Topalov: 'I think this is a very good time for chess'

2005-2006 FIDE World Champion talks about chess after Kasparov's retirement; also his thoughts about the wunderkid from Norway, 17 year old Magnus Carlsen, his up coming world championship match with Gata Kamsky and a New Year's present from he's girlfriend.

Interview with Yuri Vasiliev

So are you starting to feel that you are once again playing like you did in San Luis, and can crush everyone again?

I would say this: it is not always right to play for a win in every game. At certain moments I simply lose my head, as they say, I just want so much to win. And this sometimes leads to defeats. I need to control myself better.

Everyone is talking about Carlsen at the moment. What do you think of him? Who does he remind you of?

Magnus plays beyond his years. Excellent positional understanding, good endgame play. Ruslan Ponomariev, when he won the [FIDE World Championship] title at 18, had a similar style.

Kasparov made many interesting suggestions. But he also found himself up against the “united majority”. Do you miss Garry?

Strange as it may sound, I think that Garry’s retirement was a positive thing for the remaining players. The point is not that he was very strong, and retired when he could still have won the title back, but that he had always dominated all the attention of the mass media and sponsors. Without Kasparov, a tournament was of no interest to anyone. But as soon as he retired, the attention of the press, and those interested in putting money into chess, switched to the remaining players. Have you noticed how many new tournaments are springing up nowadays? This never happened in Kasparov’s day. In countries where there is a serious contender for the title, they organise tournaments to support him. When Kasparov retired, many people were afraid that interest in chess would wane, but in fact, it has grown. Read full story>>