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Topalov wins title

By Our Chess Correspondent

CHENNAI NOV. 29. World No. 6 ranked Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria won his first title this year when he won the Tournament Of Stars in the Bali International chess festival that concluded at Benidorm, Spain on Saturday.

Topalov, held his nerve to win by that half point margin over Viswanathan Anand and Teimour Radjabov. He scored seven points from 10 games to win the 11-player round robin rapid tournament. Success which eluded him all through came finally at the end of the year for Topalov.

Topalov, 28, hails from the Bulgarian capital Sofia but lives in Salamanca in northern Spain. He was accompanied by his Bulgarian trainer IM Silvio Danailov.

Anand finished second with a better tiebreak score and remained undefeated with seven draws and three victories. Perhaps he is still in the knock out mode and unable to adjust to the round robin phase. He missed a big chance against Hillarp Persson and a victory there would have kept him in the title race. He was always half a point behind. Topalov and Anand remained undefeated with an extra victory helping the Bulgarian to win the tournament and Euro 18,000 cash prize.

The final placings in tie-break order: 1 Veselin Topalov (Bul) 7/10, 2-3 Viswanathan Anand (Ind), Teimour Radjabov (Aze) 6.5 each, 4 Francisco Pons Vallejo (Esp) 6, 5 Sergey Karjakin (Ukr) 5, 6-8 T.Hillarp Persson (Swe), Zurab Azmaiparashvili (Geo), Shakhriyaz Mamedyarov (Aze) 4.5 each, 9-10 Alexander Graf (Ger), Judit Polgar (Hun) 4 each, 11. Alfonso Romero (Esp) 2.5.

The results (round 11): V. Anand - bye, T. Radjabov bt. J.Polgar, Z.Azmaiparashvili drew with V.Topalov, S.Mamedyarov bt. A.Romero, F.Vallejo bt. A.Graf, S.Karjakin lost to T.Hillarp Persson.

Round ten: J.Polgar bt. S.Karjakin, T.Hillarp Persson lost to S.Mamedyarov, A.Romero lost to F.Vallejo, A.Graf drew Z.Azmaiparashvili, V.Topalov - bye, V.Anand drew T.Radjabov.

Round nine: V.Anand drew with J.Polgar, T.Radjabov drew V.Topalov, A.Graf - bye, Z.Azmaiparashvili bt. A.Romero, F.Vallejo lost to T.Hillarp Persson, S.Mamedyarov lost to S.Karjakin.

Round eight: J.Polgar bt. S.Mamedyarov, A.Graf bt. T.Radjabov, T.Hillarp Persson lost to Z.Azmaiparashvili, V.Topalov drew V.Anand, S.Karjakin drew F.Vallejo, A.Romero - bye.

Round seven: V.Topalov bt. J.Polgar, V.Anand bt. A.Graf, T.Radjabov bt. A.Romero, Z.Azmaiparashvili lost to S.Karjakin, F.Vallejo bt. S.Mamedyarov, T.Hillarp Persson - bye.

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