Topalov vs Irish Team: The ICU Press Release
Below we reproduce the main parts of the press release by the Irish Chess Union (Source: ChessToday.net).
“The Irish Chess Union are proud to announce an exhibition challenge match, featuring one of the current great players of world chess, Grandmaster, and former world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria. He will be pitted against a choice selection of some of Ireland’s finest players.
The match starts at 6pm, Monday 3rd October in the Clarence Hotel, Wellington Quay, Dublin. Former Irish Champion, Paul Delaney, will provide live commentary at the venue, and the moves of the games will be broadcast live over the internet. See www.icu.ie for details. Tickets are strictly limited, and available from the secretary, Irish Chess Union.
In the 99 years of the history of the Irish Chess Union, Grandmaster Topalov is the strongest player to visit our shores. Unlike a normal simultaneous played against club players, GM Topalov will play against the four strongest Irish players; fellow grandmaster, Alex Baburin, and International Masters Sam Collins, Alex Lopez and Mark Quinn. All players have 2 hours for all their moves, but as GM Topalov is playing the four Irish players at the same time, he effectively only has 30 minutes per game, meaning he must think four times as fast as our squad.
Veselin Topalov Born 15 March 1975, is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. He currently has the sixth highest rating in the world, and was the challenger facing current world champion Viswanathan Anand of India in the World Chess Championship 2010, losing the match 5½-6½. Topalov became the FIDE World Chess Champion by winning the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005. He lost his title in the World Chess Championship 2006 match against Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. Topalov won the 2005 Chess Oscar.
He was ranked #1 in the world from April 2006 to January 2007. He regained the world #1 ranking again in October 2008, and officially remained #1 until January 2010, when he fell to #2 behind Carlsen. He has been ranked number one a total of 27 months in his career, fourth all-time since the inception of the FIDE ranking lists in 1971 behind only Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov and Bobby Fischer.”
LIVE broadcast here: http://www.2seeitlive.co.uk/icu/tfd.htm
Contact: Jonathan O’Connor,
Chairman,
IRISH CHESS UNION; www.icu.ie
Phone: +353 44 937 2894
Mobile: +353 86 824 9736
Topalov still rocks.
The fact that this is a simul makes it worth watching, because otherwise none of those Irish champions would have a chance against Topalov. The highest ranking Baburin is 250 points behind Topalov, and the other 3 IM’s are ranked around 2400. If they manage a draw, it will be quite impressive in itself.