MTel Masters Underway

In the 2008 edition of the MTel Masters in Bulgaria, Vassily Ivanchuk won his first 5 games and ended up a huge 8/10 winner of the event, depriving Topalov of the title for the first time.  But Caissa is a fickle mistress and Chucky's form has been pretty dismal lately, and so it continued in the first round of Mtel 2009, with Alexei Shirov comfortably beating the Ukrainian with the Black pieces.

This year the organisers are once again utilising the innovative soundproofed glass cube, a.k.a The Aquarium, which drew so much attention and praise when it was first unveiled at last year's event.

Despite Ivanchuk's loss to Shirov, Topalov was unable to take advantage as he found himself outplayed by Magnus Carlsen. The Norwegian never gave the world's no.1 ranked player a chance as he ground him down without mercy.

In the final game, Wang Yue looked to have taken the spoils against Dominguez, but he blundered in a winning endgame with 64 b5?? (Kd3 wins) to allow an unexpected reprieve for the Cuban.

Ivanchuk kitibzes Carlsen v Topalov (all pictures from the official site)

Supermodel and President of the Estonian Chess Federation, Carmen Kass in close conversation with Topalov and his manager, Silvio Danailov.