B22 Blogstars: Historical Bulgarian of the Week

Historical Bulgarian of the Week - Veselin Topalov:
Saturday, March 15, 2008

Welcome back to Historical Bulgarian of the Week. My selection for this week is a young chess player by the name of Veselin Topalov ("Веселин Топалов"). He was born in the lovely city of Ruse, Bulgaria on this very day 33 years ago (15 March 1975).
Честит рожден ден Веселин! Това e еден чалга клип зa българите 'Честит рожден ден' песен ("Happy Birthday Veselin! This is one Chalga Clip for the Bulgarian 'Happy Birthday' song").

I myself am not a very good chess player but I respect the skill required to be one and among chess players Veselin is one of if not the best in the world. In 2005 he in fact won the World Chess Championship Tournament!

He was a chess prodigy. He started playing at the age of 8 and in 1989 he won the World Under 14 Championship in Puerto Rico. By 17 he was awarded the title of a Grandmaster of Chess! (Side note1- This is not to be mistaken for the old school rapper "Grandmaster Flash", who is pictured below- End side note1)

In 2005, like I mentioned before, he won the World Championships:
In 2006 he was voted to best chess player in the world:
He is still playing and traveling the world playing chess. In fact the most recent FIDE rankng list put out last January he was listed as the third best player in the world! And according to he has the highest "Elo score" ever recorded at 2813!

Now, I have no idea what an "Elo score" is but it sounds impressive to me! If you care to learn more about the "Elo scoring system" feel free to click here.

In closing Veselin, if you are reading this, congratulations on all your accomplishments and I hope that you have a healthy, happy and safe Birthday and I wish you success.

Tyler.Keith.Wasson.