Kommersant's report features a video snippet, by an unnamed Dutch fan, of Silvio Danailov that may apparently be used in any investigation. In the video, Topalov's manager can be seen making "some unusual movements with his hands, running them along his neck then raising them to his mouth and touching his neck again".
I'm no fan of controversial Bulgarian duo but this video thing strikes me as ridiculous. How would that work exactly? A combo of "unusual movements" so that certain gestures are for pieces and others for square coordinates?
Our so-called "Dutch informant" was quoted by Kommersant as saying:
I noticed a tall man in the audience doing something very strange...A friend of mine told me that that was Silvio Danailov, Veselin Topalov’s manager. He was continually coming and going from the auditorium and using his cellular phone outside. Then he would return to a corner where he could see Topalov, cough and do other things that looked like signs for Topalov. I noticed that no one else was concerned by it, although the signs were obvious.
I'm afraid that if that's all they have, then the investigators basically have nothing. Looking at the video, I can't see anything unusual about Danailov's behaviour at all.
More from "World’s Best Chess Player Suspected of Immoral Ties".
2 comments:
I have to agree that the video looks innocuous enough. The only thing which gives me pause for thought is the way he reaches for his mobile phone so quickly on the way out. If he is doing that regularly during games then it might be regarded as suspicious.
In any case, it is the suspicion of cheating that is the problem, so we need stricter controls at tournaments and matches to prevent such accusations being made.
It would be nosurpise that a chess manager likes to talk about chess over ther phone and need to leave the hall to do so.
Theis latest accusation is no more than tit for tat. Both the tit and the tat were most unfortunate. all such aaccusations should be made privately to organisers and investigated privately. Public accusations of cheating (at chess) are unhelpful to the image of chess. There are "juicer" ways to get chess into the media.
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