soon I will announce interesting news, be patient. Stay tuned and follow my campaign at www.danailov-for-president.com
Editors note
According to the initial match regulations, the prize fund minimums were as follows:
13. Prize Fund
13.1 The prize fund of the match, provided by the organizer, should be a minimum of 1,000,000 (one million) euros, net of any applicable taxes. The prize fund will be divided . 60% for the winner and 40% to the loser if the FWCM ends within the 12 regular games. In case the winner is decided by tie-break games, the winner shall receive 55% and the loser 45%
13.2 The organizer shall pay to FIDE an amount of 20% over and above the total prize fund, net of any applicable taxes.
13.3 If the match is played in the country of one of the players, then the opponent shall receive 100,000 (one hundred thousand) euros from the Prize Fund. The balance of the Prize Fund shall then be shared in accordance to Article 13.1 above.
13.4 Before the start of the WCM, the players shall each receive 200,000 (two hundred thousand) euros in accordance to the terms of the Contract to be signed with FIDE. This amount shall be deducted from the Prize Fund. The balance of their share of the Prize Fund shall be remitted to the players within ten days after the completion of the WCM.
Like him or hate him, Danailov is a straight shooter unlike most weasels in chess politics. He also got more sponsorship for chess than anyone else.
I admire his candidness.
Yeah i like the danilov-topy team because they keep chess interesting, without topy in high level tournaments its basically boring, but the truth is they not running anything they just wearing suits and talkin, we in phase 2 now Susan so the comedians gotta go.
yes…yes…daina is one of the funniest persons in chess today…anand has proved topa is another flash in the pan…
I’m wondering about this BlueGene thing. It’s a machine with a lot of processors, but each one of them is of rather low performance, about 800 MHz, somehow better than your iPhone, for example … (but it also has very low power consumption, and thousands of them — that’s the whole idea of this BlueGene thing).
Now: This is a distributed memory machine. I’ve never heard of any chess sucess stories on these. The problem is that chess engines are not as easily parallelized as one might think.
The crucial problem is transpositions. That’s why they all use hash tables — which requires _shared_ memory. Without these, a parallel chess engine would only re-evaluate the same positions again and again. No gain at all.
Hyatt lists this as one of his research problems for quite some time. I’ve never heard of any progress in this field.
Larger computer installations than the one mentioned are available world-wide. In Texas, e.g., there is ‘Ranger’ with about 63.000 cores, each of them much more powerful than those of the BlueGene machine mentioned above.
If you are affiliated with a university, you usually only have to file a sufficiently good proposal to get access for free. If not, try to cooperate with someone who is.
Nothing like this ever happened. Now Toppy and IBM did it? I don’t believe it. (And Anand ist still champion of the world.)
While I like Danailov’s candidness, he is clearly hallucinating when he says Cheparinav (Who?) is better than the combined Garry, Carlsen combo.
What statistics does he have to support that claim?
As regards to who was better off with white or black or opening or end game is all subjective. As spectators wee did not think Topalov had a huge advantage with white.
That’s why the results are the best. Anand beat Topa twice with Anand and once with black. He missed a chance to beat him in game 8 as well. Stop hallucinating
After the way he handled himself at Elista, it’s hard to respect him.
chep better than Carlsen Kasparov and Kramnik? LMFAO! how much do i gotta pay to get some of what he’s smoking
Like him or hate him, Danailov is a straight shooter
LOL. Funny. Danailov is one of the crookedest shooters out there. This is the guy who said he wanted to play a match with Kramnik because he was the Classical Champion, and then one week to the day later did another interview saying he didn’t want a match and didn’t recognize his title.
Before this match, he was on about how Anand was old, washed up and resting on his laurels. Danailov has a long history of saying anything at any time, to make whatever point he’s trying to make, with no regard for what he’s said previously.
Topalov raised over $20 million through chess sponsorship. How much have you raised?
I thought so. So who’s the pro and who’s the loudmouth anonymous idiot?
what a sore loser Danailov is. It is a question of sour grapes. Topalov lost to Kramnik with one game Kramnik forfeited. Kramnik is way better than Topa. At least Daniolov should acknoledge that fact and be respectful to Kramnik. You cannot call Kramnik – the WC hero from Elista. That is disrespectful. But I cant expect decent behavior from Danailov.
Danailov has done more for chess than Kasparov and Karpov together. K&K only care about themselves and their ego and not chess players.
What a sore loser Danailov is. Kinda proud for being on the losing end. Imagine if Topalov won. What an arrogant egomaniac, strange guy… Carlsen or Kramnik would /has wipe(d) the floor with either Topalov or Cheparinov.
Instead of “win with grace, lose with dignity”, Danailov is “win in his dreams and lose but act pridefully as if you won”
Sorry, i can’t take him seriously after the first lines. Cheparinov more creative than Kasparow. Please change his dipers first.
Danailov just meant that Topalov’s
seconds led by Cheparinov
did a better job at
opening preparations
than Anand
and his team which included
greats like Kasparov.
Objectively speaking, there is nothing wrong with that statement
considering that Topalov got better
positions after the opening in most games.
Danailov is right. Topalov and his team did a better job in the opening.
Aruna Anand says:-
We were touched by the gesture of Kramnik. It is just not the psychological angle, Kramnik started getting his hands so dirty that we thought he was a part of our team
This is what made the difference.
I would agree that Topa was better out of teh openings…but chess is not just about teh openings…you have to take that aadvantage and convert it into a win through the middle and end games…which Topa could not do! Is Topa a great player? perhaps if he can improve the remainder 2/3 of his game!
If Danailov-Topa’s team were a bit humble, Topa could win this match.
Topalov and his team did better in the openings but failed to convert it into any sort of advantage. The first game was a gift from Anand and not because Topalov played well or anything. If anything Anand showed even when outplayed in the opening he is the better player.
With every comment this guy makes he shows the world why he is the most hated man in chess today. Topalov really needs to dump this clown
What a….!. Topa should be completely stupid to still stick with this idiot. By their own assessments of Topa and Anand, Topa got better end in the openings but he still lost the match. From which, one can only understand that Anand is much better OTB and overall player which is the reason why he won. Topa could only stretch the match till the last game only because of Blue Gene computer and the opening prepartion done by his team. Therefore he has not contributed anything of his own to the match and should be considered just an average player who without any preparation would even lost to a 2400 player. What stupidity to thump their chest even after losing match. Only PM of bulgaria can believe in these guys as he is as stupid as they come as heads of state.
First,
It is a GROSS mis-characterization to say that Garry and Carlsen helped Anand like that. I would hardly call Carlsen playing some friendly games of blitz and Garry giving an opinion about openings help in that context. This dude acts like he had the two as seconds or something which is a bit absurd.
Danailov, what a sore loser you are..!! Topalov was in tears after game 4 having lost 2 matches and looked lost. Where is the question of Anand just defending? Btw, wasnt Anand expected to ‘defend’ his title which he did it with class, elegance and grace. If you guys were so great at openings and preparation, pls show it by winning the competition rather than by statements to press. You are making a fool of yourself…!!
And pls, do not compare an unknown entity with Kasparov. Kasparov even today can beat your entire team without his queen and rooks on the board..!!
Go get some lessons on how to be a dignified loser. Topalov is a great guy and great player. Unfortunately he lost the crown for being associated with such a sore loser.
During the US Championship in a live-interview Carlsen (as No.1 in chess rating) named as his greatest rivals …Anand…Kramnik …and…Aronian.
So much for Topalov and Mafia-friend Danailov.