Career
He was a manager and coach of the Bulgarian men"s national chess team (1993-2000) and manager and coach of two former FIDE world chess champions, General Motors Veselin Topalov (BUL) and General Motors Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR). Silvio Danailov implemented the famous anti-draw rules called the Sofia Rules, which were introduced for the first time in the MTel Masters tournament in 2005. The rule states: “The players should not offer draws directly to their opponents.
Draw-offers will be allowed only through the Chief-Arbiter in three cases: a triple-repetition of the position, a perpetual check and in theoretically drawn positions.” Sofia rules make the chess games and tournaments more attractive to the general audience, media and sponsors.
Silvio Danailov’s company Kaissa Chess Management has organized many world top chess events such as. MTel Masters super tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria (five times, 2005-2009), the Candidates match for FIDE World Championship Topalov - Kamsky in Sofia (2009) and the World Championship match Anand - Topalov in Sofia (2010), and many European chess championships.
He is fluent in English, Spanish, Russian and Serbo-Croatian languages. Danailov led the campaign for endorsement of the ECU’s Chess in school program by the European Parliament in Strasbourg on March 13, 2012.
The Written Declaration 50/2011 for the implementation of the ‘Chess in School’ programme among the schools in the European Union was signed by 415 MEPs.
During his Presidency, the European Chess Union became a partner of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which officially gave the rights to ECU to organize some of its events under the Patronage of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Silvio Danailov was involved in several controversies such as the bathroom controversy during the World Chess Championship 2006.