Wesselin Topalow

Topalow 2012 in Wijk aan Zee
Surname	Wesselin Topalow
Association	Bulgaria
Born	March 15, 1975 Russian , Bulgaria
title	International Master (1989) Grand Master (1992)
World Champion	2005 to 2006 ( FIDE )
Current  Elo rating	2735 (August 2020)
Best Elo rating	2816 (Jul. & Aug. 2015)
Tab at the FIDE (English)

Wesselin Topalov ( Bulgarian Веселин Топалов , scientific transliteration Veselin Topalov ; born March 15, 1975 in Russe ) is a Bulgarian grandmaster in chess .

In October 2005 Topalow won the title of FIDE world champion . In the same year he was awarded the Chess Oscar . Through his competition against the "classic" world champion Wladimir Kramnik in the 2006 World Chess Championship , the world championship title , which had been shared since 1993, was reunited. From April 2006 to January 2007 Topalow was the leader in the Elo world rankings .

life and career

Youth and advancement

Topalov's father Alexander was an economist, his mother Sneschina a doctor. At the age of 7, Wesselin Topalow learned chess and made extraordinary rapid progress. His first trainer was Dimitar Zinabov, from 1987 Petko Atanasov.

In 1989 Topalow won the U14 World Championship in Aguadilla , Puerto Rico . In 1992 he became a grandmaster . In November 1992 he drove to Spain with his manager Silvio Danailow and played numerous tournaments there, covering over 25,000 kilometers. A year later Topalow was eleventh in the world rankings. Since the mid-1990s he has belonged to the top of the world and, thanks to his uncompromising fighting style, is a welcome participant in today's top tournaments in the chess world. He had his longest successful streak in 1996 when he played in Madrid (1st – 2nd), Amsterdam (1st – 2nd), León (1st – 2nd), Novgorod (1st), Vienna (1st– 2nd) 3rd) and Dos Hermanas (1st – 3rd) won. In 2002 he reached the final match in the Dortmund Braingames Candidates Tournament, in which he was defeated by Péter Lékó with 1.5: 2.5 (+1 = 1 −2). One of the most commented games of all is his acceptance of Kasparov's rook sacrifice in 1999 in Wijk aan Zee .

The year 2005 was extremely successful for Topalow: in January he took third place in Wijk aan Zee , behind Péter Lékó and Viswanathan Anand , and defeated the reigning world champion Wladimir Kramnik with the black pieces in 20 moves. A month later he had one of the greatest successes of his career when he won the "Wimbledon" of chess, the tournament in Linares (shared with Garry Kasparov , whom he defeated in the last round). In May 2005 he continued his winning streak and won the M-Tel Masters in Sofia with one point ahead of Viswanathan Anand. For the second time this year he won a victory with the black stones against Vladimir Kramnik.

Wesselin Topalov when he arrived in Sofia in October 2005 after winning the FIDE World Cup

FIDE World Champion 2005

→ Main article: FIDE World Championship 2005

With his victory at the FIDE World Cup in San Luis, Argentina in 2005, he reached the high point of his career so far. He was one of the favorites for the title and won the tournament in a sovereign manner. With his lead in the first round of the double-round tournament (he won six games in the first round and made a draw ) he was already the winner with one round to go and became the new FIDE World Champion without defeat. He was awarded the Chess Oscar in 2005.

Unification fight 2006

→ Main article : 2006 World Chess Championship

After the tournament in San Luis was over, Topalov let his manager Danailov announce that he was ready for a competition (but not for the world title) against the classic world chess champion , Vladimir Kramnik. Kramnik, in turn, offered Topalov a title unification fight. This took place in September – October 2006 in Elista . After the last regular game was tied 6: 6, Kramnik was able to prevail in the subsequent rapid chess tiebreaks with 2.5: 1.5 and thus became the undisputed world chess champion.

