Veselin Topalov enters again the Sports Person of the year top 10

Topalov ahead of Manchester United's striker Berbatov

Veselin Topalov made it one more time to the top 10 of the prestigious award Bulgarian Sports Person of the year. Topalov takes the 7th position among strong competition.

The first place is for Detelin Dalakliev, World Champion in boxing (54 kg), who received the award from the President Georgi Parvanov. The silver medal is for Iordan Iovchev (gymnastics) and the bronze for Stanka Zlateva (wrestling). The person with most newspaper headlines for the year, the Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov, is 9th, two positions after Veselin Topalov.

Bulgarian Sportperson of the Year is an annual award given to the best sports person, as the winner is selected by the national journalists. It was first given in 1958 to the basketball player Vanya Voynova. The person with the most awards is high-jumper Stefka Kostadinova with four. For the first time a chess player appeared on the top 3 in 1962, when Georgi Peev got the second position.

Since the year 2001 Veselin Topalov is often present in top 10. He was the sports person N1 of the country in 2005 (after San Luis).

Just a few weeks ago the opponent of Topalov for the World Chess Championship Vishy Anand, was qualified as the sports person of the century in India by Silvio Danailov.

Anand-Topalov Update-World Championships

Its official, the much anticipated World Championship Match between Vishy Anand and Vesselin Topalov will be held at the Bulgarian Capital Sofia. With this new development, its going to be a home crowd advantage for Topalov but also a double edged sword as this gives a heavy weight of expectations for the Challenger.

here is the article in the susan polgar blog

Sofia showdown

Sofia to host world chess crown showdown in April 2010
Fri, Oct 16 2009 17:30 CET
by The Sofia Echo staff

Sofia was picked to host the showdown for the world chess crown, giving Bulgarian challenger Vesselin Topalov the home ground advantage against India's Viswanathan Anand. The match will be played on April 5-25, 2010.

World chess federation FIDE picked the Bulgarian capital, which offered to spend three million euro on organising the event and a further two million euro in prize money, over Turkey and Singapore.

"The letter from [Prime Minister Boiko] Borissov tipped the scales in our favour," Topalov's manager Silvio Danailov said. "After it was read by FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov at the FIDE congress, everyone voted in favour of our offer."

Topalov and Anand will play 12 matches for the title. In case of a draw the winner will be decided in a tie-break of four rapid chess games.
Source: http://www.sofiaecho.com

Anand-Topalov Update-World Championships

report from chessdom

Anand - Topalov without a guarantee, the match in danger?

Bulgaria, Singapore, and Turkey with bids, none provide the needed documentation

As Chessdom.com informed a week ago, Bulgaria, Singapore, and Turkey are official bidders for hosting the World Chess Championship match between Veselin Topalov and Vishwanathan Anand. From that point no other applications have been received, and the winning bid will come from one of these three countries (India or Azerbaijan bids have not arrived).

However, none of the three bidders has provided the entire needed documentation. What's more, the most important detail in a world financial crisis is missing: the money guarantee.

The official FIDE message states, "Under the terms of the bidding procedure, the bids should have been accompanied by financial guarantees. As none of the bids provided such a guarantee, it has been decided that the bidders have until October 15th, the day before the opening of the FIDE Executive Board at Halkidiki, Greece, to meet this condition."

Stay tuned for more details!