Topalov on YouTube
Posted by alifinmath on April 30, 2008
A nice 30-second bank television advertisement featuring the Bulgarian (chess) GM Topalov, which has been placed on YouTube here. If they made advertisements like this one here in the US, watching American television wouldn’t be such torture. Instead, American TV ads are hollering, screeching, and beseeching one in the most insipid and in-your-face manner to buy their meretricious products.
Incidentally, talking of banks and chess, the former chairman of Lloyds Bank, Sir Jeremy Morse – a renowned chess problem composer in his own right – had the bank sponsor the annual chess tournament, “Lloyds Bank Masters,” for several years. Good publicity for the bank as well, and not expensive at all. Culture and business go together in Europe. Here, on the other hand … I recall one time a local tournament was being organised and local sponsors were being sought: a pizza joint coughed up $25; a car wash facility came up with $50; and two or three other small businesses came up with similar figures.
April 30, 2008 at 7:38 pm
The girl was pretty cute, but she had all her clothes on and they weren’t speaking American. And what were they doing with those office supplies??
April 30, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Yeah, unfortunately they had all their clothes on. For a translation into English, see:
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4595
They were of course playing chess with the office supplies. When Topalov tips over that red thing (not sure what it was exactly), that’s an admission of defeat (one way of resigning is to tip your king over; others are 1) stopping your clock, 2) pushing the pieces to the centre of the board, 3) letting your time run out on your clock, 4)extending your hand and saying, “Good game, well done.”).
Topalov is one of the handful of players in the world who presently dominate chess and whose style and analysis determine the contours of the game as it’s presently played.