Further successes 2006–2008

Topalow celebrated a great success in January 2006 when he won the top tournament Corus Wijk aan Zee together with Viswanathan Anand. In April he won a competition in Bucharest against the European champion Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 3-1, in May again the M-Tel Masters in Sofia. After a weak tournament in Hoogeveen at the end of 2006, he was able to win at the beginning of 2007, together with Lewon Aronjan and Teymur Rəcbov , at the very strong Grandmaster tournament in Wijk aan Zee . In November 2007 he won a double-round category 19 tournament (six participants, average rating 2701) in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain . With 7 points from 10 games he placed after a final spurt with three wins in the last three rounds with 1.5 points ahead of Ruslan Ponomarjow . In September 2008 he won the Final Chess Masters in Bilbao , a category 21 double-round tournament. In December, he won the Pearl Spring tournament in Nanjing with 7 points from 10 games.

Fight for the 2010 world title

→ Main article : 2010 World Chess Championship

In the fight for the world title Topalow was qualified as the winner of the FIDE World Cup 2005 for the candidate finals. This took place from February 16 to 26, 2009 in Sofia against Gata Kamsky . Topalow won it ahead of schedule with 4.5: 2.5 (+3 = 3 −1) points. The world championship fight against the reigning world chess champion Viswanathan Anand took place from April 24th to May 13th, 2010 also in Sofia, where Topalow lost 5.5: 6.5.

After 2010

In the 2011 candidates' tournament for the 2012 World Cup, he was eliminated in the quarterfinals against Kamsky (1.5: 2.5). With his overall victory at the FIDE Grand Prix 2012–2013 , Topalow qualified for the 2014 Candidates Tournament , in which he finished last with 6 out of 14 points (+2 = 8 −4). In June 2015 he won the Norway Chess tournament (Elo average 2782) with 6.5 points from 9 rounds.

Elo development

Elo development

style

Wesselin Topalow at the Tata Steel chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee in January 2012

Topalow is considered an uncompromising fighter who turns into a "fanatic with fiery eyes" on the board. His strength is the middle game : he is a good calculator and prefers double-edged positions in which he has the initiative . In the opening he prefers to play aggressive variants with which he can put pressure on his opponents. He benefits from his good preparation, in which he is supported by his second Ivan Tscheparinow .

Topalow - Kramnik,
Wijk aan Zee 2008

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Position after Black's 11th move

Topalow is also known for its sacrifices . He was previously considered weaker on the defensive, and he made relatively many simple mistakes for a player in his class. An example of this is the 10th match game against Kramnik in 2006. Around 2010 his style becomes more universal. Schach 8/2013 writes : "A change in his style of play is unmistakable: Instead of the earlier common games from one cast, he is now often no better from the opening, but has become stronger at defending worse positions tenaciously".

A sensational innovation in local chess , which is characteristic of his dynamic style, was played against Kramnik at the Corus chess tournament in January 2008. In the theoretical position opposite , which had already appeared many times before in grandmaster practice, the move 12.Ne5xd7 was common. Kramnik was about to write it down on his score sheet when Topalow reached for his knight. However, he made the unexpected sacrifice 12. Ne5xf7 !? and subsequently received a strong attack against the black king. Although the correctness of the victim has not yet been finally clarified analytically , Kramnik was unable to solve the problems on the board and lost the game after 45 moves. Topalow only needed one hour to think about the first 40 moves, which speaks for his good preparation. The diagram was shown on January 24, 2008 on the front page of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . The victim had previously been played in two correspondence chess games, both of which ended in a draw.

List of tournament results (excluding rapid chess)

