WC- Who were the seconds?

For anand - GMs Nielsen, ganguly, kasimdzhanov and who was the fourth?

For topalov - cheparinov and ???

Originally posted by arterioes
For anand - GMs Nielsen, ganguly, kasimdzhanov and who was the fourth?

For topalov - cheparinov and ???

I know Topalov also had Smeets and LAmi on his team.

Anand had Wojtaszek, and Topalov had Dufek, in addition to the ones already mentioned.

Originally posted by mtthw
Anand had Wojtaszek, and Topalov had Dufek, in addition to the ones already mentioned.

Dufek? As in Jiri Dufek with a FIDE rating of 2276??

Originally posted by arterioes
Dufek? As in Jiri Dufek with a FIDE rating of 2276??

"The seconds of both players arrived at the venue. As it turned out, Anand had the same group of helpers as in Bonn: Peter Heine Nielsen, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Surya Ganguly and Radoslaw Wojtaszek. We already knew that Topalov worked with Jan Smeets, Erwin l’Ami, Ivan Cheparinov and Jiri Dufek"

Above is a cut&paste from an article posted on chessvibes.com

Originally posted by arterioes
Dufek? As in Jiri Dufek with a FIDE rating of 2276??

Maybe he is awesome with the computer?

Jiri Dufek is just another way to say Rybka 4.

I am curious as to just what "seconds" can do for the main player. I'm sure all is legal and within the rules, but what do they actually do? Would appreciate any response to this question.

What do "seconds" do for the main player? I know it's all legal and according to the rules of chess. But what do they actually do? Would appreciate any awswer to my question.

Originally posted by Vince123
What do "seconds" do for the main player? I know it's all legal and according to the rules of chess. But what do they actually do? Would appreciate any awswer to my question.

The seconds are mainly there to help with opening preparation, although most of that will have been done in the months before the match.

They'll carefully go over the games played, looking for improvements for both sides.

That's a lot of hours of analysis for each game, so the players need a team of helpers to do the work.

Originally posted by David Tebb
The seconds are mainly there to help with opening preparation...carefully go over the games played, looking for improvements...hours of analysis for each game

Of course, none of this applies if your second is RD Keene 🙄

Originally posted by arterioes
Dufek? As in Jiri Dufek with a FIDE rating of 2276??

Hey, I'll take it🙂

Originally posted by Thabtos
Jiri Dufek is just another way to say Rybka 4.

This. Topalov (through Dufek, one of Rybka's programmers) had access to the most powerful computer in the world which also happens to have one of the best openings books.

Bobby Fischer is rolling over in his grave at the thought of so much assistance.

Check out the chessbase report on anands 'human cluster'. People who assisted him during and before the match
Garry kasparov
Magnus Carlsen
V Kramnik
Anish Giri

Do I sense a collective hatred of topalov or what?