GMVeselin Topalov

Veselin Topalov was born in Ruse, Bulgaria, and learned chess from his father at eight. At twelve he began working with Silvio Danailov, who became his longtime manager. He won the world under-14 championship in 1989. A world under-16 silver medal followed in 1990. He became a grandmaster in 1992. On his Olympiad debut in 1994, he defeated Garry Kasparov and helped Bulgaria finish fourth.

Topalov became FIDE world champion by winning the 2005 tournament in San Luis. He also received that year's Chess Oscar. In 2006 he faced Vladimir Kramnik in the match that reunited the world title. Kramnik won after rapid tiebreaks. Topalov challenged Viswanathan Anand in 2010 but lost the final game and the match. He occupied the world number-one position during two separate periods. His later achievements included board-one gold at the 2014 Olympiad and victory at Norway Chess in 2015. Away from the tournament circuit, he settled with his family in Salamanca, Spain.