TOPALOV TAKES LEAD AT CORUS WITH WIN OVER ANAND

FIDE ex-World Champion Veselin Topalov is continuing his comeback form, taking the lead in Round 8 of the Corus Supertournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. To do so, he knocked out perennial Top 3 player Viswanathan Anand with the White pieces in a positional tussle that saw Anand resign prematurely. Topalov said after the game that he felt Anand simply did not want to defend the tough position anymore!

Over the past three years, Topalov has clearly been the king of the supertournament world, and it seemed only a matter of time before a more experienced elite player would take the lead at Corus, which was held for the first 7 rounds by Teimour Radjabov. Topalov has 6 points from 8 games (4 wins and 4 draws, with no losses).

This result came a day after Topalov's long-time manager, Silvio Danailov, announced that he had a new $2 million bank guarantee from Bulbank, a major bank based in Bulgaria, in hopes of arranging a World Championship rematch with Vladimir Kramnik. This seems problematic, however, as FIDE regulations state that such a match must be completed 6 months before the next World Championship tournament begins (September 2007 in Mexico City), so it is unclear what will happen next.

One thing is clear: losing the World Championship match to Kramnik has not shaken the confidence of "Vesko" at all. The two meet in Round 12 of the 13-round event.