Why does the FIDE president sit with the challenger and not the champion ?

Glad you got there ok! This is a nice 5-minute video from the opening ceremony: http://video.v2.bgnes.com/view/7572

It includes the venue, some clips from the short films on Anand & Topalov, Ilyumzhinov & Borisov speaking and then the drawing of lots. There are also some amusing facial expressions and incidents. Keep an eye on Danailov after about 40 seconds :)

Probably because the champion brought his wife?

Ruy Lopez or Slav Defence?
Make your bet.

Hi
any news on the seconds ?
Same as Bonn for Anand?

Thanks

mishanp
Thanks for Video

next thing we will hear is that colour draw wasn't just for the first game, but ALL of them -lol-

@martin: So the challenger is married to the FIDE president? :-)

@Simon: Peter Heine Nielsen seems confirmed as Anand's second - chesstigers.de copying Anand's travel report (translated into German) actually put his name next to one of the pictures. We can still speculate who Anand's other second (travelling by train to Frankfurt from a different country) is - Kasimdzhanov is currently living in Germany with his family .... .

Thomas: Shipov spotted Kasimdzhanov behind Nielsen on this photo from the trip! http://kasparovchess.crestbook.com/viewtopic.php?pid=349323#p349323

OK, and who is the fourth person on the picture (behind what seems to be, or might be Kasimdzhanov)? This mysterious person is about Kasim's size, and isn't bold - we can conclude that it's not Mig Greengard .... :)

As a state leader Kirsan Ilyumzhinov isnt an idiot and shows clear favortism by sitting next to the challenger. Subtle moves like that are typical political maneuvers
He might also be sitting next to the Bugarian PM ,Boiko Borisov, and Topalov didnt want to sit alone so sat next to them. [where is Danilov?]

Well Mr. and Mrs. Anand are all smiles. Everyone else looks fidgety. Borisov looks amiable. Ambassador's wife, powerful glare. OK, I run out of stuff to say.

Where is Topalov's wife?....who will be the next World Champion?

he doesn't need one. although e.g. stefanova may be hot, they understand each other much better with silvio and ivan ;-D

The travel report sounded like Kasim.

Add Ganguly to Anand's team, but that still leaves 2 or 3 unknowns if there were 8 in his minibus..

Only 7 were in his minibus I think. Schmitt was the 8th person already in Sofia. So we have Anand, Aruna, Nielson, Kasim, Ganguly (probably) and 2 others in the bus.

Other 2 people were the drivers.
Anand looks pretty relaxed - he won't be rattled by any ongoing Danilov tactics he'll be only focussed on the chess. I also imagine that if Anand gets an early lead will see a few more tricks from the Danilov bag.

One of the two extras was Eric van Reem, the computer expert. So only one mystery second left.

From watching the various videos one can clearly see the organization of the match is impecable. I must congratulate the organizers for this. I suppose Danailov is part of the organization so hats off to him. Let the games begin and the most skilfull player win. This is going to be fun.

The report on chess-tigers.com mentions the following initial plans:
- Hans-Walter Schmitt and Christian Bossert [not mentioned yet] travelled to Sofia Thursday last week by plane
- Vishy and Aruna Anand wanted to fly from Frankfurt to Sofia on Friday "with three helpers and friends"
- Two other seconds were supposed to fly to Sofia from other European airports

That's a total of nine persons, but Anand mentioned eight at the Sofia press conference. Maybe Bossert only helped "to prepare Anand's arrival" and is no longer in Bulgaria by now.

Thanks for the video couldn't find it anywhere

Other 2 people were the drivers.
Anand looks pretty relaxed - he won't be rattled by any ongoing Danilov tactics he'll be only focussed on the chess. I also imagine that if Anand gets an early lead will see a few more tricks from the Danilov bag.