Fide world chess championship: is this Topalov’s last chance?
At 35, this may be the Bulgarian grandmaster’s last chance to take the title
Ronan Bennett & Daniel King
The Guardian, Tuesday 20 April 2010
On Friday, in Sofia, Veselin Topalov will begin his challenge to Vishy Anand for the unified Fide/classical chess world championship title. The high point of Topalov’s career to date was in 2005 when he won the Fide world championship tournament at San Luis ahead of Anand, Svidler, Leko and other super grandmasters. It may have been that the format suited Topalov – he has always been considered a stronger tournament than match player.
The following year, at Elista, he lost his bid to unseat Anand’s predecessor Vladimir Kramnik as classical chess world champion in a match marred by gamesmanship and (unproven) allegations of cheating. Topalov, now 35, will be aware that this is probably his last chance to capture the title before the pack of hungry young lions led by Magnus Carlsen see him and his generation off for good.
We know very little about Topalov the man. He rarely gives interviews and, when he does so, restricts himself to chess matters. At the board, however, he is an aggressive, attacking player. He once said. “I’m not afraid to lose. This makes the difference between me and [other players].” His play is all about heightening the tension and upsetting the balance.
Here is the full article.
Good riddance to bad sportsmanship!
Chess deserves a king like Magnus!
Time for grandpa to retire and take smelly old man Danailov with him!
Friday, October 21, 2005
Checkmate! Topalov says Nyet to Kramnik!
Topalov is not willing to put his title on the line against Kramnik
Translated from Russian by Aryan Arghandewal
Newly crowned World Champion Veselin Topalov has no plans to put his title on the line in a possible match against Kramnik. “So far this year I have won my third Super Tournament. Vladimir Kramnik is an outstanding player of modern chess, one of the best players of the last decade. However, he is currently number seven in FIDE world rankings, and I don’t think he has the right to challenge me. When I was the world’s number seven player it never occurred to me that I had the right to challenge world’s number one,” the Bulgarian Super GM is reported to have said in San Luis.
Topalov stressed that Kramnik had been invited to San Luis, but had refused to participate. Hence, in Topalov’s opinion, Kramnik has automatically lost the right to contend for the title. Topalov is also reported to have said that from January 1st he was going to have the highest rating, leaving aside the retired Garry Kasparov (still the highest rated player). It is certainly true that five years ago Kramnik had defeated Kasparov. However, according to Topalov, Kramnik’s latest results do not provide sufficient grounds to have any claims for the title.
“There’s a big difference in our ratings,” Topalov stressed. “In chess 60 Elo points means a different class altogether. If Vladimir was offered to play against someone 60 Elo points below himself he’d simply burst out laughing. If there is going to be a Topalov-Kramnik match, it will be on purely commercial basis. I do not believe we can play for the title because I’ve already won it here in San Luis. A Topalov-Kramnik match for the title is out of question, because FIDE has organised a two-year cycle for the world championship, analogous to the one we had in San Luis, where eight qualifiers will fight for the title. Thus the tournament shall determine the new holder of the Crown. That is the plan.”
FIDE President Kirsan Illumzhinov had earlier indicated that, in principle, a match between the winner of the World Championship in San Luis and Vladimir Kramnik was possible, providing the Kramnik camp comes up with a minimum of two million dollars.