Chess Champions League Vitoria Gasteiz
Trailing Ponomariov by 1/2 point with 2 rounds to go, Topalov defeated him in round 9 to take over the sole lead. We have seen this comeback pattern from him time and time again. In the mean time, Kasimdzhanov defeated Karpov to move out of the cellar. Now Karpov is -4 in this event, probably his worst event in decades.
Round 9
Topalov 1-0 Ponomariov
Kasimdzhanov 1-0 Karpov
Nisipeanu 1/2 J. Polgar
Current standings after 8 rounds:
1. Topalov, Veselin BUL 2769 6
2. Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2705 5½
3. Polgar, Judit HUN 2708 5
4. Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter ROU 2668 4½
5. Kasimdzhanov, Rustam UZB 2690 3½
6. Karpov, Anatoly RUS 2670 2½
Official site: http://www.ajedrez-hotelakua.com/
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
I like to see a Topalov – Anand match.
who doesn’t
I personally attended Mtel Masters in Sofia this year. Before the first round, Topalov looked like a lost kid. When I attended the last round, he looked like a tiger ready to eat his prey. I don’t know why he behaves like that, maybe he gains confidence as tournaments go on but his comebacks will be remembered.
Topalov is the TRUE World Champion playing in a much better Tornament than the Tal where that Kramnik guy is hiding out – afraid to play Topalov Veselin. He is natural one number in the world – this should not be in dispute.
Is this a cheating-save tournament?
Hope so.
Is Danailov still the manager of Ponomariov too?
Yay for Topalov!
Topalov – Anand match.. ? I am not too sure about that. I would like to see Chuky rise up by next year (by defeating all these kids like Kramnik / Topalov etc) and i would like to see an Anand – Chuky match.
Chuky is already ELO No.2, but he needs to prove this by beating kiddos like Topa and Drawnik.
Chucky lost a lot of rating points lately, probably because he never allow himself to rest betwen tournaments.
So now, Kramnik is surely above him in rating, and I think that Topalov too, but we need to wait for Jan08 Elo list.
Anyway, he is not #2 anymore..
actually the standings are after 9 rounds
Robert, I am “on the spot” in 4 or 5 top chess tournaments per year, including Linares-Morelia, Sofia Mtel, etc. And I am involved in the organization of the Vitoria tournament.
Trust me if I tell you that there is no computer cheating and no fixed games related to Topalov. Nor in Vitoria, neither in any other of the tournaments I have covered so far. And apart from being a part-time chess journalist, I did work as private investigator in some sports frauds (fixed tennis matches and so on), so I know about keeping my eyes open 😉
To all who need clarification:
Anand is the true Champion, because he won the Championship. Topalov lost his match against Kramnik in 2006 and cannot claim by any means to be a champion. He can be very happy to have been granted the privilege to play against the world cup winner.
With all this “Topalov is the true champion” nonsense even Fischer could claim to be the “true” champion, and he didn’t loose a match…
There can only be one…
Thank you David. So Bravo to Topalov! Great move!