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Anand, king of knock out game: Danailov

By Our Chess Correspondent

Bastia Nov. 2. "How is it possible for one person to win so many tournaments?" asked International Master Silvio of Bulgaria who is manager of World champion Ruslan Ponomariov and trainer of Veselin Topalov at the same time. Viswanathan Anand is a top professional and is the king of the knock out competitions and his performances over the decade confirm this observation said the chess insider.

"If, we had a ranking system like in tennis, Anand will have been No.1 ranked in the world in 1998 and again now in 2003. Our Elo system unfortunately helps people like Kasparov who talk about being No.1 ranked for 20 years but hardly play in events", said Danailov, a 42-year old chess manager.

"I think the reason why Anand explodes in this game is because he is more of a knock out competitor. Swiss format is a farce, as we saw last night in the qualifiers. None of the top six boards produced a single fight in the last three rounds. Knock out is the clear picture of who stands where and chess is one sport in which defeated players continue playing and later grumble about various other things", said Danailov while the quarterfinals games were in progress on Saturday.

"To win six tournaments in eight appearances so far this year is by no means as easy task. But top players barely win one event a year and there are too many of them these days. More important than these are the two world championship titles, two world cups, now the world rapid championship at Cap d'Agde and various other events which he had won. Corrected that he won only one world title at Teheran in 2000, Danailov said, "No, I am right, he won in Groningen (1997) and that to the chess world is a world championship. The match against Karpov at Lausanne 1998 was different and only to please FIDE."

Asked about the prospects of a FIDE world championship match in December this year, he said it was bleak and they were not past the worst times yet. "The next two days of the FIDE Congress in Greece is vital for us", he said.

For the cancellation of the Ponomariov versus Kasparov match which was scheduled for October this year he blamed the latter for not accepting to small requests by the Ukrainian player. Asked to specify them, he said one of them was a second arbiter who could speak Russian.

About his hard bargaining stance which led to the world team playing without Veselin Topalov and Michael Adams in September 2002 against Russia at Moscow, Danailov said he did not want to be the coach of the world team which looked weak without these two players on paper. Adams had booked a vacation in Australia and wanted FIDE to compensate for the cancellation fee and strangely these were not accepted. Was it a loss of face that the world team won despite their exclusion from the team? Danailov said that the world team won not on its own strength alone but due to the poor form of the K's — Kasparov, Karpov, Kramnik and Khalifman for Russia.

"Anand is a true chess professional for young players to follow across the world. He said there will be an Anand versus Topalov match in Sofia early next year". Topalov has found a sponsorship from a telecom company in Bulgaria and they are behind that match which will be taking place in January or February, after Wijk aan Zee or before Linares.

Danailov said he was open to discussions for possible promotional chess visits of FIDE world champion Ponomariov or Topalov to India. Interested clubs or organisations can contact me at silviodanailov@hotmail.com he said.

Danailov had given up active chess playing to nurture the career of Topalov in 1996. He lives in the Spanish town of Salamanca with his Spanish wife and 10-month daughter and runs some businesses in Bulgaria.

Danailov said many top chess professionals under-estimated the value of press and publicity and lost out many ways to promote themselves and the game.

"A positive press can play a big role in furthering their career with sponsorships like Bacrot and Lautier enjoy in France", he said.

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