Topalov, Veselin

FIDE World Champion, 2005 - 2006

Born in Ruse, Bulgaria in 1975 and is currently living in Salamanca, Spain. His aggressive style and theoretical preparation led him to the top of chess World. In 2004, he reached the semifinals of the FIDE Championship in Tripoli, Libya, but he lost to Kasimdzhanov.
Based on his rating, Topalov was invited to the eight-player, double round-robin FIDE World Chess Championship in San Luis, Argentina, in September–October 2005. Scoring 6½ from 7 in the first cycle, Topalov had virtually clinched the tournament at the halfway mark, before drawing every game in the second cycle to win by 1½ points to become FIDE World Chess Champion. The average rating of the field in the championship was 2739, and Topalov's performance rating was 2890.