Silvio Danailov

Silvio Danailov (Bulgarian: Силвио Данаилов; born 21 April 1961) is a Bulgarian International Master chessplayer and the manager of two former FIDE world chess champions, Veselin Topalov^[1] and Ruslan Ponomariov.^[2]

Danailov attained notoriety during the FIDE World Chess Championship 2006 by making accusations against Topalov's opponent Vladimir Kramnik (who subsequently won the match). On 28 September 2006, Danailov complained to the match organizers and the press about Kramnik's repeated visits to the bathroom. He noted that the bathrooms were the only place not under audio or video surveillance, and called the frequency of the breaks "strange, if not suspicious". Danailov suggested that Topalov would abandon the match if the concerns were not addressed.^[1] On 4 October 2006, Danailov issued a press release that identified what it labelled "coincidence statistics" showing the percentage of times that Kramnik played a move that would be recommended by Chessbase's Fritz 9 chessplaying software in that position.^[3] The press release did not state the comparable percentage for Topalov.

Since 2010, Silvio Danailov is the new President of the European Chess Union. He won the elections during the Chess Olympiad in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, with 30 votes, defeating Ali Nihat Yazıcı with 24 votes. Silvio Danailov succeeded Boris Kutin, who registered a very successful period for ECU during his mandate.