Veselin Topalov

Veselin Topalov is a Bulgarian Grandmaster and former FIDE World Champion (2005). A former chess prodigy, Topalov won several youth tournaments early in his career before achieving his Grandmaster title in 1992 at age 17. Topalov competed in nine chess Olympiads (1994-2000, 2008-2016) and had a strong Olympiad debut in 1994 in Moscow, leading Bulgaria to a fourth-place finish and beating Garry Kasparov on board one. Rocketing through the ranks, Topalov cemented himself as both a popular favorite and an elite player; in 2005 he was awarded a Chess Oscar, an annual award given to the best chess player in the world after his World Championship win. In more recent years, Topalov was a World Championship Challenger in 2010 as well as a Candidate (2011, 2014, 2016). Topalov also won the Grand Prix series in 2012-13, and won an individual gold medal at the Tromso Olympiad in 2014.