Veselin Topalov

Veselin Topalov (born March 15, 1975) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. In the April 2005 FIDE rating list, he was number three in the world with an Elo rating of 2778.

He was born in Ruse, Bulgaria. He was taught the rules of chess when he was eight years old by his father. In 1989 he won the World Under-14 Championship in Aguadilja, 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 leader of the Bulgarian national team since 1994. At the Chess Olympiad in 1994 in Moscow he beat Garry Kasparov, and led the Bulgarians to a fourth-place finish. He has won a number of tournaments, and at the FIDE World Championship in New Delhi in 2000 reached the quarter-finals.

Although Topalov has a negative record against Kasparov, he beat Kasparov with black pieces in Leon in 1998 (moves given in Algebraic chess notation):

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.g3 d6 5.Bg2 O-O 6.O-O e5 7.d4 Nbd7 8.e4 a6 9.h3 exd4 10.Nxd4 Re8 11.Re1 Rb8 12.Bg5 h6 13.Be3 Ne5 14.b3 c5 15.Nf3 Nxf3+ 16.Qxf3 b5 17.Rad1 bxc4 18.Bf4 Re6 19.bxc4 Rb4 20.e5 Qe8 21.Nd5 Nxd5 22.cxd5 Rxe5 23.Bxe5 Bxe5 24.Qf6 Bd7 25.Qf3 h5 26.Qa3 Bb5 27.Kh1 Qd7 28.Rxe5 dxe5 29.Qe3 Qd6 30.Re1 Rb2 31.Qxe5 Qxe5 32.Rxe5 Rxa2 33.d6 Rd2 34.Rxc5 Rxd6 35.g4 hxg4 36.hxg4 Rd4 37.g5 Rc4 38.Re5 Rf4 39.Kg1 Kf8 40.Be4 Bd7 41.f3 Bf5 42.Bb7 Ra4 43.Kf2 Be6 44.Ke3 Ra1 45.Kf4 a5 46.Bc6 Ke7 47.Rb5 Kd6 48.Be8 a4 49.Ra5 a3 50.Ra6+ Ke7 0–1

Categories: Bulgarian sportspeople | 1975 births | Chess players | Chess grandmasters