Veselin Topalov

Veselin Topalov, born March 15, 1975, is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster who became FIDE World Chess Champion by winning the 2005 World Chess Championship tournament, before losing the unified title to Vladimir Kramnik in a 2006 reunification match. He reached the world number one ranking twice in his career, from April 2006 to January 2007 and again from October 2008 to January 2010, and later challenged Viswanathan Anand for the world title at the 2010 World Chess Championship, narrowly losing 6.5 to 5.5. His peak rating of 2816, reached in July 2015, placed him among the highest-rated players in chess history, and across his career he won numerous elite tournaments including Linares, Corus, Dortmund, Stavanger and Pearl Spring, plus the Chess Oscar in 2005 and an individual gold medal on board one at the 2014 Chess Olympiad.