Friday October 21, 2005
Topalov reigns
CHESS by QUAH SENG SUN
DO YOU believe in feng shui and the significance of the number eight? For years to come, feng shui masters are likely to cite the world chess championship in San Luis, Argentina, as a shining example of the number eight bringing luck to its bearer.
In San Luis, Veselin Topalov, 30-year-old grandmaster from Bulgaria, was allotted this number during the drawing of lots before the tournament started.
The number must have brought him good luck because not only did he finish the championship as the only undefeated player in the event, he also emerged as the new world chess champion.
In San Luis, Topalov was crowned as the newest world chess champion by the World Chess Federation (Fide) following a scintillating display of chess.
Topalov achieved a magnificent +5 score in this championship, playing against a top-notch field that included a former world chess champion, Viswanathan Anand, and the defending champion, Rustam Kasimjanov.
Topalov’s play was so uncompromising that it can only be described as breathtaking. Topalov simply blew all his opponents away in the first half of the championship.
He set a blistering pace and, from his first seven games, scored an amazing 6.5 points. His only draw was in the second round when he pushed Anand to the brink; it was only a valiant effort by the Indian grandmaster that denied Topalov the full point.
In his other games in the first half of the tournament, Topalov started off with a win against the normally rock-solid grandmaster, Peter Leko. He then had a slugfest with Alexander Morozevich in the third round and followed up with a piece of attacking chess against Michael Adams. Peter Svidler was the next to go under in the fifth round, as did Judit Polgar in the sixth round and Kasimjanov in the seventh.
So, by the middle of the eight-player, double-round robin tournament, Topalov was already enjoying a very comfortable two-point lead over his nearest rival, Svidler. Anand could not live up to his tag as a pre-tournament favourite. At the midway point, his score was only 3.5 points.
Topalov eased off the pressure in the second half of the championship, coasting along with seven draws. But his rivals were unable to take advantage of his benevolence. It was not until the 11th round that Svidler managed to narrow the gap by a mere half point and in the 12th round that Anand caught up with Svidler.
By and large, this has to be Topalov’s year. His success this year began with an equal first place with the now-retired Gary Kasparov at the Linares tournament in March and an undisputed first place at the M-Tel super-GM tournament in Sofia in May, before continuing with his performance in San Luis.
All the games from this event, plus analysis and comments by Bulgarian grandmaster Sergey Shipov, are in the file WWC05_ Shipov.pgn which can be downloaded from http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/chess-malaysia/files.
Quah Seng Sun can be contacted at ssquah@gmail.com. Join Malaysia’s biggest chess mailing list by registering yourself at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chess-malaysia
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