Below is another letter from Kramnik’s manager Mr. Carsten Hensel. He is disputing the charge from Topalov’ manager Silvio Danailov earlier today.
Gentlemen,
Sorry to bother you once again with information material but I like to inform that the following press release of Team Topalov is obviously nothing else than another attempt to create a certain picture of Vladimir Kramnik (see http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3401).
This press release lacks any scientific basis and therefore can not be taken seriously from anybody who has a certain knowlegde of chess and computers but it intends to influence the mass media by throwing a shadow on the image of Vladimir Kramnik.
The whole strategy of Team Topalov is obviously based to indirectly insult or to indirectly accuse Vladimir Kramnik of cheating without showing any evidance.
The members of Team Kramnik and with us the whole world of chess feels ashamed for the absolutely unethical behaviour of Team Topalov.
Foreseeing such activities of Team Topalov, I already requested yesterday additional measures (see attachment) to the WCC organisation in order to avoid this as much as possible.
In the meanwhile the entire Kramnik Team feels deeply insulted in conjunction with all these activities of the Topalov team. We think it is a shame and we ask here with FIDE President H.E. Kirsan Iljumshinov to start certain measures. In accordance with the press release of the Association of Chess Professionals (http://www.chess-players.org/eng/news/viewarticle.html?id=565) we would kindly request a detailed investigation of the FIDE Ethics Commission. We hope that all events from the WCC 2006 at Elista will be inspected. The result and measures should be presented to the chess community asap because we are increasingly concerned that the professional chess world will be seriously damaged if this can not be stopped.
With best regards,
Carsten Hensel
Manager to Vladimir Kramnik, Classical World Chess Champion
and on behalf of the entire Team Kramnik
(Vladimir Kramnik, Victor Bobylev, Miguel Illescas, Valery Krylov, Alexander Motylev, Sergei Rublevky, Carsten Hensel)
And let’s wait for what’s coming in the days to come.
This is not over! The situation will not improve, no matter what the chess community does.
Just look here, the final evidence:
http://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt/
This is where it all started:
http://www.fotosearch.com/
thumb/IGS/IGS241/IS107-069.jpg
and:
http://images.imagesource.com/
preview/wmcomps/
IS655-043.jpg
Nothing new. All seen before. All fault of the Internet. On to word verification…
I think after this match, every chess fan should be given a chance to hit the back of Silvio Danailov at least once. Topalov seems to be in disagreement with his manager’s behavior but can’t go far with him as the match is in place. If I would be Topalov, I would suspend him and probably fine him some million dollars including tkaing out his salary or anything for what damage he is doing to Topalov’s image and to Chess as a whole.
I don’t understand this, Danailov’s Fritz press release broke FIDE Code of Ethics:
2.2.9 Players or members of their delegations must not make unjustified accusations toward other players, officials or sponsors. All protests must be referred directly to the arbiter or the Technical Director of the tournament.
2.2.11 Any conduct likely to injure or discredit the reputation of FIDE, its events, organizers, participants, sponsors or that will enhance the goodwill which attaches to the same.
and the match regulation state:
3.11.2 If a player fails to appear at the Players’ Meeting, the Opening or Closing Ceremony or any approved function of the Championship such as official receptions and press conferences, or conducts himself in a manner contrary to the spirit of sportsmanship or the FIDE Code of Ethics, then he shall suffer the following penalty: 5% of his prize money shall be forfeited to the Organisers and a further 5% to FIDE for each breach. In cases of serious misconduct the player may be disqualified from the match and the World Chess Championship cycle.
Why don’t FIDE stop these public attacks and responses?
tor…thank you loads for that!
So, why aren’t these rules being enforced by FIDE??? Hmmm????
My next prediction: When Topalov sacks his manager after Kramnik drew all his remaining games in the WCC, Danailov will next indirectly insults or to indirectly accuse Topalov of cheating by showing some true evidence?? and/or Danailov will retire from chess and join WWE management in his next suitable career path??
Everyone may I bring this to your attention. This is a real photograph. Taken the exact second Kirsan announces the forfeit decision (game 5) cannot be cancelled.
http://chesspro.ru/match/images/photo/vas_89.jpg
Real story. No photoshopping. Look at the background. This is unreal.
http://chesspro.ru/match/images/photo/vas_89.jpg
That was unreal. Just look at him, hes in complete euphoria.
God i wish this bastard chokes on something!
Danailov is scary…
The Chess Match has been decidedly more interesting off the board than on the board !!!
An earlier post suggested that both sides should be under a gag order for the match. I agree. If they have complaints, let them sort it out with the officials. I think it’s a good idea for matches/tournaments in the future to have this proviso within the contracts.
Danailov’s Fritz press release broke FIDE Code of Ethics. FIDE must take a stand for its integrity by enforcing its policy and standard.
Every day brings more incredible charges. Who is Danailov and where the heck did he come from?
Will someone please just shoot this match and put it out of its (and our) misery?
This match should be called off.
Both sides are asking for it with their actions. Also, as a result, chess fans are sick of all the outside-of-the-board tricks, unethical games and blows.
The picture of Danailov says it all. There’s nothing left to say.
The facts as I see them:
Everything that has been done to promote chess by the many supporters of the royal game has been undone since the beginning of this match 2 weeks ago.
Fischer looks less crazy now.
I’m no longer interested in the chess of this match. I just can’t look away from the disaster it has become. This is worse than the controversial moves in 2000.
The most stupid accusation was made by some Russians, linked with Kramnik’s team, who accused Topalov of having a chip implant put in his head after surgery, to win the WCC in San Luis…
Probably is Danailov just fighting back…
Stop war, make love.
