Anand - Topalov video presentations

The official site of the World Championship match Anand - Topalov published the videos that were projected at the opening ceremony.

Visit also the photo gallery.

RCF endorses Kirsan Ilyumzhinov for FIDE President

Russian Chess Federation endorses Kirsan Ilyumzhinov for candidate for FIDE President. The news was announced on Wednesday by Arkady Dvorkovich.

The elections for FIDE President will be held in September during the Chess Olympiad in Khanty Mansiysk. Ilyumzhinov is current President of FIDE and he holds this post since 1995. The letter with the decision of the Russian Chess Federation will be sent in the next hours to FIDE. The decision was taken after series of consultations with board members of the Russian Chess Federation.

From Chessdom

FIDE World Chess Championship postponed for one day

World chess champion Viswanathan Anand will square off against his Bulgarian challenger Veselin Topalov in Sofia Saturday in a marathon final starting a day late due to Europe's volcano crisis.

Anand will take his seat for the first of 12 games after having had to travel by road from Frankfurt airport after being stranded there by the shutdown of Europe's airspace because of volcanic ash from Iceland.

The 40-year old grand master finally made it to the Bulgarian capital by bus on Tuesday, four days later than planned.

The international chess federation FIDE agreed to a one-day delay to the match, less than the three days Anand had sought but hopefully enough for him to shrug off the worst of the travel fatigue and stress.

Full AFP article

Anand having trouble to reach Sofia

World Champion Vishy Anand is having serious trouble to reach Sofia, Bulgaria for the scheduled match against Veselin Topalov. It was reported earlier that Anand is already in Sofia, based on the information on the occupancy of reserved rooms in hotel "Hilton", but it turns out that only Hans-Walter Schmitt arrived and collected all the keys.

Chessdom is actively reporting on the situation

Stanley Kubrick & Chess

I told him I had a date with a chess hustler in Washington Square Park to play for money. Kubrick wanted the name. "Fred Duval" I said. Duval was a Haitian who claimed to be related to Francois Duvalier. I was absolutely positive that the name would mean nothing to Kubrick. His next remark nearly floored me. “Duval is a patzer,” is what he said. Unless you have been around chess players you cannot imagine what an insult this is. Moreover, Duval and I were playing just about even. What did that make me?

Playing Chess With Kubrick by Jeremy Bernstein

See also an earlier post on Stanley Kubrick

Happy birthday Erwin L'Ami and Jan Smeets

Two Dutch Grandmasters were born on same day, same year, and are celebrating 25th birthday. Erwin L'Ami (rated 2628) and Jan Smeets (2651) are among top six players in Netherlands. Happy birthday!

M-Tel Masters Canceled

Early last week, Silvio Danailov, the manager of Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, said in an interview that the M-Tel Masters would not be played this year because the main sponsor, after which the tournament is named, had pulled out. (The interview, which was with Trud, a Bulgarian newspaper, was reported by the Web site Chessdom, which has a translation.) Instead, the company decided that it would get more for its money by sponsoring Topalov in his upcoming world championship match against Viswanathan Anand of India, the titleholder.

Hard Times for Chess