competition	place	Result / score	rank
1989
U14 world championship	Aguadilla ( Puerto Rico )	10/11	1st place
1992
	Terrassa ( Catalonia , Spain )	6.5 / 9	1st place
1993
	Madrid (Spain)	6.5 / 9	2nd place
1994
	Las Palmas (Spain)	5.5 / 9	3rd place
1995
	Polanica-Zdrój ( Poland )	7.5 / 11	1st place
	Elenite ( Bulgaria )	6/9	1st place
	Belgrade ( Yugoslavia , today Serbia )	6/11	4th Place
1996
	Amsterdam ( Netherlands )	6.5 / 9	1st place
	Dos Hermanas (Spain)	6/9	3rd place
	Madrid	6.5 / 9	1st place
	León (Spain)	3.5 / 6	1st place
1997
	Madrid	6.5 / 9	1st place
	Dortmund	5.5 / 9	3rd place
2001
	Sarajevo ( Bosnia-Herzegovina )	6/9	2nd place
	Dortmund	6.5 / 10	2nd place
2002
	Cannes ( France )	6/9	1st place
2003
	Leon	4/8	2nd place
	Benidorm (Spain)	7/10	1st place
2004
FIDE world championship		11.5 / 16	3rd place
2005
	Linares	8/12	1st place
	Sofia (Bulgaria)	6.5 / 10	1st place
FIDE world championship	San Luis ( Argentina )	10/14	1st place (Topalow becomes FIDE world champion)
2006
Corus chess tournament	Wijk aan Zee (Netherlands)	9/13	1st place
	Linares and Morelia ( Mexico )	8/14	3rd place
M-Tel Masters	Sofia (Bulgaria)	6.5 / 10	1st place
World championship fight against Vladimir Kramnik	Elista ( Kalmykia , Russia )	5/11 (+2 = 6 −3)	6-6 draw, with a win without a fight, then 2.5-1.5 in the rapid chess tiebreak for Kramnik
10th Essent Hoogeveen	Netherlands	2.5 / 6 (+2 = 1 −3)	3rd place
2007
Corus chess tournament	Wijk aan Zee (Netherlands)	8.5 / 13	1st place
M-Tel Masters	Sofia (Bulgaria)	5.5 / 10	1st place
"Chess Champions League" tournament	Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain)	7/10	1st place
2008
Corus chess tournament	Wijk aan Zee (Netherlands)	6/13	9th place
M-Tel Masters	Sofia (Bulgaria)	6.5 / 10	2nd place
"Final Chess Masters" tournament	Bilbao (Spain)	6.5 / 10	1st place
Pearl Spring Chess Tournament	Nanjing (China)	7/10	1st place
2012
1st FIDE Grand Prix tournament 2012–2013	London	7/11	1st place (shared with Boris Gelfand and Şəhriyar Məmmədyarov )

National team

Topalov took part in the Chess Olympiads in 1994 , 1996 , 1998 , 2000 , 2008 , 2010 , 2012 and 2014 with the Bulgarian national team. He won five individual medals: in 1994 he achieved the best Elo performance of all participants, in 1998 and 2000 he had the second best Elo performance of all participants, in 2008 he achieved the third best and in 2014 the best result on the top board. He also represented Bulgaria at the European Team Championships in 1999, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013. At the European Team Championships in 1999 he achieved the best rating of all participants, in 2013 he achieved the best result on the first board.

societies

Topalow took part in the European Club Cup four times . He won the competition in 1999 with the ŠK Bosna Sarajevo , in 2012 and 2014 with the SOCAR Baku team , with whom he finished third in 2013. In 2012 he also achieved the best result on the third board, as well as in 2014 on the second board. In the Spanish team championship he played in 1999 and 2000 for the team from CA Palm Oasis Maspalomas , with which he won the title in 2000 .

Lots

• Kasparow - Topalow, Wijk aan Zee 1999
• At the Corus chess tournament in 2008, Vesselin Topalov surprisingly sacrificed his knight on f7 in the Moscow variant . This moment was pictured on January 24, 2008 on the front page of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Web links

Commons : Wesselin Topalow  - Collection of Images

• Replayable chess games by Wesselin Topalow on 365Chess.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tournament website Final Chess Masters Bilbao ( Memento from January 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Topalov defeats Kamsky to win match , Fide on February 27, 2009
3. ^ Presidential Board meeting 1st quarter 2009 Fide on March 9, 2009
4. ↑ Numbers according to FIDE Elo lists. Data sources: fide.com (period since 2001), olimpbase.org (period 1971 to 2001)
5. ↑ Evgeny Bareev and Ilya Lewitow: From London to Elista . New in Chess, Alkmaar 2007, p. 308.
6. ↑ http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1482320
7. ↑ http://karlonline.org/308_4.htm
8. ↑ U14 World Championship
9. ↑ Wesselin Topalow's results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
10. ↑ Wesselin Topalow's results at European team championships on olimpbase.org (English)
11. ↑ Wesselin Topalow's results at European Club Cups on olimpbase.org (English)
12. ↑ Wesselin Topalow's results at Spanish team championships on olimpbase.org (English)
13. ^ Front page of the FAZ on January 24, 2008