Danailov: 'No match in Russia against a Russian player'
Contrary to what was expressed in an open letter last week, Veselin Topalov is, after all, willing to play Candidates Matches in Russia. However, he is "refusing to play a match with a Russian player in Russia, if that match is connected to the title struggle," his manager Silvio Danailov said in an interview with Sport Express this week.Last week in an open letter Veselin Topalov declared that he wouldn't "participate in any stage of the cycle for the World Chess Title that takes place in Russia, in order to avoid problems and conflicts that already took place there". The former world's number one anticipated FIDE's decision to move the Candidates Matches, scheduled for March-April 2011, from Baku, Azerbaijan to Kazan, Russia. FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov's reaction to Topalov's open letter was that he would send the Bulgarian a letter ‘asking not to take hasty decisions’.In an interview with Sport Express, his manager Silvio Danailov has now stated that Topalov is, after all, willing to play in Russia.You should read his letter more carefully. It doesn’t say that Topalov refuses to play in Russia. He’ll go to Khanty-Mansiysk for the Olympiad and will represent Bulgaria on board one. Topalov is refusing to play a match with a Russian player in Russia, if that match is connected to the title struggle. The chances of Topalov meeting a Russian player in Kazan aren’t high as for that they’d both need to get to the final, though it’s a possibility.In the interview, translated at Chess in Translation, Danailov doesn't mention the name of Vladimir Kramnik, who is the only Russian player who qualified for the Candidates Matches.
The Russian player we played a match against in 2006 in Elista doesn’t exist for us!Danailov also talks about the World Championship match in Sofia between Anand and Topalov, and once again reacts sharply to the happenings surrounding the vulcano eruption and Georgios Makropoulos' decision to postpone the first game one day.
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Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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