World champion Viswanathan Anand and his team arrived at Sofia, Bulgaria, by road from Frankfurt on Tuesday morning ahead of his 12-game World chess championship match scheduled to begin on April 23 against challenger Veselin Topalov.
Anand arrived four days behind schedule after being stranded in Frankfurt while on transit from Madrid on April 16 following the closure of European airspace due to the floating volcanic ash that had resulted from the eruption of a volcano in Iceland.
A statement released by the All India Chess Federation quoted Anand's wife and manager, Aruna, as saying: “The news from us is that we reached here safely.”
Anand is believed to have covered the journey from Frankfurt to Sofia by road. Since the stranded passengers at European airports had chosen to travel by train or rentable vehicles to their destinations, the World Chess Federation and the organisers from the Bulgaria Chess Federation (BCF) had expected Anand and his team to explore similar possibilities and reach Sofia in time.
Volcanic eruption
It may be recalled that following the situation resulting from the volcanic eruption, Anand had sought a postponement of the first round by three days but the BCF had turned it down.
Now that Anand has reached only three days ahead of the match instead of the preferred seven, it remains to be seen whether he attends the press conference on April 21.
Indications from Aruna suggest that Anand would attend the opening ceremony scheduled later in the day.
On Monday, BCF, while rejecting Anand's request for postponement, was willing to consider putting the opening round off by a day.
FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos, too, was open to the idea of discussing the possibilities of a deferred start to the match.
“Of course, we understand that this creates big problems for his preparation because in such matches you need to be there several days before the start.
“You cannot just go the day before and start playing. You come with your people, you start to adjust to the conditions, and you try to be organised in order to play the match. I understand this very well, he needs several days.”
Makropoulos said: “The one (problem) of Anand is obvious. But, on the other hand, postponing the match for three days will create very big problems for the organisers because they already have their contracts with TV, people that are involved with the organisation, hotels, transportation agencies and they have already published the brochures and posters, the original schedule is everywhere.
