Topalov was great today! It took me forever to clean the house, because I kept stopping and watching that game!
Russians vs Topalov
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Nov 6, 2011
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Just to put Topalov's achievement in perspective one could compare it with Fischer's results against the Soviets in Olympiads. Topalov has scored four wins in five games and matches while Fischer has four winless games in four lost matches.
USA had a stronger team than Bulgaria and never finished worse than fourth in these Olympiads while Bulgaria's best finish was fifth (but usually much lower). At the same time the Soviet team was obviously much stronger than the Russian team, even if Fischer was the only player to lose in the 1970 match, and he didn't play (and win against) Kasparov, as Topalov did already as a teenager in 1994.
Of course a young Topalov also lost a brilliant game against Kasparov in 1996, but four wins in five games (and matches) is impressive enough, and none of the matches were played during Topalov's peak years 2005-10. I won't make any further comparisons between Topalov and Fischer though :-)
After Bulgaria's sensational 3-1 against Russia in the European Team Championship I checked old stats at Olimpbase, and if I haven't missed something Topalov has played five matches for Bulgaria against Russia, with these results:
Olympiad 1994: Topalov beat Kasparov on the first board and Bulgaria won the match while Russia won the gold.
Olympiad 1998: Topalov beat Svidler on the the first board (in 22 moves, with black) and Bulgaria won the match while Russia won the gold.
Olympiad 2000: Topalov beat Khalifman on the first board and Bulgaria won the match while Russia won the gold.
ETC 2011: Topalov beat Svidler on the first board and Bulgaria won the match.
The exception to the rule was the Olympiad 1996, when Topalov lost against Kasparov and Russia won the match (and the gold, no exception there). But Topalov must be unique in having been on the winning side in four of five matches against the Russians (and won four of five games on first board, one of them against Kasparov).