By Thursday the score was 3–1 to Kramnik in the 12-game match for the world championship and Topalov was looking in a lot of trouble — a two-win lead is a big gap in such a short match (until the last decade or so world championship matches were best of 24). Topalov's manager, chap called Danailov, sends a letter to the appeals committee pointing out that Kramnik was going to the toilet far too many times during the games. Topalov threatens to abandon the match.

There is a rule in chess that you are not allowed to disturb your opponent in any way whatsover. Not by smoking over the board, not by tapping your foot, not by shouting “what kind of a crappy move was that, imbecile. You deserve to lose like the clueless patzer you so clearly are.” If Topalov was disturbed by, I don't know, the sound of the flush perhaps then he may be justified in filing a complaint but the actual letter was not to do with disturbance. The implication was that Kramnik had been checking the position against a computer and getting illegal assistance while tucked away in a room where nobody can spot him.

This accusation is completely absurd in a world championship match and the letter should have been handed back to Danailov with a facetious chortle but, astonishingly, the appeals committee — filled with FIDE cronies given the cushy, well-paid job as reward for ‘services rendered’ and one of whom is a personal friend of Danailov's — went and upheld the decision. The separate bathrooms were off-limits and the conditions of the match were thus changed which is expressly forbidden in the contracts both players signed.

Match-play chess is a contest in which the psychological side — the feeling that things are going your way — is very important.

Kramnik's team protested the implied insult, the decision, and the bias of the appeals committee and refused to appear for the game on Saturday. The arbiter started the clock which expired two hours later and he awarded the game to Topalov.

This is all just wrongtown and Kramnik comes out the worse in just about everything. Topalov has a point he doesn't deserve and now has the momentum on his side — after a couple of draws he won last night to tie the match at 4–4 — the appeals committee have all been made to resign, indicating that their decision was wrong, but the forfeit has stood: the arbiter should never have started the clock in such a situation but having done so the result has to stand.

Fifteen minutes before game 7 started Danailov put another letter to the press comparing the moves made by Kramnik to those suggested by the strongest chess computer program and finding 77% of the moves corresponded — again suggesting that Kramnik is cheating. This is simply farcical. Today's chess computers predict Bobby Fischer's moves from '72 with the same accuracy. Grandmasters pick the best moves 77% of the time, just as chess computers do: because they are the best moves.

My position is a fairly simple one: Topalov is a prat. Either for making these miserable accusations or at least for allowing Danailov to perform them on his behalf. A pity, really, because he's been playing some killer chess in this match.

So, that was just to let you all get up to speed on that one. Of course, it's been all over the papers already…

(kudos to Mig for the photo and the headline)

¶ 3:20 pm