Veselin Topalov

Веселин Топалов ( Bulgarian)

Veselin Topalov ( Bulgarian Веселин Топалов, scientific transliteration Veselin Topalov, born March 15, 1975, in Russian) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster, and was from October 2005 to October 2006 FIDE World Champion.

Life and career

Youth and rise

Topalows father Alexander was an economist, his mother Sneschina doctor. At the age of 7 years Vesselin Topalov learned chess and made extraordinary fast progress. His first coach was Dimitar Sinabow, from 1987, Petko Tanassow.

Topalov won the 1989 U14 World Cup in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. He was Grand Master in 1992. In November 1992 he went with his manager Silvio Danailov to Spain, where he played numerous tournaments, while they covered over 25,000 kilometers. A year later, Topalov finished eleventh in the world rankings. Since the mid- 1990s, he is one of the super- grandmasters and with its uncompromising fighting style is a welcome participant in the current top tournaments in the chess world. He had his longest winning streak in 1996, when he was in Madrid (1st - 2nd ), Amsterdam, León, Novgorod ( 1 ) Vienna ( 1 (1st - 2nd ) (1st - 2nd ) - 3 ) and Dos Hermanas (1st - 3rd ) won. In 2002 he arrived in Dortmund's Brain Games Candidates' tournament in the final match, in which he defeated Péter Lékó with 1,5-2,5 ( 1, -2, = 1). One of the most commented games ever is his acceptance of Kasparov's rook sacrifice in Wijk aan Zee 1999.

Extremely successfully ran for Topalov in 2005: in January, he finished in Wijk aan Zee, the sole third place, behind Péter Lékó and Viswanathan Anand, and defeated the reigning world champion Vladimir Kramnik with the black pieces in 20 moves. A month later, he succeeded in one of the greatest successes in his career, when he won the "Wimbledon" of chess, the tournament in Linares, ( shared with Garry Kasparov, whom he beat in the final round ). In May 2005, he continued his winning streak and won the M- Tel Masters in Sofia with a point ahead of Viswanathan Anand. He succeeded for the second time this year, a victory with the black pieces against Vladimir Kramnik.

World Champions FIDE 2005

→ Main article: FIDE World Chess Championship 2005

With his win at the World Cup tournament in Argentina's San Luis FIDE in 2005 he reached the high point of his career. He was one of the favorites for the title and won the tournament in a sovereign manner. With its return in the first round of the double round tournament projection ( he won in the first round six games and made a draw ), he was already a lap to go are the winners and was unbeaten new FIDE world champion. He was awarded the 2005 Chess Oscar.

Unification fight in 2006

After completion of the tournament in San Luis let Topalov by his manager Danailov stated that he for a competition (but not to the world title ) was prepared against the classical chess world champion Vladimir Kramnik. Kramnik Topalov offered his hand to a title unification fight. This took place in Elista in September-October 2006. After it was tied after the last regular game 6:6, Kramnik was able to prevail in the subsequent rapid chess tiebreak with 2.5:1.5 and thus became the undisputed world chess champion.

Other achievements 2006-2008

A major success was Topalov celebrate in January 2006, when he won the Corus Wijk aan Zee tournament tip together with Viswanathan Anand. In April he won in Bucharest a match against the European champion Liviu -Dieter Nisipeanu 3-1, again in May, the M - Tel Masters in Sofia. After a weak tournament in Hoogeveen, the end of 2006, he was at the beginning of 2007, with Levon Aronian and achieve common Teymur Rəcəbov, the very strong field grandmaster tournament in Wijk aan Zee victory. In November 2007, he won a tournament doppelrundiges category 19 ( six participants, average rating, 2701 ) in Vitoria -Gasteiz. With 7 points over 10 games, he placed after a sprint with three wins in the last three rounds with 1.5 points ahead of Ruslan Ponomariov. In September 2008 he won in the Bilbao Final Chess Masters, a tournament doppelrundiges category 21 In December, he won the tournament in Nanjing Pearl Spring with 7 points over 10 games.

Fight for the world title in 2010

In the fight for the world title Topalov was qualified as the winner of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 for the Candidates final. This took place until February 26, 2009 in Sofia against Gata Kamsky of 16. Topalov could prematurely with 4,5:2,5 ( 3, -1, = 3) points decide for themselves. The World Cup match against the reigning world chess champion Viswanathan Anand was held from April 24 to May 13, 2010 also in Sofia instead, where Topalov defeated with 5,5:6,5.

After 2010

In the 2011 Candidates Tournament for the World Cup 2012, he retired in the quarterfinals against Kamsky of ( 1,5-2,5 ). Due to his overall victory in the FIDE Grand Prix 2012-2013 is Topalov qualified for the Candidates Tournament of 2014.

Elo

Topalows current ( February 2014 ) Elo rating is 2772, so that it is at position 4 in the world rankings of the World Chess Federation FIDE.

Style

Topalov is considered as an uncompromising fighter who " fanatics with fiery eyes " turns into a on board. Its strength is the middle game: He is a good computer and preferably double-edged positions in which he has the initiative. In the opening he prefers playing aggressive variants with which it can exert pressure on his opponents. He benefited from a good preparation, in which he is supported by his second Ivan Tscheparinow.

Topalov is also known for its quality sacrifice. Defensively, he has weaknesses, however, also undermined him for a player of his class relatively many simple mistakes. An example of this is the 10th match game against Kramnik in 2006., In many tournaments he starts badly, then comes on even in drive and has a strong final sprint.

A sensational new feature that is characteristic for its dynamic style, he played at the Corus chess tournament in January 2008 against Kramnik. In the opposite theory position that already occurred many times before in the grandmaster practice, the train 12 Se5xd7 was common. Kramnik wanted him already note on his scoresheet, as Topalov grabbed his jumper. However, this brought the unexpected victims of 12 Se5xf7? and subsequently received a strong attack against the black king. Although the correctness of the victim has not yet been finally resolved analytically, Kramnik could not solve on board and lost the match after 45 moves the resulting problems. Topalov needed for the first 40 moves only one hours time limit, which speaks for good preparation. The chart position was mapped on 24 January 2008 on the front page of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

List of tournament results (without rapid chess )

Games

• Kasparov - Topalov, Wijk aan Zee 1999
• When Corus Chess Tournament 2008 Vesselin Topalov sacrificed in the Moscow Variation surprising his knight. This moment was imaged on 24 January 2008 on the front page of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.