Thanks to Robyn Hode from Goldtoken.com

After suffering a surpisingly one-sided loss in Game One, Vishy returns to defeat Veselin in Game Two.

Game One

[Event "WCh"]
[Site "Sofia BUL"]
[Date "2010.04.24"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Topalov,V"]
[Black "Anand,V"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2805"]
[BlackElo "2787"]
[EventDate "2010.04.24"]
[ECO "D86"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Bc4 c5
8. Ne2 Nc6 9. Be3 O-O 10. O-O Na5 11. Bd3 b6 12. Qd2 e5 13. Bh6 cxd4 14.
Bxg7 Kxg7 15. cxd4 exd4 16. Rac1 Qd6 17. f4 f6 18. f5 Qe5 19. Nf4 g5 20.
Nh5+ Kg8 21. h4 h6 22. hxg5 hxg5 23. Rf3 Kf7 24. Nxf6 Kxf6 25. Rh3 Rg8 26.
Rh6+ Kf7 27. Rh7+ Ke8 28. Rcc7 Kd8 29. Bb5 Qxe4 30. Rxc8+ 1-0


Game Two

[Event "WCh"]
[Site "Sofia BUL"]
[Date "2010.04.25"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Anand,V"]
[Black "Topalov,V"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2787"]
[BlackElo "2805"]
[EventDate "2010.04.24"]
[ECO "E04"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 dxc4 5. Bg2 a6 6. Ne5 c5 7. Na3 cxd4 8.
Naxc4 Bc5 9. O-O O-O 10. Bd2 Nd5 11. Rc1 Nd7 12. Nd3 Ba7 13. Ba5 Qe7 14.
Qb3 Rb8 15. Qa3 Qxa3 16. bxa3 N7f6 17. Nce5 Re8 18. Rc2 b6 19. Bd2 Bb7 20.
Rfc1 Rbd8 21. f4 Bb8 22. a4 a5 23. Nc6 Bxc6 24. Rxc6 h5 25. R1c4 Ne3 26.
Bxe3 dxe3 27. Bf3 g6 28. Rxb6 Ba7 29. Rb3 Rd4 30. Rc7 Bb8 31. Rc5 Bd6 32.
Rxa5 Rc8 33. Kg2 Rc2 34. a3 Ra2 35. Nb4 Bxb4 36. axb4 Nd5 37. b5 Raxa4 38.
Rxa4 Rxa4 39. Bxd5 exd5 40. b6 Ra8 41. b7 Rb8 42. Kf3 d4 43. Ke4 1-0

The final agreement between FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the President of the Bulgarian Chess Federation Stefan Sergiev was signed in Sofia, Bulgaria. The prize fund is two million Euros (we are told that it is to be transferred to FIDE on January 10th). Ilyumzhinov met with the President Georgi Parvanov of Bulgaria, who is guaranteeing the conditions of the match. See Chessbase FIDE press release.

Thanks to Chessdom:

"The dates proposed in the Bulgaria bid are 5 - 24 April 2010, and the venue will be NDK in Sofia. It is the same building where the Topalov - Kamsky, but the playing room will be Hall 1, with capacity of 3800 people. "

I suppose it was thought that this venue would indeed be the winning bidder. Topalov and Anand both want the venue (or maybe it's better to say ... "are fine with the venue"). But now we see there are more bids that have come in.

"Mr. Ginchev revealed for Chessdom.com that Bulgaria is not the only candidate for hosting the event. 'Until this moment there are two more official bids in the FIDE central - one from Singapore and one from Turkey.'"

I could have predicted that Turkey would make a bid ... after the speech against the European Chess Union given by the Turkish federation president.

At any rate: "The bidding process is still open and applications can be submitted until September 30th. On October 1st FIDE will open all applicant letters and on October 9th the winning bid will be announced."

Don't forget to read the full Chessdom article.

Who will win the Mtel Masters this year? At the moment (after Round 9) it looks as though the upcoming game between Shirov and Carlsen is the final. Whoever does well in that game has the best chance of walking away with the crown. Don't discount Topalov as a valid challenger but at a small deficit he'll have to play pretty well to catch up to the other tops leaders.

I'm pushing right now for Carlsen because a win here will solidify his reputation (not that it was all that shaky after Linares ... but I think you know what I mean). Go Carlsen!

We reported a while back that GM Georgiev was going to make the world record attempt and smash Susan Polgar's previous record ... and he succeeded during the Kamsky-Topalov match!



Thanks to Chessdom for providing me with this info!