It's not enough to defeat his challenger Topalov. World Champion Viswanathan Anand now has to be able to control volcanoes as well, it seems.

The volcanic ash blanketing Europe grounded air travel, so what was to have been a flight of a few hours has turned into a multi-day automobile trip. So the World Champion asked, please, if he could get the preparation days the extra travel time was going to cost him back, by delaying the start of the match by three days.

From the response by the organizers, you would have thought Anand's real name were Oliver Twist. Of course not, they said. You should have known this might happen and made your travel arrangements for earlier. And further, instead of waiting for us to reply to your request, you should have left already. Had you just shut up, rearranged your itinerary completely and left immediately instead of asking for this postponement you'd have time to be here. So just shut up and quit bothering us.

Their response was so manifestly unfair that FIDE (not a body exactly known for its devotion to ideals of fair play) even felt it had to step in and declare a delay of a single day was required in fairness to Anand.

And why do you suppose the organizers took such a hard line toward Anand? There was the usual talk about contracts, and the usual absurdities (when informed that Aruna Anand hadn't replied immediately to a request because she was in flight with her cell phone turned off, they called it part of Anand's "war of nerves").

After all, it couldn't have been because Sofia, the match site, is Topalov's "home field," now, could it?