Topalov on top at Norway Chess tournament

Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov looks unstoppable in the ongoing Norway chess tournament which is taking place in Stavanger. The former world champion is sitting pretty on top of the standings with six points in seven rounds.

World Champion Magnus Carlsen has had a forgettable tournament Reuters/Babu

Topalov’s performance is remarkable considering the strength of the opposition which includes players like Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian.

Topalov so far has scored wins over world champion Carlsen, Aronian, Frenchman Maxime Vachier Lagrave, Alexander Grischuk and Jon Ludwig Hammer. He drew the remaining two games against Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura.

Along with his brilliance, a fair share of luck has helped Topalov dominate the field. In the first round, despite an inferior position, he won against Carlsen on time while a blunder by Hammer in a dead equal position resulted in an unlikely win for the 2005 champion.

Topalov is followed by Nakamura and Anand who are on 4.5 points.

The other story of the tournament has been the disappointing performance of local favourite Carlsen, who is languishing in eighth place with just 2.5 points.

The first round loss to Topalov on time seemed to have affected his play in the following rounds as he managed just half a point in the first four rounds. He managed to score his first win of the tournament in the seventh round against Grischuk.

Speaking about his performance, Carlsen said that the start to the tournament was very unfortunate.

“Just everything went wrong in my two white games," he lamented. "There was one accident and one winning position that I messed it up completely. And against two very difficult opponents with black pieces, I was outplayed."

With just two rounds left, Topalov, who takes on Anish Giri in the eighth round on Wednesday, is now the hot favourite to win the title.