Topalov to make the first move of the match

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World Chess Championship 2010 (1)

Topalov to make the first move of the match

IM Malcolm Pein - Saturday 24th April 2010

Veselinj Topalov drew the white pieces in the first game of the World Chess Championships in Sofia where he plays defending Champion Viswanathan Anand.

Veselin Topalov is to make the first move of the 2010 World Chess Championships

Veselin Topalov is to make the first move of the 2010 World Chess Championships | http://www.chessdom.com

The challenger Veselin Topalov makes the first move this afternoon in the 2million Euro FIDE World Chess Championship Final being staged at the Central Military Club in Sofia. The match is the best of twelve games with the prize fund to be split 60-40. There will be speed chess play offs if the contest ends 6-6. Play is starting a day late at 3pm after FIDE agreed to a postponement requested by Anand who arrived three days late due to the closure of European air space.

The Bulgarian championships have just finished and there were a number of entertaining miniatures. The following game is an object lesson in why it is rarely good to copy the opponent as the extra tempo can be decisive. 5...Nd7 intending c7-c5 is more combative, 8...c6 is the best move with f7-f6 to follow, attacking the centre. 10...Kd8 was playable but 10...Nd4 loses.

V Spasov (2599) - D Marholev (2423)

Bulgarian Ch

Pirc Defence

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.e5 dxe5 6.dxe5 Qxd1+ 7.Kxd1 Ng4 8.Ke1 Nc6

9.h3 Nh6 10.Nd5 Nd4 11.Nxc7+ Kd7 12.Nxa8 Nxc2+ 13.Kf2 Nxa1 14.Bb5+ Kd8 15.Nf3 Be6 16.Be3 Nc2 17.Bxa7 Nb4 18.Rd1+ Kc8 19.Nd4 Bxa2 20.Rc1+ Nc6 21.Nxc6 bxc6 22.Rxc6+ Kb7 23.Rc7+ 1-0

Marholev

Spasov Final position after 23.Rc7+ and Kxa6 24.Bc6 is mate.

V Kukov (2368) - K Badev (2396)

Trompovsky

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 e6 3.c3 h6 4.Bxf6 Qxf6 5.e4 d6 6.Bd3 g6 7.Ne2!

(A number of English players have shown this move is better than Nf3 as f2-f4 follows)

7...Bg7 8.0-0 Nd7 9.f4 c5 10.e5! Qe7 11.Nd2 cxd4 12.cxd4 0-0 13.Ne4

(Both Black bishops are bad and White uses his space advantage to launch a kingside attack)

13...dxe5

(The lesser evil was 13...d5 14.Nd6 Nb8 15.Rc1)

14.fxe5 Nb6

(If 14...b6 15.Rc1 or 14...f6 15.exf6 Nxf6 16.Nxf6+ Rxf6 17.Rxf6 Qxf6 18.Qa4]])