President Georgi Parvanov (L) awarded world chess No.1 Vesselin Topalov (R) with a Bulgaria-made copy of the icon "Entering Jerusalem" from the Nessebar School. Topalov won the M-Tel Masters Tournament in Sofia. Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (SNA)
Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov handed an icon painted on wood with a 23-carat gold cover to the world No. 1 in chess Vesselin Topalov, after the Bulgarian won the M-Tel Masters Tournament held in Sofia.
Apart from the copy of the famous painting "Entering Jerusalem" from the Nessebar School, Topalov received hefty prizes and the cream of the tournament's fund of EUR 300,000.
The Bulgarian won the title after defeating Russia's Vladimir Kramnik in his last game on Sunday and thus gathering 6,5 points to top the six best in world chess.
The first-ever Category-20 M-Tel Masters chess tournament in Bulgaria attracted a lot of attention with the world's top six stars playing - barring Garry Kasparov who announced his retirement in March.
The tournament belongs to the 20th Category of FIDE. According to average ELO this is the toughest tournament in the world for the current year.