How Team Anand cracked the World Chess Championship
By: Manisha Mohite
Date: 2010-05-13
Place: Mumbai
A team which stays together, eats together and most importantly travels together for almost 40 hours in a bus, naturally gels together!
The volcanic eruption in Iceland disrupted Team Anand’s travel schedule but somehow brought the team which was scattered all over, together at Frankfurt before they embarked on an adventurous journey from Frankfurt to Sofia in a hired bus traveling for 2000 kms, across five countries in 40 hours.
Anand and Aruna’s flight was cancelled at Frankfurt.
Anand’s long time second Peter Heine Nielsen drove from Denmark to Hamburg and then took a train to Frankfurt.
Poland’s Radoslav Wojtazjek took a train from Warsaw to Frankfurt and travelled 12 hours by train to Frankfurt.
Former World Chess Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov, is based in Germany and so didn’t have a problem reaching Frankfurt. Surya Shekhar Ganguly fortunately caught the last flight from India to Frankfurt before the eruption. Nielsen, Kasimdzhanov, Wojtazjek and Ganguly were also Anand’s seconds at Bonn (2008).
Hans Walter Schmidt, the organiser of the Mainz Chess Classic and here, the chief of Team Anand and Christian had flown to Sofia a day before Anand was stranded in Frankurt to prepare for Team Anand’s arrival.
Eric van Reem, based in Germany is a chess writer and press officer of the Mainz Chess Classic. He is also a chief officer in Lufthansa and had the tickets and boarding passes ready for the team every time it looked like a flight would take off. It was he who hired the bus that arrived all the way from Amsterdam. Mark Lefler, a researcher based in Sofia, helped the team settle in Bulgaria.
Source: http://www.mid-day.com
How many are there in Topalov’s camp?
Who were Topalov’s seconds?
Thanks, Susan, for the updates on Anand’s team. They are the heroes who worked behind the scene and made this success possible. Congratulations to Team Anand!
Your website is the best on chess – not only your entertaining insightful commentaries, but also regular updates of the chess world.
Do you know who are Topalov’s seconds, and also what Topalov said after the match? He also did so well, a great player. would be nice to hear his comments too.
Nobody lost here, chess won!
Regards, Jay
Amazing non-board related work by Team Anand. Great to see all that hard work paying off!
I wonder what they had prepared for e4? Did anybody ask Anand or Topa why they did not play e4?
Congratulations to the team Anand. You know, Behind every successful man stands a woman.. but in this case there was a wonderful tean beside the beautiful woman. All the best for Anand and his team for the future adventures. Hope they all stay together for a long long time helping Anand to retain the reign as King.