Excerpt from Crickey, World Championship Chess: Spy versus spy in Sofia as Topalov trails
In the 1970s and 80s Bulgarian chess was notorious for corruption; not just prearranging draws — a sin that has permeated the upper echelons of the chess world for decades — but also the organisation of complete tournaments designed to favour a particular player; for example a foreigner who had paid a fee to secure an International Master or Grandmaster result.
...A new generation of “clean hands” Bulgarian players has emerged over the past two decades, with Topalov leading the charge.
...However Danailov, the self-proclaimed “best manager in the chess world” was less universally admired.
Danailov had had an extended stay in Melbourne in the early 1990s but perhaps too much of it was spent hanging around the seedy Red Triangle snooker parlour, where chess players, snooker players and Underbelly-style characters mixed seamlessly. (On occasion this writer also visited the Red Triangle, where a future Grandmaster pulled your cappuccinos during the Friday night “blitz” tournament.
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