Topalov led Bulgaria to a major upset!
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Veselin Topalov is continuing his marvellous play at the Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey. Today the Bulgarian beat the Russian Fide World Champion Alexander Khalifman and led his team to a major upset as the Bulgarians won 2½-1½. Khalifman played the well-known Slav piece sacrifice variation with the black pieces. Topalov used his extra bishop well and mopped up Khalifman's pawns. Then he gave back the piece in a series of clever counter-threat moves and ended up in a rook ending with two plus pawns.

The situation at the top of the rankings is tightening, as Germany faultered against the Ukraine 1½-2½. Child prodigy and future World Champion contender Ruslan Ponomariov was the winner of the only decisive game in that match. Ponomariov showed excellent positional skill by defeating the German old hand Hübner by utilising his pawn majority on the queenside in textbook fashion.

Armenia caught up with the leading Germany by disposing of Spain 3½-½.

Hungary is still in the race, having beaten the weakened French side 3-1. While Almasi is not in good form for the Hungarians, the other top guns are performing well above their ratings.

You can find out who's hot and who's not at Juha Kivijärvi's page.

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