vosuram, of course I agree. And since I participated in the discussion, I am not just a chess nerd but at least also interested in breakfast and women :) . Same goes for Peter Doggers who wrote the article in the first place ... :) .
But bernd, for photos of Topalov's girlfriend you may have to check on Chessbase - this time they can truly claim that they were made and displayed "on popular demand".
And another observation: So far this discussion thread seems to have a record number of smileys ... .

@bernd: I was never sure wether Topalov's girlfriend looks like Danailov or Cheparinov... Maybe both. I thought he is gay, i was really surprised to read about his girlfriend.

@Thomas: Actually, not everything is turning around a disck

Well I already read Topalov speaking about his girlfriend over a year ago in an interview, when he brought a super cool binary watch to Corus and said it was a Christmas present from her. And it´s not the first tournament she attends, she was also with him at the Champions League in Vitoria, Spain in November 2007 that I know of, and who knows maybe somewhere else (now I´m looking like the total gossipy one but well I´m a girl AND I have a good memory). Let Magnus Carlsen enjoy his dad while he can, mine is already whining about my going abroad for graduate studies.

@ vosuram You know it´s good that you mentioned chesspro.ru because I think they have some great articles and reports sometimes, for example their pictorial reports are usually very extensive and nice, and they have interesting original stories like the one you posted. It would be great if you could translate the most interesting ones for the non-Russian speakers :)

Interesting that breakfast and Topalov's girlfriend got more comments than opening preparation :).
@ Chessgirl: I once had a similar breakfast on St. Lucia, a Caribbean island - lots of fresh fruit (rather than juices) on a nice shady terrace under palmtrees. And sometimes I also enjoy English breakfast while travelling, but would never prepare it myself ... . Anyway, as I am not a morning person, maybe my favorite breakfast is called brunch (though 10:30AM is acceptable) :).
And maybe the interest in Topalov's girlfriend is partly because she was mentioned for the first time (unless I missed something, not that I really care). Whereas for several other top players (Anand, Kramnik, Leko) there have been pictures on the Web of their "ex-girlfriends" [wives] ... . Any info about Magnus Carlsen???

@ chessgirl: I always imagined Topalov's girlfriend to look somewhat like Silvio Danailov :-D

The real fear is that, even if being a girl, she could be as ugly as them...
(trying to help the smily-nonsense atmosfere) :-)

BTW Peter... It seems you're going to widen topics of chessvibes, aren't you? There are many things which could be potentially interesting for non-Russians chess lovers as well :) Lev Psakhis role in the Indian chess school uprise? Guena Sosonko's chess, love and chess love stories (http://chesspro.ru/opinion/sosonko3.shtml, http://chesspro.ru/opinion/sosonko4.shtml, etc.)?.. Need someone to translate :) ?

"…that Vassily Ivanchuk has watched all of our videos, and really likes them?"
"…that Ivanchuk has watched all of our videos, and really likes them?"
double entry :) but cool

read again, dude!

Carlsen should be forfeited for being late at breakfast :)
BTW, when does Kramnik usually arrive?

…that breakfast in the hotel is till 10:30 AM?
…that Anand and Ivanchuk usually arrive around 10:25?

I infere from this that Anand and Ivanchuk really like the breakfast given at the hotel :)

By the way, I´m thinking about buying a MacBool myself! I´m sick with all the Windows virus issues and it´s a really good laptop.

P.S. I liked the format of this article :)

can we have photos of Topalov's girlfriend ?

ChessGirl, maybe the French breakfast isn't worth getting up "early" for ? At least that's my own impression from French hotels [but I have never stayed in one with five stars] :)

…that Loek van Wely will arrive as a guest in Nice tomorrow, and is mostly looking forward to beating Peter and Sofi with table football?

surely you meant AT table football not WITH. At would mean they play against each other... with means he murders him by slamming the table on his head... big difference.

But I like this format of article cool tidbits for a quick read.

I never doubt how gentle and diplomatic Anand is... Remember the draw agreement in the cage?

The breakfast is excellent; @Thomas haven't seen Kramnik there either; @CAL|Daniel thx corrected

@ bernd: If his girlfriend isn´t as pretty as yours (real or imaginary), will you feel better about yourself? ;)

@Thomas: Some people are just enthusiastic about breakfast. I count myself among those, it´s my favorite meal! Then you have people like my sister: Everytime we´re going on a family trip, the first thing she asks is whether the hotel has breakfast buffet or not :) . I can tell you that my best hotel breakfast EVER was in Cairo, in a hotel called Simiramis. They had bottles and bottles of natural juice made from many different fruits, and all the varieties of all the kinds of breakfasts in the world! Really, it was like a dream come true.

That's enough guys. Grow up.

The fact that Topalov said that it made him feel good to see Kramnik loose to Anand in the blinfoldgame, makes him even more sick then i thought he was.

@Castro: Not necessarily ... . A few years ago 'someone' made a GM rather mad with a comment on another Dutch chess forum, something like this: "How come such an ugly guy has such a good-looking girlfriend?" I will not reveal either name - the blogger has a rating well above 2000, but no GM title ... . To avoid misunderstandings, it is noone from the Chessvibes team - and it's not me either because I don't fit the above description.
Peter Doggers (today 9.10) has a point, though !

I think that in order for people to post such kind of comments, which are anyway stupidly superficial no matter where they come from, the blogger should be made to post a picture of himself. It´s funny for me to see people calling Danailov or Cheparinov ugly since the latter looks quite good to me... I´d like to see you! :)

And please let´s switch on the "on topic" mode again, or Peter will ban us!
(P.S. I miss Manu :) )

Yes, the point maybe be recognizing we were only joking, as one can admit one could also be the victim of such a joke.
Sure, I dont know these (great , Danailov included!) GMs personaly, but we're chating, and they are "public persons", and there is no insult, unless taking it seriously, in which case I'd explain exactly for myself and ask imediate public excuses. Are you calm, now? :-)

:-)
@ChessGirl
The answer I gave Thomas/Peter can serve to show you my opinion, but I'll add two things.
One is that I agree, but maybe not about the "stupidly" adjectivation (can you see why? :-) ). Moreover, even when I use it that fact: It is mainly subjective.
Other is that I also agree! If I was to put here my picture, the site would have to close.
And what about Danailov? Could we still mok him as ugly because he's not so "quite good"?
Oh the oportunities!

You don't really get the point, do you? I'm sick and tired of such silly discussions here about people being ugly or not or whatever. Please.