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Krasimir Kushev is an author of more than 10 documentary films dedicated to various chess events. Most famous ones are: “The Demon Revive”, which is the story of the Fisher-Spassky match in 1992, “We are Applauding the Imitations Only Once”-for the first encounter of Kramnik and Topalov after their mtach in Elista,: “Virtual Zone” for the Elista WCC match between the same players, “Star Steppe”, etc. his film for the Bled Olympiad “The Last Move” took first price in the category “Sport Films” at the TV festival in Albena 2002.
Mr. Kushev, from how long do you make TV reports for chess?
Approximately 15 years.
Which are the most significant tournaments that you covered?
Three Mtel-Masters tournaments, Olympiads in Bled, Elista, EICC from Batumi, EICC from Istanbul and many other tournaments. As a public television we the priority task to rediscover the desire to the disappearing spiritual beauty. To this disappearing spiritual beauty unfortunately I reckon chess. Although abroad we are recognized chess country, the Bulgarians are thrown in a kind of chess nihilism which prevents us of discovering our real value. And when twenty years ago a whole political system sank into the history we were given no alternative for replacement. I think that chess should have priority value in our morality.
Why do you think TV interest towards chess is so insignificant in Bulgaria?
Probably because it is not an attractive sport. Secondly we do not appreciate what is appreciated abroad, but have a kind of fabricated criteria. One example is that a totally faked football championship is having much bigger impact in the Medias, rather than chess.
Do you think that we need a chess lobby in different televisions to receive enough attention?
I think that we need to open the minds of the people who cover sport’s life in Bulgaria. They need to know that chess has its noteworthy place among other sports. Let us take China as illustration. After the Beijing Olympiad, at the beginning of October , World Mind Game Championship will tae place where chess has its leading place. There will be also bridge, back-gammon, scrabble, etc., which means that world is already joining chess.
Who are the big names that your work as a chess commentator has met with?
They are many. I remember that it was extremely difficult to take an interview fro Garry Kasparov at the Bled Olympiad. He asked then 10000 dollars from a Greek equipe for a one minute interview. Subsequently BBC paid him 50000 to carry a microphone for 24 hours on his lapel, but without permission to make pictures of him. We managed to make an interview for free, thanks to the good relationships to Kasparov with our chess president by that time Kamen Toshkov, and the interesting questions that I asked him, which made him quite hectic. The interview lasted seven minutes instead of the agreed one, since Kasparov was very enthusiastic, and he did not ask anything for it. I also took interviews with Anatoli Karpov, and all the participants from Mtel Masters tournaments. I also had some lively conversations with Kirsan Iljumjinov, in which I was trying to discover why all chess messes were felt mainly on our backs.
Is it difficult to speak with chess players?
The disciples of Kaissa are eccentric men with very interesting characters who may well be uncomprehended. They have their own theories for the world, for some of them chess is the center of the universe, for others-it is fun. As a whole communicating with them is very interesting, since it offers emotional fields that no other sports can do.
Can you tell us some curious case from your practice?
Probably the funniest case is with Anatoly Karpov from the Elista Olympiad in 1998. We had an agreement for an interview from our first contact, and I gave him a sheet with 5 questions. However, in the following four days could not see each other, and I “caught” him only on the fifth day. But then I already had forgotten the questions and the sheet as well. I tied to improvise, not to lose the moment, but the things did not go well. Then I discovered what does genius’s memory-Karpov thought for approximately 10 seconds and managed to reproduce the questions in the exact order that I gave him five days ago. Освен шахматен коментатор вие сте и добър шахматист.
You are also a good chess player. I know that you play quite successfully on chess tournaments for journalists. Can you tell us something more about it?
These are Olympiads of the Eurovision country members, where various sport competitions take place. Chess tournament itself is very attractive, because is on rapid time limit. For the quality of the field we can judge by the fact that among the thirty participants there was one IM, four FMs and 6-7 national masters. There is a tournament every year and so far I have two first and one second place. There is also a team competition and our BNT (Bulgarian National Television) team claimed the title twice, which made us very proud. In September Austria will host next journalistic Olympiad and we wish more titles.
I wish you good luck!
Thank you.
Lejla Dimitrova