It is time of referees to enter the battling area and prevent further escalating of this war.
Why just simply 100 % video surveillance by the limited amount of members of the organizing committee, including the damned bathrooms?
Then we can calmly concentrate into chess itself, not in this childish, ridiculous mess.
We as audiance need silence. You there in Elistra have the means in your hands to arrange it. To the players and fans. We all preserve it.
Of course it was not taken at the time of that announcement. How gullible can you be?
“Everyone may I bring this to your attention. This is a real photograph. Taken the exact second Kirsan announces the forfeit decision (game 5) cannot be cancelled. “
What do we all gain with this continuation of the conflict?
This all could have been avoided by decent arrangements by the organizators beforehand.
Because they failed, why not mend it! Without any noise about insultings or cheatings. This was a pure mistake or old-fashioned systems, which could not prevent unearned accusation opprotunities.
I repeat: we all deserve better in the chess world than this war.
I have posted a detailed logfile of Fritz 9 testing Danailov’s claims in the Rybka forums, at
http://chessobserver.com/rybkaforum/viewtopic.php?t=292
You can also obtain the file itself from my webpage
http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~regan/chess/
click on the last item. This is a small sample to be sure, but it indicates a method to follow. Here are my conclusions from that file:
Scorecard: Moves 13–30, 18 moves total
11.5 MATCH (counting TIE as 1/2)
6.5 NON-MATCH
Danailov claimed 14 matches.
Here’s a more-itemized breakdown, ordering the moves by “delta” (-difference in score when K played non-computer move) and “delta2” (+difference between computer move played by K and next-highest move), with non-matches first.
NON-MATCHES:
28. -0.63
20. -0.28
17. -0.25
14. -0.22
18. -0.04
22. -0.02
30. 0.00 TIE [MATCHES, I meant to put here]
16. 0.01
13. 0.07
15. 0.15
19. 0.17
21. 0.20
23. 0.25
27. 0.82
24. 0.84
26. 0.87
25. 1.98
29. 5.00 or so.
I see where Danailov gets his “14”—the deltas of -0.04 and -0.02
might have shown up as +es on his run of Fritz. But I think also 5 of the matches have to be thrown out, as they were 0.82 or more better than the next-best move, and by a chess master would be regarded as “forced” or at least “clearly expected”.
This leaves really 6 matches, 6 non-matches, and 1 tie among the
remaining moves.
[methodological stuff snipped—see the full file]
…
In the range 0.15 to 0.30, Kramnik played the top move 4 times and didn’t 3 times. Too small a sample size—looks pretty random.
Interestingly, the “close moves” were all in sequence, 13–23, except for Move 30—which shouldn’t count as it kinda didn’t matter…
Going back to my logging of to-me-reasonable alternatives:
16. 0.01 10
13. 0.07 2 (or 3 if …Rg8 TN could come then, but this was prep IMHO)
15. 0.15 2 or 3
19. 0.17 3 (really 1 IMHO, you don’t leave a beast on b6)
21. 0.20 3 (but on the server we felt 1)
23. 0.25 4 (but 23…Bc5 was consequential, no?)
So the only case with a choice among more than 2 prominent
alternatives as judged (“objectively”) by closeness in score and (subjectively) by “chess sense” is move 16. But even here, the previous move 15…Rc8 seems to intend 16…Bc5 as *the* followup—and it came within 0.02 as not being a MATCH anyway!
For each non-match move, we can count the # of moves ranked ahead of it, plus 1 for the move itself.
20. -0.28 5
17. -0.25 4
14. -0.22 5 (but prepared?)
18. -0.04 2
22. -0.02 2
Not much to conclude from this. There’s also the “BRAVE MOVE” 28…Rc6!
(-0.63 worse than top move), but it is explained readily in practical, grandmasterly terms, so no “brownie points” for playing it—?
OK, it took me 2 hours and 20 minutes to generate the whole test and this detailed report. This is certainly feasible for others to
do, with the longer games. More testing is needed to make statistically significant conclusions…but there’s one more factor to evaluate: the “GIGO” factor.
For a conclusion, IMHO the MOST TELLING stat is IMHO my analysis of the choices available at the 6 moves that give a MATCH with delta
—Dr. Kenneth W. Regan, Buffalo (Amherst) New York, 10/4/2006.
Enough is enough!
FIDE president Ilyumzhinov should penalize Topalov a point for slander and character assassination of Kramnik, as well as their unusually profound unsportsmanlike conduct.
thanks, tor rustad, Topalov or his manager, Danailov, has directly violated the match regulations, and thus Tpoalov should be penalized a point.
“Danailov’s Fritz press release broke FIDE Code of Ethics:
2.2.9 Players or members of their delegations must not make unjustified accusations toward other players, officials or sponsors. All protests must be referred directly to the arbiter or the Technical Director of the tournament.
2.2.11 Any conduct likely to injure or discredit the reputation of FIDE, its events, organizers, participants, sponsors or that will enhance the goodwill which attaches to the same.
and the match regulation state:
3.11.2 If a player fails to appear at the Players’ Meeting, the Opening or Closing Ceremony or any approved function of the Championship such as official receptions and press conferences, or conducts himself in a manner contrary to the spirit of sportsmanship or the FIDE Code of Ethics, then he shall suffer the following penalty: 5% of his prize money shall be forfeited to the Organisers and a further 5% to FIDE for each breach. In cases of serious misconduct the player may be disqualified from the match and the World Chess Championship cycle.”