Happened Today in the Chess World - Mar 15, 2024

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Wijk aan Zee 2012: Magnus Carlsen-Veselin Topalov - Photo: chess-news.ru

Today is the birthday of former world champion Grandmaster Veselin Topalov. He was born in Ruse, Bulgaria, on March 15, 1975.
After becoming the U14 world champion in 1989, guided by his coach and manager Silvio Danailov, Topalov became the FIDE world champion in 2005, to then lose the tiebreaks of the reunification match against Vladimir Kramnik in 2006.
Veselin's peak rating was 2816 in 2015, although even with lower ratings, he was numero uno on the list for a whopping 27 months.
In his career, Topalov defeated nine world champions: Karpov, Kasparov, Khalifman, Ponomariov, Kasimdzhanov, Kramnik, Anand, Carlsen, and Ding Liren.
Topalov played an amazing number of wonderful attacking games and countless fantastic combinations.

Veselin Topalov (2745)-Evgeny Bareev (2726), Dortmund (Candidates match - rapid playoff) 2002
White to move

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