Veselin Topalov,Bulgaria Info Bulgarian Map Properties

Veselin Topalov

Veselin Topalov (IPA: [ve.se'lin to'pɑ.lof]; Bulgarian: Веселин Топалов) (born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster and former FIDE world champion. His current trainer and manager is International Master Silvio Danailov.

Topalov became the FIDEWorld Chess Champion by winning the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005. Topalov was awarded the 2005 Chess Oscar. In the July 2006 FIDE rating list, he is ranked number one in the world with an Elo rating of 2813, the second highest rated person ever.

Topalov played Classical World ChampionVladimir Kramnik in a twelve-game title unification match. The match was drawn at 6-6, and Kramnik won the tie-break 2.5-1.5 to unify the titles and dethrone Topalov.

Early career

Topalov was born in Rousse, Bulgaria. His father taught him to play chess at the age of eight. In 1989 he won the World Under-14 Championship in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, and in 1990 won the silver medal at the World Under-16 Championship in Singapore. He became a Grandmaster in 1992.

Topalov has been the leader of the Bulgarian national team since 1994. At the 1994 Chess Olympiad in Moscow he led the Bulgarians to a fourth-place finish.

Over the next ten years he won a number of tournaments, and ascended the world chess rankings. In the knockout tournaments for the FIDEWorld Chess Championship, he reached the last 16 in 1999, the quarter-finals in 2000, the final 16 in 2001, and the semi-finals in the 2004 tournament. In 2002, he lost the final of the Dortmund Candidates Tournament (for the right to challenge for the rival Classical World Chess Championship) to Peter Leko.

Topalov scored his first "super-tournament" success at Linares 2005, tying for the first place with Garry Kasparov (though losing on tiebreak rules), and defeating Kasparov in the last round, in what was to be Kasparov's last tournament game before his retirement. He followed this up with a one point victory (+4 =5 −1) at the M-tel Masters 2005 tournament, ahead of Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Ruslan Ponomariov, Michael Adams, and Judit Polgar. The average rating of the participants was 2744, making this super-GM, double round-robin tournament the strongest in 2005.

World Champion

On the strength of his rating, Topalov was invited to the eight-player, double round-robin FIDE World Chess Championship in San Luis, Argentina, in September-October 2005. Scoring 6.5/7 in the first cycle, Topalov had virtually clinched the tournament at the halfway mark, before drawing every game in the second cycle to win by 1.5 points and become FIDE World Chess Champion. The average rating of the field in the championship was 2739, and Topalov's performance rating was 2890.

The unification of the FIDE World Title (held by Topalov) and the Classical Chess World Title (held by Vladimir Kramnik) was fervently encouraged by the chess community. On 16 April2006, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announced that a reunification match between Kramnik and Topalov would be held in September-October 2006. Kramnik defeated Topalov to become the first undisputed champion in thirteen years.

In May 2006, Topalov defended his M-tel Masters title in the 2006 edition of the tournament, coming first with 6.5 ahead of Gata Kamsky (whom he beat 2-0) with 6. Topalov started the tournament somewhat hesitantly to later record four consecutive wins and clinch the title.

Kramnik-Topalov match controversy

Main article: FIDE World Chess Championship 2006

On 28 September 2006, Danailov published a press release, casting suspicion on Kramnik's behaviour during the games. The Bulgarian team made a public statement that Kramnik used to visit his private bathroom (the only place without any audio or video surveillance) unreasonably often, about 50 times per game (a number that FIDE officials later claimed to be exaggerated) and made the most significant decisions in the game in the bathroom.

They also demanded that the organizers of the tournament make available to journalists the surveillance video from Kramnik's room for games 1 through 4. The organizers made parts of the video available, explaining that other parts of it were missing due to technical issues. Danailov demanded to stop the use of private restrooms and bathrooms, and threatened to reconsider Topalov's participation in the match.

Kramnik refused to play game 5 and was forfeited. On 1 October, the restroom issue was resolved in Kramnik's favour and the Appeals Committee resigned and were replaced. The FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov decided that the current score of 3-2 should be preserved. He also indicated that this was not a compromise decision but his own. The match resumed on 2 October 2006.

On 1 October, the Association of Chess Professionals released a statement denouncing Danailov for publicly accusing his opponent without evidence, and calling for him to be investigated by the FIDE Ethics Committee. Topalov has also been similarly denounced by numerous top players, including former World Champions Anatoly Karpov, and Boris Spassky, Viktor Korchnoi, former US Champions Lev Alburt and Yasser Seirawan, and others.

On 3 October, Topalov said in a press conference, "I believe that his [Kramnik's] play is fair, and my decision to continue the match proves it."^]. However the next day the crisis escalated, with Topalov's manager strongly implying that Kramnik was receiving computer assistance Ironically, Topalov had himself been accused of cheating in the San Luis tournament in 2005

In a post-match interview, Danailov expressed a desire for a rematch between Topalov and Kramnik, saying, “FIDE regulations allow every world champion that has lost the title to challenge the title holder. The total prize fund is 1.5 million dollars. We will find this money and will request the game to take place in Sofia. We will offer an exact date, 3rd of March 2007.”

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Veselin Topalov

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