Silvio Danailov: "Only during the game"

Yesterday we published a column which was quite critical about the plans that Veselin Topalov "will not talk" to Vishy Anand during the match, which was stated by Silvio Danailov in an interview in Rijeka a few days ago. Today Danailov responds to our column. "Of course, this does’t mean that he will not speak to Anand at all, only during the game."

In our column "Not again!?" of yesterday, by co-editor Arne Moll, Silvio Danailov's statements from this Europe-Echecs interview was described as "provocative" and "destructive madness".

This morning we asked Silvio Danailov whether he would like to comment on our column, and perhaps clarify matters, and that we would be happy to publish it. We received the following reply:

I never said that Veselin will not talk to Anand. What I said was that he will not offer a draw, and won't accept draws from him. That's different. The long story is like this: during the negotiations we fulfilled all the wishes of Anand's team (and there were many, trust me). Also, we provided the largest prize fund in the last 15 years (in crisis time!) of two million Euros (which is double the prize money of the previous match in Bonn). FIDE asked Anand to do only one small thing for the organizers: to play under the Sofia rules in Sofia. The reason was that this way the match would be more exciting and the city of Sofia would get extra publicity worldwide. They refused, because like Aruna [Anand's wife and manager - PD] said, it was very difficult to choose arbiters, an Appeal Committee, a GM adviser, et cetera. Then we offered them to choose personally everything what they needed: arbiters, Appeal Committee, GM adviser, et cetera, only to accept the Sofia rules. They refused again, this time without any reason or explanation. Of course they have a legal right to refuse, but in our personal opinion they show no respect to the organizers, the sponsors and the city of Sofia. Then Veselin decided to not offer and accept draws from Anand during the games. He also has this legal right. He will not comunicate with Anand during the game, only through the arbiter. Of course, this does't mean that he will not speak to Anand at all, only during the game. Veselin in general doesn't like to be disturbed by talks and draw offers during the game. What is the problem here? Why you call this provocation? This is all the story, you can judge yourself.