Spotlight on Topalov

Friday February 19, 2010
Spotlight on Topalov
CHESSBy QUAH SENG SUN

Veselin Topalov heads the field at the Linares.

THIS week, we are caught in the midst of the Linares tournament. The Linares super-grandmaster tournament, like the Corus event three weeks ago, is considered one of the elite tournaments which make up the chess version of a Grand Slam. Only the best in the chess world get invited to Linares and this year, the invitation list was shorter.

Where previously there used to be as many as 14 players in the annual tournament, the 2010 edition of Linares is reduced to just six participants. The last time the field had been so small was in 2001. However, the participants are of world-class standard, all currently placed within the top 30 players in the world.

So, imagine a field headed by Veselin Topalov: a previous World Chess Federation (FIDE) champion from Bulgaria and currently, the second highest ranked player in the world. (He was No.1 in the world from April 2006 to January 2007 and again from October 2008 to January 2010).

Topalov is an enterprising player that creates energy on the chessboard. He sees resources where others may well get bogged down in complications. From what I’ve seen so far from his games in Linares, they are stuff to excite any onlooker.

Here is the full article.