Knocked out in the first round

Magnus Carlsen defeats Topalov in opening round of M-Tel Masters
Thu, May 14 2009 11:17 CET
by Nick Iliev

Bulgaria’s number one chess master has been defeated by Norwegian wonder kid Magnus Carlsen in the first round of the M-Tel masters in Sofia. The match started on Wednesday, May 13 at 4pm.

In a game of enormous interest for Bulgarian chess fans, the 18-year-old Norwegian stood up to the challenge and defeated his Bulgarian opponent in 36 moves. Carlsen initiated the proceedings with the white set, having the initiative from the beginning, unrelenting until the end.

The game was held at a large exhibition kiosk made of glass in the garden of the National Theatre, Ivan Vazov, Sofia.

As of yesterday, the results from the first round of the games are as follows: Leinier Dominguez from Cuba fought it out to a stalemate with China’s Wang Yue.

Meanwhile, Spanish player Alexei Shirov defeated Ukrainian contender Vassily Ivanchuk.

Bulgarian Vesselin Topalov’s next encounter is against Shirov in the second round. The game is scheduled to begin on May 14, Thursday, at 4 pm.

The M-Tel Masters is an annual super-GM chess tournament, which has been held since 2005 in Sofia. The tournament has been sponsored and organised by the Bulgarian mobile network operator, M-Tel, and the event’s venue is the five-star Grand Hotel Sofia.

According to regulations, each of the six participants plays two games against every other player, so making it a double round-robin tournament.

Source: http://www.sofiaecho.com