Bulgaria’s best chess player Vesselin Topalov (front) and Viswanathan Anand from India will meet on chessboard Thursday at the start of M-Tel Masters Tournament in Sofia. Photo by Kameliya Atanasova (SNA)
The best in world chess have arrived in Sofia to give the start of M-Tel Masters Chess Tournament held under the aegis of Foreign Minister Solomon Passy.
Bulgaria's Vesselin Topalov will meet on chessboard with colleague grandmasters Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine, Michael Adams of UK, Viswanathan Anand of India and Judit Polgar of Hungary.
All six grands to fight out the title of M-Tel Masters commented the recent retirement of Gary Kasparov of Russia with optimism that there will be soon times when the chess elite will emit a commonly recognised world champion.
In the past ten years and all efforts to bring about a unified tournament have failed because of the alternative tournaments organised by the international chess federation FIDE on one side and Gary Kasparov on the other side.
The World Chess Championship Tournament to be held in San Luis, Argentina from September 27 to October 16, is largely seen as an opportunity to end a lot of ambiguity. Talking about that tournament while in Sofia, Anand has wished that this tournament chooses the World Champion.