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The chess year 2006
Apr 23, 12:50 PM
2006 has been a real challenge until now for Veselin Topalov. His status of World Champion leaves him no free time and the pressure is building up. His schedule has never been reacher in terms of events.
The year started with a the traditionally strong competition in Wijk aan Zee, Corus . As the website of the competition states “in an amazing photo finish” Vishy Anand managed to grab a shared first place with Veselin Topalov.
Immediately followed the Amber Rapid/Blindfold comeptition in Monaco. In the first several rounds there was great media interest towards the world champion. As he shared, “As a world champion I do not have the right to refuse interviews.” Because of these distractions he lost some of the initial games and could not recover until the end of the competition sharing 5th place with Leko and winning 11/22 points.
In Linares-Morelia Veselin had a disappointing start finnishing last in the first round games in Mexico. Back in Spain he showed his battle spirit and showed for one more time that when he is in top form he is formidable. He was close to winning the championship when the young Spanish talanted player Francisco Vallejo drew with Topalov in the last round. Veselin finished third, but showed that in the upcoming games he will always be the favorite.
The next challenge was the one on one match with the Europen champion Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu (official site). The game was the most important event in the Romanian chess history and it was also dedicated to the future entrance of Bulgaria and Romania in EU. Topalov was the indisputable winner, not losing a single game, and the result was 3:1. He showed to be more than ready for the next event, Mtel Masters in Topalov’s home country.
The story in Sofia repeated one more time. Veselin Topalov was constantly in front of the TV cameras or at the press conference room giving interviews. He even arranged a world championship match against Radjabov for next year. Topalov could not concentrate on the tournament and logically got a disasterous start . For several rounds in a row he was in the bottom of the table. And then came what we are already used to, Tpalov winning the most important games, several matches in a row and coming back to the top. This time it was definitive, he made up for the first match against Anand and destroyed twice Gata Kamsky. Once more Topalov was the king of his own castle in Sofia.
July’s FIDE list reflected Topalov’s great performance. He went up to the amazing 2813 points. He decided not to participate in any matches until the world championship title, so that he can rest and prepare for the challenge.
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