http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/news_7_176.php

"The fifth game started like any other. After some preparation and lunch it was 2:30 PM and I took a nap. When I came downstairs at 5 PM I was surprised to see Veselin in “civil clothes”. My first thought was that it was some short draw, but Veselin told me about what happened. Kramnik did not play the game.

I will not describe the scandal all over again, most of the facts are known. After coming back to the US and reading some reviews and talking about the issue with my colleagues, I realized that I’m one of the not so many supporters of Topalov in this conflict.

In this article I don’t want to argue about who was wrong and who was right. Time will show. I just want to say something that I know for sure, what I felt and I saw from inside and not from reading the Russian press or the ChessBase articles.

1. Nobody in our team considered the match situation catastrophic, not when the score was 0:2 and not when it was 1:3. In fact, we all believed that Topalov had great chances to win the match. Why not? It’s well known that Topalov plays better toward the end. His performance in Linares and Sophia proves it. Physically he is much stronger than Kramnik.

2. The manager of Topalov, Silvio Danailov sincerely believed that Kramnik’s behavior was suspicious and he suspected him of using outside help, so his protests had a purpose to stop whatever it could be and not just to disturb Kramnik.

3. Topalov is a great fighter and he has never wanted the match to be stopped. All he wanted was fair play. "


Acknowledgements to US Chess Online and GM Onischuk.

So Petros, here is one GM that does not support Kramnik :laff:

Another GM who does not support Kramnik - Francisco Vallejo.

http://www.kramnik.com/eng/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=113

Let's see now:

one + one = two.

OK, so that's two GMs who support Topalov. At this rate he might have a half a dozen supporters by the end of the year.

That is because Vallejo was Topalov's second. We can take Illescas into consideration and say "Another GM supports Kramnik". How about that?

There still seems to be no GM not on Topalov's payroll who publicly supported him. Even his fellow Bulgarian ex-FIDE WCh Stefanova bailed out with "no comment" when she was asked for her opinion in the interview during Cap d'Agde.

Plus, I specificially excluded people on the team of either player when I made the challenge. Smoke knows that, he's just playing games again. :rolleyes:

That is because the Western press has already played the role of judge , jury and executioner in condemning Topalov. So, it is not politically correct to support Topalov.
Anyway, Topalov will show his goods in what he is best at - over the chessboard. Watch out for his games in Corus and Linares. You can rest assured that his games will have the greatest following.

I agree. Those who watch will largely sit in one of two camps: those who want to see him win and those who want to see him get KOd.

Me? I'll be simply looking for exciting chess and there's no doubt that Topalov delivers that in abundance.

Let's support Kramnik, the choice of the Western hemisphere. :rolleyes:

The Eastern Hemisphere too. Russia, East, and all that. That's Topalov's problem, there just aren't enough hemispheres.

Well, also the fact that still not a single GM supports him outside his own entourage. Even within it, support is lukewarm (has anybody actually read what Onischuk said?). His best fans don't seem to support his actions either, they just whine that he hasn't got more support and that this is all unfair somehow (God knows how, exactly, but it must be, mustn't it?).

Perhaps because he committed his crime out in the open for all to see. His guilt isn't in question. If it were, perhaps more people would reserve judgment.


More than you know. If Stefanova says that it's okay to publicly accuse others without evidence, she's opening the door for others to do the same thing to her. Nobody wants that, which is why even Bulgaria's players haven't been able to support Topalov. They know he's wrong as well as you do.

Even you don't support him yourself (all you do is complain that nobody else is supporting him, and attack anyone who doesn't agree with you). And you're anonymous. If you can't bring yourself to defend him anonymously, it should be obvious why nobody would do it with their good name on the line.

Someone sounds like a lackey?

Saying that I personally sound like a lackey for praising someone I never mentioned is not racist, merely stupid.

But saying an entire ethnic group (not even my own group ) resemble me in also being lackeys seems to go beyond the bounds of acceptable posting behavior.


--------------------
"If you can't make your point without flaming someone you can't make your point at all." -- Mig Greengard

Well, I cannot speak for the rest of the Western Hemisphere; but, I will put in a word of support from the state in which our United States of America was "birthed out of", the good 'ol state of Pennsylvania!!

"Kudos to Kramnik from Pennsylvania, (The Keystone State!!)"


Chess Fan