'Sofia Rules' Spur Scandal ahead of World Chess Title Game in Bulgaria

A controversy has erupted ahead of the World Chess Title match in Sofia setting against each other Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov and India’s Viswanathan Anand.

The scandal resulted from an interview of Topalov’s manager, Silvio Danailov, for Europe Echecs, in which Danailov reveals that Anand has refused to play the World Chess Title match in Bulgaria according to the “Sofia rules” but will be forced to comply with them anyway because the Bulgarian chess master will be sticking to them.

The “Sofia Rules” of chess matches have been introduced by the Mtel Masters tournament in Bulgaria’s Sofia. According to them, the players do not have the right to offer draws and to talk to one another during the game, thus avoiding the possibility of having games end in negotiated draws after just a few moves.

Danailov, Topalov’s Bulgarian manager, has revealed that the international chess federation FIDE has asked Anand to play the Sofia World Title Match according to the “Sofia Rules” but that Anand’s manager and wife, Aruna Anand, has rejected this proposal because of concerns over picking judges and appellate committee.

In his interview for Europe Echec, Danailov states:

“If one player doesn’t offer or accept draws they will apply. Vishy [Anand] doesn’t agree but he will be forced, because Topalov will not offer him a draw and he will not speak to him. So, what to do? He will be forced. This is the best. This is the best, otherwise… I don’t know, there’s people who are absolutely conservative, they are against these rules, but this is the future of chess. This is for sure. Everybody now understands this. Of course, I understand there are some players, old players, who don’t want to work… they like short draws and whatever. They like to offer them, but this is finished. Chess … we need a professional sport, and in professional sport, we cannot do this.”

These comments have led Arne Moll, columnist of Chessvibes.com, to slam Danailov for his behavior regarding the Topalov-Anand game:

“It’s a remarkable statement: Anand – forced against his will to comply to rules that are not official; this is the future of chess, no matter what ‘old’ chess players say – their opinion clearly is unimportant and shouldn’t be respected. But the most remarkable is that Danailov says that Topalov will not only refuse to offer any draws but also will ignore his opponent altogether,” writes Moll.

Danailov has reacted with a statement published by Chessvibes.com (full text available HERE), saying that he was misunderstood as far as the “Topalov ignoring Anand during the game” part is concerned. However, Topalov’s manager claims that Anand has been disrespectful of the organizers of the Sofia World Chess Title match:

“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 do you call this provocation? This is all the story, you can judge yourself.“

The chess face-off between current world champion Viswanathan Anand from India and Bulgaria’s chess master Veselin Topalov, who is currently number one in the FIDE world ranking (Anand is third) will start on April 21, 2010.

Topalov and Anand will play 12 games. In case they finish with a tie, they will hold a tiebreaker including 4 games of fast chess. For 140 years of chess championship there have been 19 World Title matches.